No dropped goal attempt from ABs hardly surprise

THOSE with any sort of knowledge of the game knew there was never going to be a dropped goal from the All Blacks at the end of the test in Wellington on Saturday night.

It looked like an opportune moment to put the ball between the sticks. The All Blacks were on attack and the Springboks were going deep into the well and would have been fatigued.

Plus there was the rather obvious situation that the All Blacks were two points behind and three points are awarded for a dropped goal.

So logic would have suggested the All Blacks look to put one between the sticks and bag a onepoint win

But no chance.

Beauden Barrett or Damian McKenzie were simply never going to go for a dropped goal.

In 67 tests since he debuted in 2012, Barrett has never dropped a goal. McKenzie has also not dropped a goal in his 19 tests.

In more than 100 games for the Hurricanes, Barrett has only dropped one goal — against the Chiefs in 2016 in a Hurricanes loss. McKenzie is the same — never having dropped a goal for his Chiefs.

But this is New Zealand rugby — where recording points divisible by seven is way better than additions by three points.

New Zealand dominates most statistics in world rugby.

It has the most wins by percentage, the most World Cup victories, the most Rugby Championships and, in Dan Carter, the highest individual pointsscorer.

But in the dropped goal ranks, the All Blacks are way down the list.

First fiveeighth Jonny Wilkinson has scored the most with an amazing 36 for England. He played 97 tests so had an uncanny ability to notch dropped goals.

Argentinian Hugo Porta is next on the list with 28. South African Naas Botha knocked over 18 dropped goals, not bad considering he played only 28 tests.

The All Black with the most dropped goals is first fiveeighth Andrew Mehrtens who has 10, which is tied for 18th in the list of international players.

Carter is the leader of most points scored in tests but just 24 of his 1598 points came from dropped goals.

He scored two of those in his last two tests — one in the win against South Africa in the World Cup semifinal in 2015 and then another seven days later in the World Cup final victory over Australia.