Under fire, under-achieving and underdogs

For the first time in 13 years, and just the fourth time in the history of New Zealand sports betting, the All Blacks are underdogs going into a match.

If the home series defeat to Ireland, and four losses in the past five outings, wasn’t a stark enough illustration of the national side’s struggles, then the NZ TAB odds for Sunday’s test against South Africa sure paints it brightly.

The All Blacks opened, and remain, at $2.00 in the head-to-head market for the Rugby Championship opener in Mbombela, with the Springboks slight favourites at $1.87.

And while many may feel that could even be somewhat generous to the visitors, it’s worth remembering odds are set to attract equal action on both sides of the book, and the propensity for locals to back their own team.

But in just being an outsider, the All Blacks are in such rare territory.

They have played 340 matches (including non-tests) since the TAB first offered sports odds in 1996, and the betting agency has only three previous instances of them not opening as favourites.

Those occasions? All clashes against the Springboks in South Africa. For a record of zero wins and three losses, at that.

Think of All Blacks defeats and despite how galling or how big the margin or how big the stage, they had typically gone into the game as expected winners.

Let’s rewind to those three exceptions.

Two of those underdog instances came on successive weekends in 2009 – the last time the All Blacks faced back-to-back contests against South Africa in the republic.

In the first match, Graham Henry’s men were installed at what remains their record-high opening price at the TAB of $2.60 for the test in Bloemfontein.

Sure enough, with a mistakeridden performance, the men in black paid the price, falling to a 28-19 defeat.

Ironically, despite the defeat, for the following weekend’s test in Durban, the All Blacks opened at $2.50, perhaps due to being away from the highveld and an expected hit-back factor. However, there was to be no such response and the All Blacks fell to a 31-19 loss.

Prior to those two games, it was 11 years back when the All Blacks first went into a game without the favourites tag.

That was in the ill-fated 1998 season, where New Zealand had thumped an under-strength England in two tests but then went on to lose their remaining five.

After going down 24-16 to Australia in Melbourne, 13-3 to the Springboks in Wellington, then losing the Bledisloe Cup in a 27-23 loss to the Wallabies in Christchurch, the All Blacks were priced at $2.30 for their next assignment, a fortnight later in Durban, against a Springboks side on a 12-test winning run.

In front of 52,000, the visitors silenced that home crowd by going to the break up by 12, and leading 23-5 with quarter of an hour to go, only for the Springboks to storm back with three late tries to hand John Hart’s beleaguered side a heartbreaking 24-23 loss.*