How the All Blacks have

Ireland made history against New Zealand by defeating them in Dublin for the first time in 113 years. Prior to the test, I felt the Irish carried the form and favourites tag into the encounter with them. They summarily produced an amazing performance at the Aviva Stadium.

What has always impressed me about the All Blacks is that they show tremendous dignity in defeat. For all us coaches, it’s a good lesson. The way Steve Hansen and the rest of his coaching staff carried themselves after a tremendous win for Ireland sets an example in terms of how to behave.

The All Blacks are gracious in victory and dignified in defeat, which speaks to the ethos of the game we all love. That is the All Blacks I grew to admire when playing and coaching against them.

Having suffered their second defeat of 2018, some are saying that the All Blacks have lost their shine. Their argument is that teams now believe that they can beat the men in black having seen South Africa and Ireland do so. There is no way you can examine the All Blacks’ current lapse of form and debate it away. Over the last six months, the All Blacks have definitely stuttered.

Whenever I coached against and analysed the All Blacks, you couldn’t put your finger on what they do but the bottom line was that they just did everything better than everybody else. What has happened now is that they are not doing everything better – all departments are a bit off – and in the process they have become like any other team.

The point is that nothing is exceptional anymore with the All Blacks. Their ball is not as quick as it used to be, their setpiece

The point is that nothing is exceptional anymore with the All Blacks.

and kicking game isn’t firing, their defence is not as strong as it was and their attack is not as penetrative, which was underlined by the fact that Ireland kept them tryless. It’s not as if the All Blacks are 10 per cent worse than before, they are only one or two per cent off their game but against top teams at test level the margins are slim.

The All Blacks will know they are not going wrong in only one area. They are failing in a few areas. However, when they rediscover their mojo they will be tough to beat. That is why the leaders will stress: ‘‘Let’s keep a