Ranking the five best performances from the All Blacks in 2023
The All Blacks came up short by one point in the Rugby World Cup final in 2023 but there were many other memorable games during the year.
They were on a roll after winning the Rugby Championship, Bledisloe Cup and Freedom Cups to start the season but hit their first bit of turbulence at Twickenham in a warm-up Test against the Springboks.
A first-ever pool stage loss at the Rugby World Cup followed when they were beaten by France on opening night but they were able to recover to make a run towards the big prize, the William Webb Ellis trophy.
The 12-11 loss to the Springboks in the final is not on the list as one of the best performances of the year, despite being a gutsy one showing plenty of resilience and character.
They still should’ve won but didn’t, with many key areas lacking despite completely dominating the Springboks at the lineout and throughout the entire second half.
Here are the five best performances from the All Blacks in 2023.
5. All Blacks 41-12 Argentina at Estadio Malvinas Argentinas, Mendoza
There was an air of uncertainty around the All Blacks heading into their first Test of the year, and first Test in Argentina since 2019.
They had lost to Los Pumas in 2022 at home and there were expectations that Argentina could produce something similar buoyed by their home crowd.
Instead the All Blacks went on an early rampage and completely silenced the crowd at the football stadium in Mendoza. At 31-7 at half-time the game was essentially over.
Damian McKenzie impressed in his first start at No 10 for the All Blacks in years, debutant Emoni Narawa managed to score with a great finish and Jordie Barrett was phenomenal at 12 to cement himself as the first-choice midfield.
It was a clinical performance that put the world on notice that the All Blacks would be contenders in 2023 in France.
4. All Blacks 35-20 Springboks at Mt Smart Stadium, Auckland
They followed up the win in Mendoza with a comfortable win over the Springboks at Mt Smart which featured an opening 20-minute blitz that will be remembered for Shannon Frizell’s bulldozing try over Willie le Roux in the corner.
The All Blacks blew the doors off a tired Springbok side that had flown out early to New Zealand to prepare for the Test. Ultimately, many of the South African players hadn’t played a game in months since finishing their club seasons in Japan and they were severely underdone.
The Springboks fought back in the second half after unloading a world-class bench but guided by Richie Mo’unga’s management the All Blacks weathered the storm and pulled away again with late tries to Will Jordan and Mo’unga skinning the Boks to seal the deal.
This performance would rank higher on the list but for the Springboks playing mind games. They clearly didn’t start with their best side and didn’t compete at one lineout for the entire game. It was a shadow-boxing affair of sorts.
The All Blacks first 20 minutes was incredible but there were large stages of the game where they lost ascendency and therefore this ranks fourth on the best performances of 2023.
3. All Blacks 38-7 Wallabies at the MCG, Melbourne
The first Bledisloe Test of 2023 was a highly anticipated clash with new Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones stirring the pot with New Zealanders for months before the Test.
Days before the Test he claimed that New Zealand’s economy would sink when the All Blacks lose in a memorable press conference. 80,000 packed into the MCG for the spectacle and they were treated to a dominant All Blacks win built on sublime defence.
The Wallabies started strong in the opening 30 minutes with some decent attacking play with young Carter Gordon in his first start at flyhalf. They made plenty of breaks but didn’t capitalise on enough of them.
A try to Rob Valetini gave the Wallabies the lead, but they folded in the final 10 minutes of the first half to go behind 19-7.
In the second half the All Blacks did what they do best as the Wallabies ran out of puff. Losing tighthead prop Taniela Tupou didn’t help as Eddie Jones’ power game couldn’t break the All Blacks’ goal line defence.
One of their best All Blacks tries of the year came to Rieko Ioane from a Mark Telea offload after a long passage of play that began back inside their own half.
Telea again was phenomenal, finishing with five line breaks, nine defenders beaten, one try and one try assist.
2. All Blacks 44-6 Argentina in the Rugby World Cup semi-final, Stade de France Paris
This clash was criticised for being a lopsided affair but ignores the fact that it was a Rugby World Cup semi-final. From the All Blacks perspective, it was a as good as it can get in such a high stakes game. Every side in the world would take this low-stress result in a semi-final every day of the week.
Will Jordan scored a hat-trick, including a stunning long-range effort with his trademark chip and chase. He would’ve set the record for most tries at a Rugby World Cup with nine had Richie Mo’unga made the final pass during a passage of play late in the game. Instead, he dummied and got tackled leaving Jordan on eight.
The All Blacks booked their place in the Rugby World Cup final pretty much by half-time and were able to voluntarily finish the game down a man, opting not to put Scott Barrett back into the contest after his yellow card.
1. All Blacks 28-24 Ireland in the Rugby World Cup quarter-final, Stade de France Paris
Undoubtably the best All Blacks performance of the year was knocking off the world’s best team in one of the greatest games of rugby ever.
The intensity of this quarter-final was epic and ultimately decided by the finest margins.
The All Blacks produced an out-of-this-world performance, and they had to. They kept the lead for 77 minutes after racing out to early 13-0 lead following two penalties to Richie Mo’unga and a try to Leicester Fainga’anuku.
Ireland climbed back into the contest with a Bundee Aki try closing the gap to 13-10, before Ardie Savea stretched the lead again into half-time.
A piece of Richie Mo’unga magic to set-up Will Jordan for a big strike added another buffer heading into the final twenty but Ireland kept coming, always closing the gap to within one score.
Jordie Barrett produced a miraculous tackle to hold up the reserve hooker over the line that essentially saved the game for New Zealand. Had that rolling maul been successful it is likely that Ireland would have won.
In the end it was 36 phases of defence and a wily play by Sam Whitelock that sealed the win as Ireland were left heartbroken once again.
The rivalry has grown into one of the best in the game since Ireland’s first ever win in 2016 in Chicago and this clash took it to a new level.
Not only was it the best performance from the All Blacks in 2023 it was perhaps their greatest ever knockout win at a Rugby World Cup.
Comments on RugbyPass
Big empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
2 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
2 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
2 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
2 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
1 Go to commentsWhy cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
5 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
34 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to comments