It would have taken a man of steel not to feel just a little sorry for the Cyprus rugby team last month, who tweeted a plea to stop saying that the All Blacks had broken the world record for consecutive Test wins following their win over Australia at Eden Park.
The Cypriots have a fair point.
Despite all the fanfare regarding the All Blacks current winning streak of 18 games, their record only pertains to 'Tier one' Test-playing nations.
It is, in fact, Cyprus which holds the overall world record for consecutive Test wins with 24.
With the team departing for the Northern Hemisphere, you can be sure that they’d want no talk of becoming the out-and-out world record holders. That is, because it can’t happen this year.
But it can happen in 2017. And here are five reasons why it will.
Depth
The depth of New Zealand rugby has been illustrated time and time again, both on the field in performance and selection and off it (as I wrote here).
The stark reality is that the All Blacks lost over 700 caps after the 2015 Rugby World Cup and the ‘rebuilding’ phase has been lost in an undefeated year with an average score of 42-14.
With the black jersey commanding such deep honour in New Zealand rugby circles, the depth will be underlined by competition in domestic tournaments.
Unbeatable when they're on their game
In the final Bledisloe match, the Wallabies showed that they can push the All Blacks by playing their very best rugby.
However, Australia having the better of the game for 60 minutes but still being down 15-10 after that period illustrated that the Wallabies' very best isn't good enough to beat these All Blacks.
When you consider that they are currently the third best team in the world and that the All Blacks seldom play as poor as they did in that match, it doesn’t bode well for the rest.
Fitness
New Zealand Rugby’s structure of having players centrally contracted to the Rugby Union means that the fitness and training regimes of the Super Rugby teams and that of the All Blacks are essentially interlocked.
This is why players in New Zealand are simply fitter and faster than those in the rest of the world.
Attitude
Perhaps you can credit our previous heartbreaks or our coaching team, but there are few elite sports sides in the world that can boast such a steely and down-to-earth perspective.
Clichéd responses like 'taking it game by game' or 'just happy to earn a call-up' have been carved into the ethos of the side, and it’s embodied on the field.
The focus is on constant improvement and while they’re at such a dominant level, it renders them next to unbeatable.
Coaching team's ability to think outside the square
Steve Hansen, Ian Foster and Wayne Smith are three of the most astute rugby minds in the world and with that, comes not only a wealth of knowledge but also an ability to think outside the square.
With every challenge comes a fresh perspective and it keeps the All Blacks at the very top.
Bringing in fresh, young faces to train with the squad (ie Rieko Ioane) is an example of this.
All images courtesy of Getty
