Have the All Blacks ever played a "rest of the world" team ? Who would win ?

Question

So we know the All Blacks are formidable, but at World Cup level have a tendancy to choke ! But all things being equal if you could select a combined World Cup team to take on the All Blacks who would be there and would they win with adequate preparation time ?

Answer 1

All Blacks have played a world XV side on three occasions, winning twice and losing once. Could they do it against another world XV - not if every player in the team was from the springboks

Answer 2

I think the AB's today, are perhaps the most formidable line up I can remember. Any previous match up wouldn't really cut it on todays stage. To date the Current AB's HAVE beaten all of the current National teams  at the world cup.

Tri- Nations defeated the Springbocks,  on their own turf, Wallabies on theirs, and are the current champions of the Tri Nations.

The British Lions were creamed by the AB'S and the whole series was a whitewash (thats the best of England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland).

My point is, these teams are the cream of the world rugby playing Nations, and AB's have come out on top on each occassion.

A world Fifteen, no one could agree on! (British, Australians and particularly the South Africans, all think they are the best). So sit back and watch the worlds fifteen wearing all black, and dream......

Answer 3

I think the AB's would win, lets face it a world team who's never played together as a unit might struggle.

Answer 4

They have Played a World VX only once or twice (I think both games were close) 10, 15 years ago, If  a team were selected, and with adequate preperation they would beat the all blacks, the all blacks at current are the best in the world but are not miles ahead of their tri-nation rivals, so with the addition of some of the star players of other teams they would be to powerful for the all blacks.

altough...............

It also depends who selects the team and who the coaches are and how they would affect the team.

Answer 5

I would argue that, in THEORY, the Rest of the World team would win, but in PRACTICE, the All Blacks would probably take it.

The international dominance of the ABs (Rugby World Cup history aside) is a result of the strength of New Zealand domestic rugby. This means that the ABs have a pool of World class players to call upon in any position. Thus, at any time, the All Blacks can field fifteen of the World's best players. Each player may or may not be the very best in the World, but will certainly be in the top few.

No other country can call on this overall high average for their squad. They may have some brilliant individual players, often better than their AB counterpart, but they will also have positions filled by relatively weak (by NZ standards) players.

Take the Springboks for example. It would take a very devout Kiwi supporter to deny that, despite NZ having at least four World class locks, Victor Matfield is better. And Bryan Habana is arguably a more exciting and potent force on the field than even Rokocoko or Howlett are. But the Springboks seem to have weaknesses in some positions that the ABs simply don't have. And that's why the All Blacks beat the Springboks most times they meet.

The same applies to Australia, Argentina, France, England, Ireland etc. They each have brilliant individuals, sometimes the best in the World in certain positions, but overall, none of the teams can match the ABs.

But if you handpick the best players in the World, you will certainly have a team that is of a higher standard than the ABs. Planet Rugby picks a World XV based on current RWC form and they have 4 ABs in it.  So if there are 4 ABs in the World XV, it follows that the Rest of the World will have 13 players in the World XV and would theoretically almost certainly beat the ABs.

In practice, with 4-6 weeks training and a decent warm-up tour, a World XV would probably be able to take on the ABs as 50/50 equals, but anything less than that would see the ABs win imho.

My team to take on the ABs would be:

(Sorry, after 45 minutes, all I've got is a lot of crossed out names and a headache)