I don't think anyone (except for some of the non journalists you name) has ever claimed New Zealanders believe the All Blacks have this mythical aura thing going on. Most informed rugby fans and pundits in the NH are well aware that the All Blacks can win a game by twenty points and still have fan criticising missed opportunities or poor passages of play. You guys have a very high standard and expect the best from players lucky enough to pull on the black jersey but that obviously doesn't equate to a blind belief in their invincibility.
I can tell you that while our rugby team is the best in the world (at the moment), our fans don't match that level of greatness. Some of the stuff I read from a few NZ fans on this forum makes me cringe with embarrassment.
Also, we can be bloody unreasonable and very difficult to please. If Hansen left out out the top 23 players, and selected the next 23, most of the rugby public would still expect nothing less than a win; that is the standard we set for our team. NZ fans might use
"we were missing our top players" as an excuse, but they would not accept that as an excuse from AB coaches & management. In any case, I don't think we could do that at the moment, which is why, for all its success, I don't think this team is as great as the 2005 All Blacks. After they mullered the Lions at home, they went to the EOYT and put out two different teams in consecutive tests, hammering Wales 41-3 then Ireland 45-7 a week later.
However I think Henry hits the nail on the head when he says that because you have been so unbeatable for Northern Hemisphere teams for long periods of time, there is bound to be some level of apprehension added to the healthy respect that any rugby player is going to feel when lining up against a team as good as New Zealand. I don't think for a moment this means the players or coaches consider the All Blacks to have this 'mythical aura' (I'm going to start using inverted commas because it seems like such a silly thing to say) but surely you've got to agree that if you only beat a team once a decade they're going to start to seem a little bit more than 'just' a group of very good rugby players. We've finally produced a set of players that at least have a chance of beating you, or running you close, so I think its natural that some of the anxiety about whether it is possible to beat the All Blacks ebbs away.
Yep, that's fair comment. That is how you perceive us, but its not how we perceive ourselves.
Incidentally, English bookies will give you 6/1 on an England win at the moment. (17/2 here) now that is really worth a sly hundy!!
Of course this gets ruined by idiots writings badly written columns that then get taken seriously by idiots writing badly written columns on the other side of the world and what is a perfectly natural element of the sports gets turned into a debate over whether the All Blacks really are mythical beasts from the dawn of time. Which is why someone should really hire some people who can actually write to do some sporting journalism.
Yep, stupid is as stupid does, and stupid is something for which is is no cure!
