Analysis: Ranked - the All Blacks' five best wins of the year

Analysis: The All Blacks' season finished in underwhelming fashion but there were highlights among Scott Robertson's first year in charge. Patrick McKendry ranks their successes.

After 14 Tests, the All Blacks’ year has finished at last. The finale was a frustrating victory over Italy in a near freezing Turin but, with Scott Robertson’s men winning a total of 10 matches in his first year in charge, there were many other highlights, two of which came on their European tour.

Here, we rank five of the best, from fifth to first.

Robertson’s second Test in charge came after the All Blacks got out of jail against England in Dunedin, Damian McKenzie kicking two penalties in the second half after opposite Marcus Smith missed three in total in front of goal.

Beauden Barrett’s cameo off the bench under the roof was helpful and at Eden Park it was crucial because at 17-13 down 10 minutes after halftime, and the All Blacks fumbling their way to the finish, their undefeated 30-year record at their fortress was very much under threat.

It was just after the hour mark that Barrett, who replaced Stephen Perofeta at the back, first made his presence felt. It was a moment of rare quality which came after Tupou Vaa’i carried hard, with quick ball finding its way to Barrett, who sliced through and delivered for Mark Tele’a for his second try of the night.

The sideline conversion from McKenzie just missed but the All Blacks had their noses in front 21-17 and England were finally playing catch-up. There was some controversy at the finish when the English were over the line in a pile of bodies, but the All Blacks were beneficiaries of an obstruction call by the officials and that was that.

The All Blacks required another response at their fortress after losing 38-30 in miserable fashion to the Pumas a week earlier in Wellington, a Test that featured only four scrums in total and which contained few redeeming qualities for the home side, who led at halftime.

In the sequal the All Blacks combined a ruthless energy to shut out Argentina 35-3 at halftime, with McKenzie, Ardie Savea, Caleb Clarke, Will Jordan and Beauden Barrett scoring converted tries.

The pack, under-worked and generally underwhelming a week earlier, provided the platform here, the only issue being that Robertson's men failed to truly finish the job after halftime, a recurring theme this season.

It meant the All Blacks’ undefeated streak at Eden Park was extended to 50 Tests. In an unprecedented move several days later, assistant coach Leon MacDonald announced he was leaving the All Blacks, citing differences of opinion with head coach Robertson.

The All Blacks again followed something of a well-worn script in Wellington when bouncing back from an embarrassing disintegration against the Wallabies in Bledisloe 1 in Sydney - when they let slip a 21-0 lead after only 16 minutes to sneak home 31-28 - to put in what then was their most complete performance of the year.

In doing so, they banished the Wellington “curse” – they hadn’t won there since 2018 – and finally fired in the final quarter of a Rugby Championship Test in 2024 after leading 19-13 at halftime.

It was a shutout in the second half, the highlights overall being Wallace Sititi’s assist for Sevu Reece’s try in the first half and an extraordinary defensive effort after the break, with Beauden Barrett, in his first start at No.10 for the year, playing with composure and control.

Watch as 1News rugby experts Scotty Stevenson and Patrick McKendry analyse a frustrating final Test of the year for the All Blacks on TVNZ+

It was a point of difference and an added significance to that selection was McKenzie’s injection off the bench.

Veterans TJ Perenara and Sam Cane got the farewells they deserved in their final Tests at home.

A crazy game, which packed several hours’ worth of rugby drama into the final five minutes, finished with the All Blacks coming back to beat England at Twickenham in what was at that point the biggest and most significant win of the Razor era.

The All Blacks, trailing 14-22 with 20 minutes remaining, edged their way back via McKenzie’s penalty (Beauden Barrett, starting at No.10, was off with a head injury), and they finally hit the front thanks to McKenzie’s sideline conversion to Tele’a’s try wide on the right.

With three minutes remaining, the All Blacks, holding a two-point lead, appeared in control.

But then, with Anton Lienert-Brown in the sinbin for a high tackle, England replacement George Ford hit the right post with a penalty. More drama followed.

Patrick Tuipulotu caught the ball on the rebound and lost it in contact. Scrum England. But the All Blacks exerted so much pressure 5m from their line that the English were on the back foot and, ultimately, Ford pushed his desperate dropped goal wide of the posts.

"D-Mac got one,” said coach Robertson afterwards. “He was due wasn’t he?” This was a clear reference to three costly misses by McKenzie in the first Test against South Africa at Ellis Park this year.

"Our bench came on, they were massive. We didn’t get everything right tonight, but we got enough right.”

This “grudge match” kicked off after Ireland’s enemy No.1 Rieko Ioane led a haka that could echo through the ages such was Ireland’s advancing response to the All Blacks’ challenge.

With the All Blacks’ epic World Cup quarter-final and Ioane’s advice to Irish legend Johnny Sexton still very much front of mind, there was plenty at stake in Dublin and Robertson’s men controlled the game brilliantly against what was then the No.1 team in the world.

It will count as their sweetest, if not their most complete, victory since that quarter-final match in Paris just over 12 months ago.

It was done via a clinical second half, the All Blacks recovering from the yellow card shown to Jordie Barrett for a high tackle with 30 seconds remaining in the first half, and then icing it thanks to McKenzie’s goalkicking and Jordan’s try with 11 minutes remaining.

McKenzie, in the No.10 jersey due to Beauden Barrett’s head injury against England, kicked six from eight attempts at goal – he hit a post with a long-range penalty and was off target for the conversion for Jordan’s try – and led the side with composure and authority.

It was a victory built on defence and an adherence to a game plan. They did it well. For all of Ireland’s qualities, they are not a team that excels when chasing a game and so it proved.

“We asked for courage and we asked for care and we got both of them,” Robertson said.

Watch as 1News rugby experts Scotty Stevenson and Patrick McKendry analyse a frustrating final Test of the year for the All Blacks on TVNZ+