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When selecting a list of top All Blacks performances, there is no lack of potential options
Indeed, while looking through the archives and highlight reels of the best New Zealand wins, the task becomes not to find what games are worthy of inclusion on such a list, but deciding which truly great wins are better than other truly great wins.
Throughout their history the All Blacks have recorded probably too many wonderful performances to count, but that’s what we have tasked ourselves with and, considering they are currently on a tour of the Northern Hemisphere, we’ve helped ourselves a bit by narrowing it down to victories against countries from the Northern Hemisphere.
So, as a result, there will be not be any beatings against the Wallabies or the Boks, because – yes, you guessed it – they are in the Southern Hemisphere.
With that all straightened out, why not sit back, relax and enjoy this journey through some All Blacks victories of lore.
New Zealand 55-3 Wales – June 21, 2003
A stunning win its own right, in which the All Blacks utterly dominated Wales after the away side opened the scoring with a penalty. If those early three points gave Wales confidence, it was likely quickly shattered as the home side assumed total control on the debut of a man who would go on to become a true legend of the game: Dan Carter.
Carter scored one try and six out of eight conversations on the day, which saw the All Blacks lead 17-3 at half-time before scoring a rather lovely 38 points in the second half.
New Zealand 61-10 France – June 9, 2007
One of two high-scoring victories against Les Bleus on this list, this win from more than 11 years ago is notable for the fact that it came almost five months to the day before France shocked world rugby with their elimination of the All Blacks from the 2007 World Cup.
In the summer of 2007 that shock will have seemed a long way away however as tries from Byron Kelleher, Joe Rokocoko and the late, great Jerry Collins helped New Zealand set not only a record winning scoreline against France, but also seal a world record of 23 consecutive home wins.
New Zealand 62-13 France – October 17, 2015
If the 2007 washout against France was something of a false dawn for the All Blacks, this victory would be the precursor of what was to come in their future meetings with them.
Having narrowly defeated Les Bleus by 8 points to 7 in the final of the 2011 World Cup final, the two facedoff again in the quarter-finals of the 2015 edition of the tournament.
And while their previous World Cup encounter was tight, this couldn’t have been further from it, as the All Blacks annihilated France from beginning to end.
Arguably the tournament’s most impressive performance, Steve Hansen’s side dismantled a French team close to mutiny, and set themselves up for their second consecutive World Cup triumph.
New Zealand 60-0 Ireland – June 23, 2012
Having come agonisingly close to their first ever victory over New Zealand a week prior, Ireland were shown the true capabilities of the All Blacks on this evening in June 2012.
Leading 29-0 at half-time against a team including Brian O’Driscoll and Johnny Sexton, the All Blacks refused to relent against their opponents before scoring even more in the second half, in the sort of performance which showed what the team can do when presented with opposition who are deflated.
The victory was the first time that New Zealand had kept Ireland scoreless in 88 years, and sealed a 3-0 Test series victory for the home side.
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