New Zealand national rugby union team

The New Zealand national rugby union team, known as the All Blacks ( ), represents New Zealand in men's rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. Famed for their international success, the All Blacks have often been regarded as one of the most successful sports teams in history.

The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, 2011, and 2015. They were the first country to retain the Rugby World Cup. Since their international debut in 1903, the All Blacks have played test matches against 19 nations, of which 12 have never won a game against the team. New Zealand has a 76% winning record in test match rugby, and has recorded more wins than losses against every international opponent. 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 men's 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 twenty times in the competition's thirty–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. Nineteen former All Blacks have been inducted into the World 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. Traditionally the All Blacks use Te Rauparaha's haka Ka Mate, although players have also performed Kapa o Pango since 2005.

History

Introduction of rugby to New Zealand

thumb|left|alt=Photo of team players and management all of whom are seated or standing, in three rows, wearing their playing uniform and caps.|The New Zealand team that toured New South Wales in 1884

Rugby union, known almost universally in New Zealand as just "rugby", was introduced to the nation by Charles Monro in 1870; he had discovered the sport while completing his studies at Christ's College in Finchley, England. The first recorded game in New Zealand took place in May 1870 in the city of Nelson, between the Nelson rugby club and Nelson College. The first provincial union, the Canterbury Rugby Football Union, was formed in 1879, and New Zealand's first internationals were played in 1882 when the "Waratahs" from New South Wales toured the country. The Australian team did not face a New Zealand national team but played seven provincial sides; the tourists won four games and lost three. Two years later, the first New Zealand team to travel overseas toured New South Wales, winning all eight of their games.

A privately organised British team, which later became the British & Irish Lions, toured New Zealand in 1888. The visitors only played provincial sides and no test matches were played. Wales and Scotland were represented in the British team, but the players were drawn mainly from Northern England.

International competition begins

In 1892, following the canvassing of provincial administrators by Ernest Hoben, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) was formed by the majority of New Zealand's provincial unions, but did not include Canterbury, Otago or Southland.