Introduction
Famed for their unmatched international success, the All Blacks have often been regarded as the most successful sports team in history.
The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, 2011 and 2015. They were the first country to win the Rugby World Cup 3 times and the first country to retain the Rugby World Cup. New Zealand has a 76 per-cent winning record in test-match rugby, and has secured more wins than losses against every test opponent. Since their international debut in 1903, New Zealand teams have played test matches against 19 nations, of which 12 have never won a game against the All Blacks. The team has also played against three multinational all-star teams, losing only eight of 45 matches. Since the introduction of the World Rugby Rankings in 2003, New Zealand has held the number-one ranking longer than all other teams combined. They jointly hold the record for the most consecutive test match wins for a tier-one ranked nation, along with England.
The All Blacks compete with Argentina, Australia and South Africa in the Rugby Championship, and have won the trophy nineteen times in the competition's 27-year history. The team has completed a Grand Slam tour against the four Home Nations four times (1978, 2005, 2008 and 2010). World Rugby has named New Zealand the World Rugby Team of the Year ten times since the award was initiated in 2001, and an All Black has won the World Rugby Player of the Year award ten times over the same period. Fifteen former All Blacks have been inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame.
The team's first match took place in 1884 in New South Wales and their first international test match in 1903 against Australia in Sydney. The following year New Zealand hosted their first home test, a match against a British Isles side in Wellington. There followed a 34-game tour of Europe and North America in 1905 (which included five test matches), where New Zealand suffered only one defeat: their first test loss, against Wales.
New Zealand's early uniforms consisted of a black jersey with a silver fern and white shorts. By the 1905 tour they were wearing all black, except for the silver fern, and the name "All Blacks" dates from this time.
The team perform a haka before every match; this is a Māori challenge or posture dance. Traditionally the All Blacks use Te Rauparaha's haka Ka Mate, although players have also performed Kapa o Pango since 2005.
Haka
All Blacks perform a haka (a Māori challenge) before every international match. The tradition has been closely associated with New Zealand rugby ever since a tour of Australia and the United Kingdom by the New Zealand Natives in 1888 and 1889, although it is likely that the New Zealand team that toured New South Wales in 1884 may also have performed a haka. The 1888–89 New Zealand native team used Ake Ake Kia Kaha, and a mocking haka, Tupoto koe, Kangaru!, was used by the 1903 team that visited Australia. In 1905, the All Blacks began the tradition of using Ka Mate, a haka composed in the 19th century by Te Rauparaha, leader of the Ngāti Toa tribe. The 1924 All Blacks used a specially composed haka, Ko Niu Tireni, but later All Blacks reverted to using Ka Mate.
In August 2005, before the Tri-Nations test match between New Zealand and South Africa at Carisbrook stadium in Dunedin, the All Blacks performed a new haka, Kapa o Pango, specially composed for the occasion by Derek Lardelli and intended to reflect the Polynesian-influenced multicultural make-up of contemporary New Zealand. Lardelli's haka was not designed to replace Ka Mate as it was only meant to be used for special occasions. Kapa o Pango concludes with a move that has been interpreted as a "throat slitting" gesture, which has led to accusations that the haka encourages violence and sends the wrong message to All Blacks fans. However, according to Lardelli, the gesture is meant to represent "drawing vital energy into the heart and lungs".
In November 2006, at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, the All Blacks performed the haka in the dressing room prior to the match – instead of on the field immediately before kick-off – following a disagreement with the Welsh Rugby Union, who had wanted Wales to sing their national anthem immediately after the haka.[178] In 2008, New Zealand played Munster at Thomond Park; before the match, Munster's four New Zealand players challenged their opponents by performing their own haka before the All Blacks started theirs. On the same tour, Wales responded to New Zealand's haka by silently refusing to move afterwards, and the two teams simply stared at each other until the referee forced them to start the game.
