‘They’re the best I’ve seen, no question’
Sean Fitzpatrick, 92 New Zealand caps and former captain:
They’re the best team I’ve ever seen, without question. Their skill-sets, the way they play the game. They’re also highly motivated individually: they know that if they’re not, someone else will replace them. They’ve also got the best coaches in the world and are putting pressure on themselves in a way we never did. They’re saying publicly they want to go 25 or 26 games unbeaten and be the first team to win three World Cups back-to-back. We would never have said that but they know they are good enough so it’s about making sure they deliver.
‘From one to 15 they are different class’
Kenny Logan, 70 caps for Scotland:
The 1996 All Blacks, with Jonah Lomu and Christian Cullen, were the best team I ever played against. You could say they were relatively better than the current side because they hadn’t been groomed in the professional era – they were natural talents, and not one of this current All Blacks team has been an amateur rugby player.
I would also mention the England team in 2002, which I think was the peak of that World Cup-winning side, but this All Blacks team plays more rugby, so as a fan you want to see them, because they are more skilful and they keep the ball moving.
In 1996 they were skilful, but there was still quite a lot of the “rumble in the jungle”. So it has to be this team, because the skill level from one to 15 is different class. And the ability to change six of their best players and it not make a difference is evidence that this is the better era. I don’t think they could have done that in ’96.
‘Who could beat them? maybe England on their best day’
Philippe Saint-André, 69 France caps, former captain and coach:
In one year they have scored nearly six tries a game and they are unbeaten for 18 games. They focus a huge amount on skills, particularly for the youngsters, but also they play 15 games for their clubs and 10 for their country – the national set-up is more like a club than the rest of the nations.
For me, we have never seen a team like this They beat South Africa in South Africa, scoring nearly 60 points and nine tries to none. They are on another planet. I’ve never seen it before. You don’t know who can beat New Zealand at the moment. Maybe England at Twickenham, on their best day – but then Australia got close to them for a while recently and then lost heavily in the last 20 minutes.
‘The best on the planet in any sport’
Neil Jenkins, 91 caps for Wales and Lions:
I remember watching the All Blacks against the Lions in 2005 when Dan Carter was just ridiculous and thinking that they just could not get any better – but they have.
Wales played three Tests against them this summer and you could not tell they had lost so many world class players. I faced a few New Zealand teams that were special, but I would certainly say the current team is the best ever, the best on the planet in any sport – by a mile.
They are special because they are good across the board: you think you have them and they suddenly explode into tries and blow you out. We were with them for a long while in the first two Tests this year, but they are so strong in the last quarter of a game. They are outstanding, the best of the best, and the rest of us have to work out how to catch them.
‘They blow teams away, they’re ruthless’
Gavin Hastings, 62 Scotland and Lions caps:
It’s difficult to judge if they’re the best ever team but there’s no doubt in my mind that they’re playing the best rugby that has ever been seen, particularly in the professional era.
The Wallabies grand slam side of 1984 were terrific and played some very good rugby. They really took on that flat alignment in the back division with the Ella brothers, David Campese, Michael Lynagh, Nick Farr-Jones and Andrew Slack. I think the New Zealand side in 1995 was amazing and they just got blown away by the force of history in the World Cup final. Then there’s the New Zealand team of 1987 that won the World Cup. The thing with this side, though, is that they haven’t played England yet, they haven’t played France, and I thought Wales were pretty competitive over the summer. But they do seem to be able to really blow teams away in the last 20 minutes. They’re absolutely ruthless.
‘They’ve not been under pressure yet’
Nick Easter, 54 caps for England:
In my era, I would say the England team of 2002-03 were the most dominant team in the world at the time, then New Zealand in 1996-97, who won a series in South Africa, and the South Africa team of 2007-09. But the best has got to be the All Blacks side from 2013-15, who won the World Cup last year. They just had that composure and trust throughout that they were going to win, come what may. And in the end they walked the World Cup, didn’t they? Even the way they found a way to win against South Africa in the semi-final shows how great they were. That’s what we haven’t seen from this new era of New Zealand. They’ve won one way, by blowing sides off the park. It has usually been in the last 20 or 30 minutes, but they haven’t actually been put under massive pressure. Until they are, I don’t think we can put them into that category yet.
‘International rugby isn’t that strong’
Nick Evans, Harlequins and former New Zealand fly-half:
I think they’re the best All Black team I’ve seen but I do put a little asterisk in there. I don’t think international rugby generally is as strong as it has been. Australia, South Africa, France have all been stronger and, at the moment, England are their nearest competitors. But for New Zealand to lose 700 to 800 caps – the likes of Dan Carter, Richie McCaw, Ma’a Nonu – and still keep going is remarkable. I think they’ll look at Cyprus’s all-time Test record sequence of 24 wins and say: “Let’s go and get that”. That will be their next statement.
‘There have been other ruthless sides’
Brian Ashton, former England and Ireland coach:
In terms of results, they’ve got to be pretty close to one of the best sides we’ve ever seen. Not only do they win each game, they do it by scoring five, six, seven tries a game. And it doesn’t seem to matter who the opposition is. But there have been some pretty ruthless All Blacks sides in the past.
The first time I saw New Zealand in detail was the 1967 tour when they won the grand slam. At scrum-half they had Chris Laidlaw who started firing out these spin passes that no one had ever seen before. And that transformed the game. They must be in that sort of category, along with the 2015 All Blacks that won the World Cup. Going away from the All Blacks you’ve got the 1971 Lions with John Dawes as the captain on the tour to New Zealand and the 1974 Lions, Willie John McBride’s side in South Africa. The Springboks over the years have been outstanding, not in recent times particularly but in the 60s and 70s. And obviously the England side that won the 2003 World Cup.
‘They make the game look easy’
Danny Care, 62 England caps:
They’re not bad, are they? They’re on an unbelievable run. Of all the teams I’ve seen or played against, it’d have to be them. They’ve been the most successful over the years. They play a brand of rugby that is better than anyone else’s at the moment, doing the simple things unbelievably well and making the game look easy, when it’s quite hard. We want to be as good as them, we want to be better than them, but it’s a long way off and we’ve got to keep working hard.
