ealand national rugby union team, commonly called the All Blacks, represent New

Zealand in men's rugby union, which is regarded as the country's national sport.[1]
The side has won the last two Rugby World Cups, in 2011 and 2015, as well as the
inaugural tournament in 1987. They have a 77% winning record in test match rugby,
and are the only international side with a winning record against every opponent.
Since their international debut in 1903, they have lost to only six of the 19
nations they have played in test matches.[a] Since the introduction of the World
Rugby Rankings in 2003, New Zealand has held the number one ranking longer than all
other teams combined.[2] The All Blacks are statistically the best side to have
played the game, and jointly hold the record for the most consecutive test match
wins for a tier one ranked nation.
New Zealand competes with Argentina, Australia and South Africa in The Rugby
Championship. The All Blacks have won the trophy fourteen times in the
competition's twenty-one-year history. New Zealand have achieved a Grand Slam
(defeating England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland in one tour) four times 1978,
2005, 2008 and 2010.
The All Blacks have been named the World Rugby Team of the Year ten times since the
award was created in 2001, [3] and an All Black has won the World Rugby Player of
the Year award nine times over the same period. Fifteen former All Blacks have been
inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame. All Black coaches have won
World Rugby Coach of the Year nine times since the award's 2001 launch.
The team's first match was in 1884, and their first international test match was in
1903 against Australia in Sydney. The following year they hosted their first ever
home test, a match against a British Isles side in Wellington.[b] This was followed
by a 34-game (including 5 tests) tour of Europe and North America in 1905, where
the team suffered only one defeat their first ever test loss, against Wales.
New Zealand's early uniforms consisted of a black jersey with a silver fern and
white knickerbockers. By the 1905 tour, they were wearing all black, except for the
silver fern, and their name "All Blacks" dates from this time. The team perform a
haka a Maori challenge or posture dance before each match. The haka performed
has traditionally been Te Rauparaha's Ka Mate, although since 2005 Kapa o Pango is
often performed.
Contents
1 History
1.1 Introduction of rugby to New Zealand
1.2 International competition begins
1.3 Development of a legacy
1.4 Controversial tours
1.5 Early World Cups
1.6 Professionalism
1.7 Henry era
1.8 Hansen era
2 Jersey
3 Haka
4 Record
4.1 Overall
4.2 World Cup
4.3 Tri Nations and The Rugby Championship
5 Players
5.1 Current squad
5.2 Notable players
5.3 Individual all-time records
6 Coaches
7 Home grounds
8 See also
9 Notes
10 References
11 Works cited
12 External links
History[edit]
Introduction of rugby to New Zealand[edit]
Photo of team players and management all of whom are seated or standing, in three
rows, wearing their playing uniform and caps.
The team that toured New South Wales, Australia, in 1884
Rugby union almost universally referred to as rugby in New Zealand was
introduced to New Zealand by Charles Monro in 1870;[4] Monro discovered the sport
while completing his studies at Christ's College, Finchley, England.[5] The first
recorded game in New Zealand took place in May 1870 in Nelson between the Nelson
club and Nelson College.[6] The first provincial union, the Canterbury Rugby
Football Union, was formed in 1879,[7] and in 1882 New Zealand's first
internationals were played when New South Wales (NSW) toured the country.[8] NSW
did not face a New Zealand representative team but played seven provincial sides
the tourists won four games and lost three.[9] Two years later the first New
Zealand team to travel overseas toured New South Wales; where New Zealand won all
eight of their games.[10]
A privately organised British team, which later became the British and Irish Lions,
toured New Zealand in 1888. No test matches were played, and the side only played
provincial sides.[11] The British players were drawn mainly from Northern England,
but there were representatives from Wales and Scotland.[12]
International competition begins[edit]
See also: The Original All Blacks
In 1892, following the canvassing of provincial administrators by Ernest Hoben, the
New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) was formed by the majority of New
Zealand's provincial unions, but did not include Canterbury, Otago or Southland.
[13][c] The first officially sanctioned New Zealand side toured New South Wales in
1893, where the Thomas Ellison captained team won nine of their ten matches.[14]
[15] The following year New Zealand played its first home "international" game,
losing 86 to New South Wales.[d][16] The team's first true test match occurred
against Australia on 15 August 1903 at the Sydney Cricket Ground in front of over
30,000 spectators, and resulted in a 223 victory.[17]

The Original All Blacks that toured the British Isles, France and the United States
during 190506. The team won 34 of their 35 tour matches.
A representative New Zealand team first toured the British Isles in 1905. The side
is now known as the Originals, as the All Blacks name emerged during this tour
when, according to team member Billy Wallace, a London newspaper reported that the
New Zealanders played as if they were "all backs".[18] Wallace claimed that because
of a typographical error, subsequent references were to "All Blacks". This account
is most likely a myth because of their black playing strip, the side was probably
referred to as the Blacks before they left New Zealand. Even though the name All
Blacks most likely existed before the trip, the tour did popularise it.[18]
The Originals played 35 matches on tour, and their only loss was a 30 defeat to
Wales in Cardiff.[19] The match has entered into the folklore of both countries
because of a controversy over whether All Black Bob Deans scored a try which would
have earned his team a 33 draw.[20][e] In contrast to the success of the Originals
on the field, the team did antagonise some in the Home Nations' rugby
establishment; both administrators and the press complained that the All Blacks did
not play the game within the amateur and gentlemanly spirit promoted by the
International Rugby Football Board. This complaint continued to dog New Zealand
teams until the 1930s.[21]
The success of the Originals had uncomfortable consequences for the amateur NZRFU.
In 1907, a party of professional players was assembled to tour the British Isles
and play rugby league a professional offshoot of rugby union that was played by
clubs that split from England's Rugby Football Union (RFU) due to disagreements
over financial compensation for players.[22] When the All Golds, as the team came
to be known, returned they established rugby league in New Zealand, and a large
number of players switched to the professional code.[22][23] English and Welsh
authorities were alarmed by the threat of professionalism to rugby in New Zealand,
and in 1908 an Anglo-Welsh side undertook a tour to New Zealand to help promote the
amateur values[f] under which they believed sport should be played.[25][26][g] The
tourists were defeated 20 in the three-test series by New Zealand, but the Anglo-
Welsh did manage to draw the second test 33.[27]
Development of a legacy[edit]
International rugby was suspended during the First World War,[28] but a New Zealand
Services team did compete in inter-services competition known as the King's Cup.
[29] After their departure from Europe the side toured South Africa before their
return to New Zealand, and that tour paved the way for a South African team to tour
New Zealand in 1921.[30] The Springboks as the South African team is known
played New Zealand in a test series that ended all square. New Zealand conducted a
return tour to South Africa in 1928, and the test series was again drawn; both
teams winning two tests each.[31]
The 1924 All Black tourists to the British Isles and France were dubbed the
Invincibles because they won every game. However, the team was deprived of a
potential Grand Slam when Scotland refused to play them because they were upset the
tour was organised through the RFU rather than the IRFB.[32][33] The first British
Isles side since 1908 toured New Zealand in 1930. Although the Lions won the first
test, the home side regrouped and went on to win the series 31.[34] New Zealand
toured the British Isles again in 193536, losing only three games including two
tests during a 30-match tour.[35] In one of these losses, Prince Obolensky
famously scored two tries to help England to a 130 win; their first over New
Zealand.[36]

The All Blacks at the climax of their haka before a 1932 test against Australia.
In 1937, South Africa toured New Zealand and decisively won the test series despite
losing the first test; this 1937 South African team has been described as the best
team ever to leave New Zealand.[37][38] It was not until 1949 that New Zealand next
played the Springboks when they toured South Africa with Fred Allen as captain.[39]
[40] Although each test against South Africa was very close, New Zealand lost the
series 40.[41] As part of the tour, a contingent of 26 All Blacks travelled to
Rhodesia for two non-test exhibition matches. The Rhodesia side beat the All Blacks
108 in Bulawayo, and then drew 33 in the follow up match in Salisbury.[42][43]
At the same time as an All Black team was touring South Africa, Australia were
touring New Zealand.[44] The two tours coincided because Maori players were not
able to go to South Africa at the time, meaning the Australians, played against a
New Zealand team made up of the best Maori and the reserve non-Maori players, while
the South Africans encountered the best pakeha (non-Maori) players.[45][h] On the
afternoon of 3 September New Zealand, captained by Johnny Smith, were beaten 116
by Australia in Wellington.[47] New Zealand then lost their second test 169, which
gave Australia a Bledisloe Cup series win in New Zealand for the first time.[44]
[45] 1949 was an annus horribilis for the All Blacks as they lost all six of their
test matches, and the experience of playing two test series simultaneously has not
been repeated.[44][48]
The two consecutive series losses to South Africa made their 1956 tour of New
Zealand highly anticipated. New Zealand were captained by Bob Duff and coached by
Bob Stuart, and their 31 series win was their first over the Springboks and the
Springboks' first series loss that century.[49] During the series, New Zealand
introduced Don Clarke, and brought prop Kevin Skinner out of retirement to help
secure the win.[50] Skinner, a former New Zealand boxing champion, had retired from
international rugby, but was convinced to return for the third and fourth tests.
[51] One reason for Skinner's selection was to "sort out" the South African props,
while Clarke become known as "The Boot" for his goal kicking.[52]
New Zealand's 31 series win over the Lions in 1959 proved to be the start of a
dominant period in All Black rugby.[53] This was followed by the 196364 tour to
Britain and Ireland, led by Wilson Whineray, in which New Zealand were deprived of
a Grand Slam by a scoreless draw with Scotland.[54] The only loss on this tour was
to Newport RFC, who won 30 at Rodney Parade, Newport on 30 October 1963.[55] The
1967 side won three tests against the home nations, but was unable to play Ireland
because of a foot-and-mouth scare.[54] This tour formed part of New Zealand's
longest winning streak, between 1965 and 1970, of 17 test victories.[56] This was
also the longest test winning streak by any nation at the time; it would be equa