Rugby commentator and former All Blacks halfback Justin Marshall has come to the defence of the team and coach Ian Foster, after their historic loss to Ireland at Dunedin.
The tourists claimed their first win over their rivals on New Zealand soil and handed the All Blacks their third loss in four tests.
Since taking the reins as coach in 2019, Foster has a winning record of just 69.57 percent, which is the second worst of any All Blacks coach in the World Cup era.
But Marshall believes the underfire coach has had the odds stacked against him, with COVID-19 riddling the camp before the first test at Eden Park.
Marshall empathises with Foster, but understands the pressure he is under.
"The stats don't lie," he told AM. "Four test matches they've lost against the Irish out of the last seven - that is very much at the forefront of what people are talking about,"
"It wasn't that long ago that the Irish had never beaten the All Blacks. He's certainly going to be under pressure.
"This is very hard for me to say, given the fact that the All Blacks don't lose series at home and they don't lose test matches at home very often... this win for the Irish is absolutely amazing for them and it's a bitter pill for the All Blacks to swallow, but I do think we have to cut the All Blacks a little bit of slack.
"At the end of the day, Ian Foster hasn't had it all his own way in this series. He's had players with COVID, he's had injuries, he's had COVID himself, he's had management with problems that had to step away from the game at Eden Park.
"They got through that in a real difficult week, they've still got players who are out and being reintroduced. You then throw the red and yellow cards into the mix, which was their own fault."
New Zealand have dropped to fourth in the world rankings, their lowest since rankings were introduced in 2003.
But Irish rugby commentator Michael Corcoran has urged caution when reading too much into their meaning.
"The only world ranking that really counts, because it's not a week-to-week thing, is who wins the World Cup every four years," he told AM.
"You can go from one, all the way down to six or seven. In between, it doesn't really make any difference."
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