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Māori All Blacks Rugby Team
The New Zealand Māori All Blacks are a formidable team who play at the International level and have a very proud history and record, having claimed some major scalps over the years including tier 1 nations such as England, France, Australia and Ireland. The Māori All Blacks are NZR's second ranked team and a prerequisite for selection is that players must have Māori whakapapa (genealogy / ancestry).
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The New Zealand Māori All Blacks are a formidable team who play at the International level and have a very proud history and record, having claimed some major scalps over the years including tier 1 nations such as England, France, Australia and Ireland. The Māori All Blacks are NZR's second ranked team and a prerequisite for selection is that players must have Māori whakapapa (genealogy / ancestry).
Fixtures & Results
There are no games scheduled for this week.
Tournaments
Players
Forwards
Backs
History of the Māori All Blacks
With the dawning of rugby's professional era in 1995, the team lost just four of 26 games played between 1994 and 2004, beating England, Argentina, Scotland and Fiji along the way. The Māori All Blacks continued their winning form through 2004 beating the England Saxons in the final of the Churchill Cup in extra time.
The Maori All Blacks typically play in two annual tournaments, one being the Pacific Nations Cup, a competition involving the Pacific top national teams in which they replaced the Junior All Blacks, and were undefeated champions beating Australia A in the final game of the tournament. The Churchill Cup was another regional tournament which they won in 2004 and in 2006, defeating Ireland A and the USA in pool play in Santa Clara, California and Scotland A in the final in Edmonton, Alberta.
The Māori All Blacks beat the British & Irish Lions for the first time in an official match in 2005. Preparations for this match saw them withdraw from the Churchill Cup that year. In August 2012, the NZRU announced the New Zealand Māori All Blacks would play three games in the UK, including a fixture against Canada.
In 2010 they defeated Ireland and England, marking 100 years of the team in dominant fashion.
Having previously been called the New Zealand Māori and New Zealand Maoris, the team was renamed the Māori All Blacks in 2012.