A great champion's bitter defeat

After a hard-fought battle, the loss was a bitter end of the tournament for this great champion.

All Blacks only lose, they never win

Happy new year to you all.

Now that I have finally filled in a facebook profile, I've it clear: I prefer losing my time here, writing stupid things about rugby, as I always do, than writing stupid things anywhere else.

And to kick 2009 off in fashion, my first thought; about the All Blacks, of course, what else?

Outside New Zealand, the history of the All Blacks is built upon a hundred years long list of defeats.

Indeed.

Have any doubts about it?

Let me remind you which memorable AB's games you have in mind.

1905. Wales defeated the All Blacks 3-0 in their first match-up in what eventually came up to be the only defeat of the "Originals" tour (34 wins and a single loss)

1936. Obolensky scored two tries in the first defeat of the All Blacks against England 13-0.

1973. Barbarians - All Blacks. The game that any POM (and POM-lovers) recall as the best game of rugby ever played.

1978. Munster defeat the All Blacks 12-0. The only reason for irish (any irish) to still play rugby, according to many, Monsieur Rugbycan included.

2007. France 20 - All Blacks 18. Choke. Choke. Choke. Choke. Choker.

*Sigh*

If you happen to be a southerner, or by any chance you know anything about real rugby, sorry, I mean southern-hemisphere rugby, your ideas about the All Blacks might well be truly different. You will surely remember 2000's thrilling end of the Tri-Nations tournament, when a tank disguised of left wing called Jonah Lomu scored the decissive try in injury time to give the All Blacks the game against the Wallabies, the BC and the 3N. Or you might recall Gregan's tackle on Jeff Wilson or maybe his famous "4 more years, boys" or perhaps the last-gasp try at the House of Pain last June that gave the Springboks their first win in New Zealand (first ever at Carisbrook, Dunedin) in 5 years. But then, you will agree with me, we are a minority.

For the rest of the world, the history of the All Blacks is built upon defeats, much like those of chessplayer Jose Raúl Capablanca or tennis player Roger Federer, individuals whose victories were deemed normal and whose defeats were always first-page news.

All Blacks and statistics

If one takes a close look to the All Blacks test statistics can be more or less surprised to see what a superb record they have against any test nation. Of course, there is no single test nation with such record.

One can compare the All Blacks to others sports leaders statistics. Can we compare the All Blacks to the best NBA team? to Roger Federer?

Let's do it:

The All Blacks have played 429 games from 1903 on. Of these, 318 ended with an All Black win. That makes a 74.13% winning percentage. As of January 2008 it stands:

All Blacks	Rugby	429	318	74.13%
Real Madrid	Football	2402	1379	57,41%
Los Angeles Lakers	Basketball	4647	2848	61,29%
Garry Kasparov	Chess	1862	872	46,83%
Roger Federer	Tennis	685	551	80,44%

So, as it is shown, the All Blacks are amongst the best teams in their own sports. It must be said that some sports like boxing and chess are really difficult to compare to any other sport. Chess nature makes draw a pretty common score while there can't be any draws in basketball at all. On the other hand, boxers usually compete combat after combat in a ladder-like system (i.e. facing tougher enemies every time).

I would like to point out that although Roger Federer may be seen as more successful than the All Blacks (not only because of his record, but also based on Grand Slams tournaments won compared to Rugby World Cup rating success), no team has a positive record against the All Blacks while they do have a positive record against every team. Roger Federer, on the contrary has a negative score against some players, most notably Rafael Nadal who leads 8 to 6 all time against the swiss.