It is almost ten years to the day since New Zealand won the World Cup final in front of more than 80,000 fans at Twickenham.
We asked our rugby writers who is the better side: those 2015 All Blacks, who also won narrowly on home soil four years earlier, or the South Africa side that battered England in the 2019 final, retained the title in 2023 and are targeting a third consecutive World Cup win in 2027. We also asked if one of these sides is the best to ever play the game, and if not, who else?
The world has never seen a forward pack as fearsome as the unit that powered South Africa to successive World Cup triumphs, particularly in 2023 when the Springboks prepared such depth up front that they began fielding 7-1 benches. They also ground out a Lions series victory in between World Cups.
South Africa’s use of the “bomb squad”, bringing on almost an entire fresh forward pack in one swing, has been key to their success
DAVID ROGERS/GETTY IMAGES
But for all-round class and utter dominance of an era, the back-to-back All Blacks, who peaked in 2015, remain the greatest team. In 54 Tests between winning the World Cup in 2011 and retaining it at Twickenham four years later, the All Blacks lost only three times, winning three consecutive Rugby Championship titles.
Handrè Pollard, the Springbok fly half in 2019 and 2023, has acknowledged that the All Blacks remain the benchmark because of that unprecedented consistency. It is quite possible that the best is yet to come from them, with a truly dominant period from 2023-27. They have just won successive Rugby Championship titles for the first time.
But in a composite team of the 2015 All Blacks and 2023 Springboks, I have ten players from New Zealand (it might have been nine but Malcolm Marx was injured in 2023). That 2015 All Blacks team contained greats across the park, none more so than Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, plus the unrivalled midfield of Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith.
Owen Slot, Chief Sports Writer
This is what happens when you compare two great sides: you start by going with the 2015 All Blacks. Obviously. Because they are stacked with royalty, players we now refer to only by their christian names: Richie, Dan, and arguably the best centre partnership ever. But hang on; these were all players at the end of their careers, not at their peak.
From left to right: Conrad Smith, Dan Carter, Ma’a Nonu, Keven Mealamu, Richie McCaw and Tony Woodcock. The 2015 All Blacks side was stacked with royalty
NIGEL MARPLE/REUTERS
And the Springboks would do them up front, you can’t get away from that. Plus they have a “bomb squad”, more strength in depth all round, and if they can’t win it one way, they can change game plan and try it another. If you saw their 43-10 annihilation of the All Blacks in Wellington last month, you can’t not back them.
I suppose the correct answer to the greatest team of all time is the 1971 British & Irish Lions, but even Stephen Jones is not old enough to have seen them live. My answer, then, is the 1996 All Blacks — “The Incomparables” who won three Tests in successive Saturdays away in South Africa, who should have won the 1995 World Cup final but now had Christian Cullen at No15, Justin Marshall at 9 and weren’t suffering from food poisoning.
Their back three must be the finest ever (Cullen, Jonah Lomu, Jeff Wilson), their back row arguably too (Michael Jones, Josh Kronfeld, Zinzan Brooke) and that’s before you even get to Frank Bunce and Walter Little, and a captain called Sean Fitzpatrick.
Will Kelleher, Deputy Rugby Correspondent
New Zealand had that unbeatable feel, and when they lost it seemed like a world event. That’s dominance. South Africa have had to face stronger challenges from France and Ireland than the All Blacks ever did, but it is a fact to say they are not as dominant or consistent, despite their World Cup record. Another win, in 2027, and clearly, we reassess, as that would be an outrageous feat.
The 2011-15 All Blacks stand alone, in my mind, as rugby’s greatest team. Their 92 per cent win ratio over that period, which included only three defeats, will surely be unmatched in the future of the modern game. I was not alive to see the 1970s Welsh team, or the 1974 Lions, who many would make the greatest, so cannot choose either of them.
The All Blacks only lost three games during their period of dominance from 2011-15
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
Stephen Jones, Sunday Times Rugby Correspondent
Those who slobber over the All Blacks would naturally claim that their 2015 team was better than the current Springboks side. They were not. It is important to remember that while 2015 was a great World Cup, the standard of the so-called elite teams was low. England were risible, Wales went into their quarter-final with 11 backs injured; Australia, the finalists, were mediocre and only beat Scotland thanks to a refereeing error.
South Africa’s best team would have seen them off up front and importantly, Damian de Allende and company would have seen off Nonu — who was key to that All Black team — in the centre.
When thinking about the greatest side of all time, it is still stunning how bad New Zealand were in the 2011 final against France. The best New Zealand team — and I was too young to study the 1967 vintage under Ian Kirkpatrick — was Fitzpatrick’s 1996 touring side which beat the Springboks three times in three weeks; once in a Championship game then twice in a three-Test tour. They would be too clever for today’s South Africa if they met, by a three-point margin.
Stuart Barnes
South Africa’s back-to-back World Cup triumphs are astonishing because they were only a short way down the road towards fulfilling their potential. Forget 2019 and 2023, the definitive Springboks will peak in Australia two years from now.
In contrast the All Blacks, who scraped the 2011 tournament on home soil, were on another level in 2015 when Carter and Nonu, among others, delivered the rugby of their lives. New Zealand sneak the Springboks as the greatest World Cup side — to date.
New Zealand prop Craig Dowd carries the ball into the Springbok defence during the All Blacks’ victory in Christchurch in July 1996
AP PHOTO/JOHN MCCOMBE
But are they the greatest of all Test teams? No, I would take either the 1996 All Blacks or the 1974 Lions. The 1996 New Zealand vintage were the first Kiwi team ever to win a series in South Africa. In Cullen they had a once-in-a-lifetime back, while Fitzpatrick spearheaded the pack.
Take the Tri Nations into account and the All Blacks won four straight games against the 1995 world champions before losing the final Test in South Africa with the series already decided. As for the 1974 Lions, they should not have toured because of apartheid but if you are going to travel to a country with such a repellent political system, you might as well win 21 of the 22 games, including the Test series 3-1.