Rugby needs to cut the All Blacks some slack. Yup, you read that right. Lay off the All Blacks you swines. There isn’t a team in the game that takes as much stick as the All Blacks.

In the UK and Ireland at least, the ABs face a level of criticism and derision that’s usually only reserved for tax dodging MPs or reality TV stars that have set up on Only Fans.

Take the first weekend of the Autumn International series for example, where the All Blacks beat Ireland. They beat Ireland, their equal in the World Rankings, and a team that has topped the charts more over the past five years than Taylor Swift.

Yet, judging by the reaction you’d swear they’d lost that match.  

The 26-13 victory was comfortable. Not sumptuous four-seater Italian leather comfortable, but three-seater Ikea plush. The ABs outscored Ireland four tries to one, which for some reason in modern rugby is a stat that is vastly under appreciated.

The ABs dominated ‘defenders beaten’ by two to one and made six times as many linebreaks. The one area where could criticise the All Blacks (and Ireland) was at the lineout, where both teams were jumping like salmons – literally, in that it seemed that their primary lineout forwards had fins, not arms, hands and fingers.

Read more: All the upcoming fixtures for the All Blacks and how to watch

It resulted in neither team being able to break a 75% lineout completion which is waaaaaaaaaay beneath the level that 90% which test level rugby demands.

Some will argue that New Zealand were lucky to be playing 14 men for 20 mins due to the red card that was shown to Tadhg Berine. And they may be right to a degree.

It was a red card that pushed rugby’s laws to extreme interpretations. But as big a fan of Tadhg Berine as this column is, you simply can’t enter a tackle situation using ‘no arms’ (it’s the like the salmon thing all over again) and not expect that tackle to become a bit ‘red cardy’.

The All Blacks are on a roll

Even if you remove the negativity surrounding the win over Ireland (which was the All Blacks third victory in a row), they have now won eight out of ten fixtures in 2025.

They finished joint top on points with South Africa in The Rugby Championship and yet for some reason, the rugby public are still sniggering behind the Kiwi’s backs. 

You could argue that the All Blacks are a victim of their own success – and they are. The ABs don’t really do bad patches – in the same way that Wales does for instance.

They’re arguably the most consistent team in the history of all sports, ever. How many teams have consistently been the best, or nearly the best, at their sport, for over a century? It’s insane. It really is.

New Zealand players celebrate their victory over Ireland. (Photo by Raj Chavda/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The All Blacks are one of the most stable things in the world. Other than the actual ‘kilo’ (known as Le Grand K, which that was until 2019  kept in a vault at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures), the All Blacks are one of the most constant measures in the world.

That they have been so consistent over the previous decades isn’t perhaps such a mystery, given their nation’s dedication to the rugby – the majority of their sporting systems are dedicated to rugby excellence. But that they have still managed to not have a major blip in recent seasons is worthy of praise.

With the constant pressures of overseas wages, the changes to Super Rugby and the almost compulsory one-year Japanese sabbatical for its test players, it’s remarkable that Kiwi rugby still manages to not only punch above its weight but deliver a solid headbutt to countries with far greater resources available to them.

But perhaps the most unfair aspect of the constant nitpicking of the ABs is that it fails to recognise the multitude of positives that they are currently delivering.

Producing new talent, constantly

New Zealand’s Fabian Holland has been a breakthrough star of 2025. (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

In Fabian Holland they have an incredibly talented second row. A lock who can hit like a padlock across the face, but can also unpick the midfield with a range of short and long passes.

Then there’s the wealth of talent that the AB’s have at prop. Especially with regards to Tamaiti Williams. At nearly 6ft 5inches tall you could argue that he is on the very extremes of what is acceptable in terms of propping geometry – but some how he makes it work.

When Tamaiti W is on the field you cannot fail to not notice him. He is one of those players who makes you wonder if it’s the Kiwis who are indeed at the forefront of gene manipulation.

Read more: How to watch the ongoing Autumn Internationals

And then there’s Cam Roigard. If you could design a scrum half in a computer game, on the PS5 for instance, it would be Cam Roigard. With an elite kick, pass, and run game, he has it all.

For the Kiwi’s and their media to be critical of their own team is more understandable. Those supporters and pundits are used to a level of excellence that only they have experienced – no other team in rugby has had that consistent level of performance. But unless you’re South African, with a touch of Irish, then you have no right to be having a pop at the current AB’s squad, or coaches – so wind your neck in.

To put it simply, even when the All Blacks aren’t quite at their best, they’re still better than pretty much everyone in the world.

Well played the ABs, ignore the haters. 

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