Are the All Blacks winning more than ever?

I have a few hours to kill before the start of tonights All Blacks test vs. France. So, a rugby post seems appropriate.

If you’re a rugby fan you’ll already know about Inky.

Or, at least, you do now.

Here are two quotes from one of his recent newsletters that jumped out at me:

Now that we have man-mountain forwards ourselves, with our all-round skills still in abundance we are compiling a higher win ratio than ever.

We will play rugby better than anyone else because we live and breathe its core principle of fourteen men working to put a fifteenth into space.

A higher win ratio than ever? Really?

Here are what the numbers show:

When	Played	Won	%
1900s	14	11	79%
1910s	10	8	80%
1920s	14	7	50%
1930s	22	14	64%
1940s	10	4	40%
1950s	30	22	73%
1960s	42	35	83%
1970s	45	27	60%
1980s	57	45	79%
1990s	92	68	74%
2000s1	82	68	83%

So, yes, they are winning now more than ever. And playing more than ever too!

In the 20 years since the first World Cup in 1987 the ABs have played 193 tests and won 154 of them (hopefully 155 by the time many of you read this). That’s an 80% win record while playing more games than were played in the previous 80 years.

Here is how they stack up against quality opposition ² in the World Cup era:

Opposition	Played	Won	%
Australia	44	27	61%
England	14	10	71%
France	21	15	71%
South Africa	33	23	70%
TOTAL	112	75	67%

So even against the very best they still win twice as often as they lose.

Of course, the only problem with sustained exceptional performance like this is that it comes to be taken for granted.

Stats courtesy of www.pickandgo.info