The All Blacks and Rugby World Cup 2019
ABs and RWC 2019 The All Blacks have been a dominant force in world rugby. For the past 14 years, they have only lost 10 matches out of more than a 100 tests - less than 10%. It was with much anticipation that fans (like myself) expected that the ABs would lift the cup for an unprecedented 3rd time in a row, and to be a 4-time world champion (including 1987, 2011 and 2015). What a prospect of seeing Captain Kieran Read lift the cup at the end of a 6 week long tournament, peppered with a natural disaster (typhoon) and other upsets. The ABs were on course to reach that outcome, and we all prayed that this would be so. The AB coaches, led by the indefatigable Steve Hanson, were committed to this task, and for most of the tournament, they could see it through, and were quietly confident that the time honored tactical choices that have been made, over the type of play, the players to be deployed, were all part of a time-tested vernacular, which yielded the desired results and outcome.