New Zealand rugby commentator’s blunt All Blacks assessment

New Zealand's veteran commentator Grant Nisbett has delivered a blunt assessment of this year’s All Blacks, stating that they’ll only warrant a seven or 7.5/10 rating even if they get the better of international rugby heavyweights Ireland and France during the Autumn Nations Series.

With Scott Robertson taking over as the team’s head coach, there was a lot expected of the All Blacks in 2024. Robertson was coming off a highly successful stint with the Crusaders, and that left many fans daring to dream of what successes ‘Razor’ could have with the national team.

It was a shaky start for the men in black, who survived two genuine scares against England in Dunedin and Auckland during the July international window. New Zealand backed that up with a demolition of Fiji, but later came unstuck during The Rugby Championship.

The All Blacks suffered a shock 38-30 loss to Los Pumas in Wellington to kick off that campaign, and they also fell to the world champion Springboks in Johannesburg and Cape Town later on in that tournament. They ended up finishing second with three wins from six Tests.

New Zealand have since put 64 points on Eddie Jones’ Japan in Yokohama, and they left it late to beat England 24-22 in a thriller last weekend. They’ve won eight of 11 games during Robertson’s reign so far, but “losing three Test matches is never acceptable” as Nisbett explained.

“Much depends on how they finish this season off,” Nisbett said on SENZ’s The Run Home with Kirst & Beav. “They did well to beat England, it was a bit shaky but the job was done.

“Much will depend on the performances against both Ireland and France. If we get over both of those teams I think we can probably look at about a seven and a half out of 10.

“Losing three Test matches is never acceptable for an All Blacks side. Losing two in South Africa, but the one at home against Argentina was a shocker.

“Even if we do finish with victories over those two teams, I don’t think we’re going to extend the mark out of 10 much past seven, seven and a half.

“But, nevertheless, I think they’ll regard that as satisfactory. There’s no doubt that South Africa are the best team going around at the moment, it’s just a question of who’s next and we’re about to find out this weekend if Ireland are next.”

In the All Blacks 12^th Test of the year, they’ll lock horns with the world’s top-ranked side on their home track. Ireland didn’t make the semi-finals of last year’s Rugby World Cup but some still consider them to be the best team in the international game at the moment.

South Africa are, of course, the two-time defending Rugby World Cup champions, so their fans would have a thing or two to say about that, but rising to the top of the World Rugby men’s rankings is no easy feat or mistake.

With former captain Johnny Sexton retiring after the quarter-final exit last year, the Irish ushered in a new era this year but stormed home to claim the Six Nations title with four wins from five matches. They also tied a two-match series one-all against the Springboks in South Africa

The history between Ireland and New Zealand in men’s rugby has been well documented, with the men in green registering their first-ever win at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 2016. Ireland are the only team to hold a winning record over the All Blacks since the 2015 World Cup as well.

“(They were) always in the same boat as Scotland. Scotland had never beaten us in a Test match, they got a draw once,” Nisbett reflected.

“I think Ireland had a draw early on but it wasn’t until 216 in Chicago that they nailed it and you’d have to say the advents of Joe Schmid and subsequent to that (Andy) Farrell as well, they really have improved dramatically.

“They’ve got some depth, too. If they were to lose a key guy there’s usually somewhere there and that’s the key to it. As long as you’ve got depth, it’s always going to be a test.

“Ireland, even though they took until 216 to beat us, they’ve always been pretty tough to beat. You never got home easily.”