Following three victories and a narrow loss to France in the final week of the All Blacks’ final Northern Tour, the Sky Sports Breakdown panel discussed whether the season was a success for the All Blacks.
In July, Scott Robertson defeated Steve Borthwick’s England team twice to begin his coaching career with the All Blacks. Before the Rugby Championship began in August, the team defeated Fiji 47–5 in San Diego after the two home wins.
The All Blacks then suffered a crushing loss to Argentina in Wellington, giving Robertson his first defeat as head coach of the All Blacks. In 2024, the setbacks continued as they lost both Test matches against the world-champion Springboks in South Africa and the close 30-29 Test match against France in Paris last weekend.
The All Blacks have nine victories and four losses in 2024, giving them a winning percentage of 69.23%, with one match remaining against Italy this weekend at Allianz Stadium in Turin.
Mils Muliaina, a former All Black and current Sky pundit, believes the All Blacks are improving.
“When you consider the young talent we’ve been able to uncover, even up front, Tamaiti Williams getting an opportunity to get going,” Muliaina stated on Sky Sport, “I still feel that the All Blacks side is almost there.”
You’re adding depth to the bench, after all. Little things make a big difference. When they click, which I believe they do when you’re asked a question, they win again, and I think this season is fantastic.
Jeff Wilson, a former All Black, disputes Muliaina’s assertion, stating that the season cannot be considered “great” if the All Blacks squad loses four games.
Wilson remarked, “No, no, it’s not a great season, no, I have to stop you there.”
The three teams the All Blacks have lost against in 2024, in Wilson’s opinion as a former 60 Test All Black, are among the finest in the world.
We’ve lost to Argentina, France, and South Africa twice, and they are the big guns. Based on that outcome (All Blacks vs. France), the best we can hope for is a successful season. In my opinion, there are just five of the best teams in the world at the moment based on their performance over the past few years.
“Obviously South Africa, obviously you have to include Ireland and France in that discussion, and I’ll include Argentina, who finished in the semi-finals of a Rugby World Cup last year, because they were able to defeat us this year, as well as Australia and South Africa, so I look at those five teams because they’re the ones I care about.”
Wilson responds that four losses is too many for Scott Robertson’s team when asked why the All Blacks aren’t having a strong season.
We suffered defeats against France, Argentina, and South Africa twice. Therefore, in my opinion, this season is just good right now; it can’t be much better since we will defeat Italy and we must end strongly. However, I believe that a season is difficult when the All Blacks lose four Test matches in a row.
Kirstie Stanaway, host of Sky Sports Breakdown, questioned the panel about whether the All Blacks have become a better side since the Robertson era started.
“We didn’t have a great tri-nations, so we had to build some guys around that and look where we got too,” Muliaina said. “You have to start somewhere, and look at how far we’ve come considering the loss against Argentina.
The All Blacks need to improve on their start this season, according to current Auckland NPC assistant coach Steven Bates.
“The key is that you can handle four losses as long as there is genuine learning from that. How do we know that this team learns? We get over the top and finish a couple of the opportunities, and that’s where the real learnings will be.” “I think the proof will be in the pudding,” the speaker said. You’ll know that this year has been the foundation for anything if you can accomplish it moving forward,” Bates added.
