All Blacks have not been as vulnerable in a decade

They’re still world’s best but retirements have dented New Zealand’s invincibility

AFTER he named his team to face the Lions in the series decider last year, Steve Hansen moved to alter the expectations of a nation that demands victory every time. As a World Cup winner, the New Zealand coach came into the room in a position of strength; his legacy intact regardless of the result.

The previous weekend, his team had been beaten by the tourists on an unforgettable night in Wellington.

When your win percentage is as high as New Zealand’s is, every defeat brings on a period of deep introspection, but knowing that another loss was within the realms of possibility; Hansen looked to cool the crisis talk and appeal to the populace’s sense of perspective.

“It’s not the first time we’ve lost,” he said. “I’ve read a lot of stories this week and you would think the All Blacks had never lost a game and that the sky is falling in.

“Every week there’s pressure. We’re expected to win every Test match and when we win, we’re expected to win well. You’ve got to embrace that, you’ve got to walk towards that, and life tells you that we’re really only playing a rugby game.

“Real pressure is when you’ve got to spend half an hour giving someone CPR and trying to save their life, and when that doesn’t work, telling their children of their father or mother that, ‘Sorry, we haven’t been able to save them’. What we’re doing is playing a game of rugby.”

It was quite something to hear the head of world sport’s greatest winning machine not only contemplating defeat but conditioning a nation to be ready for the unthinkable.

In the end, the weekend’s game finished in a draw – a result that satisfied no one. New Zealand felt robbed, the Lions had reason to feel they’d left it behind them and life went on with the Kiwis No 1 in the world.

Looking back on that series this week through the prism of Amazon’s ‘All or Nothing’ documentary that offers brief glimpses behind the scenes of the All Black camp, it is striking how a couple of injuries forced Hansen to go deep into his squad for that series.

Three of the four players who scored tries across the four games were making their first Test starts on the day and, although Ngani Laumape and Jordie Barrett combined brilliantly for the opener in the third Test, the newcomers didn’t have the same assurance as the men they replaced as the game went on.

Only eight of the 23-man match-day squad from the 2015 World Cup final are available this weekend. Three are injured, four have retired and eight