Hmmn, not too sure about some of your points to be honest. I'm not too sure that many of us thought that tha All Blacks would go through 2016 unbeaten, at the start of the season, as we are rebuilding our team, just like everyone else.
Yes, we expect to win most of our games, regardless of who the playing personnel are, and two loses would probably be at least one too many, but I wouldn't say we were particularly shell shocked to lose to Ireland, given the closeness of the matches in recent years. That's not to say that we expected to lose, we clearly expect wins (yes,there are no friendlies as far as we're concerned) but the prevailing attitude here was that we'd rather lose to ireland than Australia, England, or South Africa.
Jones is right in the respect that the squad is managed to counter player fatigue (this is more to do with the timing of the end of year tours, rather than the opposition), and that the tours are used to blood new players/succession planning, and this is where the real strength lies, not some unbeatable aura (not even going to go there with your other comment) ... If we were playing England one week, and Ireland the next, you would undoubtedly see strong sides named to play them, but there would be some rotation in playing personnel.
He's also right about the importance that we put on the silverware, so while winning all test matches is the goal, losing the RWC, losing the Bledisloe cup, losing the Rugby championship, and losing a test match, are the order of importance for us.
Not sure where the throne things comming from either, aside from beating the opposition, we have very little in determining the rankings of the teams we play against, and unless the players were injured playing against us, we haven't had any influence on the availability of the opposition players either ... We have a few injuries to, by the way.
Yes, England are a very strong side that will undoubtedly be stronger by 2018 (as will the All Blacks), and on current form, should easily beat Argentina, although I'm hoping that the Pumas can play to their potential and then, who knows
To be fair, there are a couple of referees I wished would have dined at the same restaurant as the ABs from time to time :lol: