Rieko Ioane of New Zealand All Blacks scores his second try during the International match between Wales and New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images.
Rieko Ioane of New Zealand All Blacks scores his second try during the International match between Wales and New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images.
In the last five years, the benchmark for what constitutes a good year for the All Blacks has been raised to an almost ridiculous height.
It might have to be blamed on the Golden Generation because between 2012 and 2015 the All Blacks only lost three tests. It felt likethey played, they won and those three losses felt memorably significant because they were such a departure from what everyone had come to expect.
But it didn't used to be like that. The All Blacks haven't always been held accountable to post almost impossible statistics.
The All Blacks came into the professional era with an overall win ratio of 73 per cent. That was seen as extraordinary – certainly significantly higher than any other international team in the world.
In the first 15 years of the professional age, they won 82 per cent of their games. The overall figure was high but there were good and bad years within that – just one defeat between 1996 and 1997 and one in 2010, yet five in 1998 and four in 2009.
Between 2012 and 2016, the win ratio was 93 per cent. The All Blacks played 68, won 62, lost four and drew two. It was a statistically anomalous period.
These five seasons are out of whack. Even in the All Blacks' magnificent history that period wasn't normal. It's not realistic to imagine any team, longer term, could continue to win as many games as the All Blacks did between 2012 and 2016.
Vaea Fifita scores a try for the All Blacks.
Rugby Championship test match rugby union. Photo / Photosport.co.nz
But the problem with the good life is people get used to it, come to expect it. They forget how to cherish it: become devoid of appreciation that it is markedly different.
And this essentially is the situation with the All Blacks in 2017. They have had, by historic standards, an excellent year. They have won 85 per cent of the tests and had it not been for the 2012-2016 period, this would have been cause for ample celebration.
They were undefeated in the Rugby Championship, retained the Bledisloe Cup and came home from Europe undefeated.
But losing twice and drawing once makes 2017 the 'worst' year the All Blacks have had since 2009 and for many, the near colossal ridiculousness of judging an 85 per cent return as some kind of catastrophe will go unchecked.
The best analogy perhaps is that for five years the All Blacks travelled by luxury private jet and now that they are back in first class there is uproar.
The All Blacks management, though, are not coming out of 2017 with anything other than a sense of contentment that not only was it a good year, but it was one in which they were able to make a significant investment in the future.
"It has been a very satisfying year because we have had some adversity – some injuries and personal things that have affected players' availability," says All Blacks coach Steve Hansen.
"We have been up and down a wee bit but we managed to win most. We lost to a good Australia side and we drew the Lions series.
"It hasn't been too bad a year. We have played with a lot of skill and scored a lot of lovely tries.
"I think this will be the year that you put down in your notebook that this was when we advanced a lot of All Blacks careers."
On this issue of player development, there surely can't be room for dispute? Kane Hames has come from nowhere to lead a destructive scrum alongside the equally damaging and previously unknown Nepo Laulala. Liam Squire has solved the issue of who will be Jerome
Kaino's successor and Sam Cane has established himself as a world class openside. The man can tackle.
And of course there is Rieko Ioane. Easy to forget now that when the season kicked off in February, he was by no means a household name. Even in June it was still a major surprise that Ioane was named to start in the first test against the Lions ahead of Julian Savea.
Five months later and Ioane was unstoppable in Cardiff, his second try was men against boys – the Welsh simply unable to muster the faintest enthusiasm to try to close down a man they knew was on his way to bigger and better things.
And so with the trophy cabinet as full now as it was in January, a handful of careers advancing beyond expectation and a statistical return that will increase the historic win ratio, 2017 was a good year for the All Blacks.
