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The last time I was in New Zealand, during the drawn Test series between the All Blacks and the British & Irish Lions in 2017, I went to a suburb of Wellington called Miramar to watch a first XV school game between Scots College and Rongotai College.
I went for the game and I went for the culture, to thrill to the feel of how rugby was so central to New Zealand life. I went to see the teams come out, watch Rongotai perform their haka and I went to see the brilliant, ambitious running rugby that both teams played.
The weather was filthy but the touchlines were three or four deep with spectators. Rongotai had a proud rugby tradition. It had produced nine All Blacks, most recently Ma'a Nonu, and Julian and Ardie Savea, who were in the squad facing the British and Irish Lions.
Ardie was head boy in 2011 and he was in the All Blacks team that lined up against England at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon, playing at openside flanker and representing Rongotai's rich heritage.
I loved that day out in Miramar. It felt like watching a game of football on Ipanema Beach or a cricket match on the Oval Maidan in Mumbai. It was sport at its most vital. It was sport at the heart of a nation and a culture.
'New Zealand is so good at sport,' a columnist wrote in the Wellington Dominion Post that week. 'It's as if the whole country is one big trophy cabinet with a few volcanos, mountains and national parks to take up the rest of the space.'
New Zealand are proud of their rugby history and success, but there is a suggestion that they have lost their aura
England defeated what used to be a winning machine with clear identity 33-19 on Saturday
The All Blacks were a winning machine in that decade. New Zealand had an 87 per cent win rate from 2010 to 2019. 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.
That win rate has dropped to 70 per cent in the years since 2019 and when they walked out at Twickenham on Saturday, it was against a background of suggestions that the All Blacks had lost their aura. The All Blacks had not lost at HQ since 2012 but many predicted the humiliation that would be visited upon them this time.
It was not just that South Africa assumed the mantle of the best team in the world some time ago – you only had to watch their stunning victory over France last week and the quality of the rugby to understand their dominance – but it was also that the All Blacks seemed to have lost some of their identity.
When you think of rugby beauty in the modern era, you think of Antoine Dupont and Siya Kolisi and you think of Cobus Reinach scoring that brilliant solo try at the Stade de France last weekend, spotting space near halfway, accelerating through a gap, chipping over Damian Penaud, and regathering to plunge over the try-line.
Where have you gone Jonah Lomu? Where have you gone Dan Carter, Richie McCaw and Ma'a Nonu? Where have you gone Sean Fitzpatrick? Where have you gone John Kirwan? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
In 2013, before a Test against England, a sign was pinned to the wall of the All Blacks team room which read: 'We are the most dominant team in the history of the world.' That boast is not theirs to make any more.
Now, other sides take them as their scalps. Ireland beat them for the first time in their history in Chicago in 2016. Argentina claimed their first victory over New Zealand in 2020 and have since repeated the feat in 2022, 2024 and 2025.
A nation turns its lonely eyes to its former stars in a time of struggle, having also suffered their biggest-ever defeat two months ago
It was a great joy to watch England, but there was sadness, too, in watching the All Blacks reduced to this
And it was only two months ago that New Zealand suffered their biggest defeat in their history when they were beaten 43-10 by South Africa in the Rugby Championship in Wellington.
'Responsibility to the jersey and our history is huge,' former All Black Jeff Wilson said recently. 'Record-breaking losses can't just be dismissed — they change things for ever.'
And so even if there was great joy in watching England win their 10th game in a row and demolish New Zealand on Saturday afternoon – they were 23-12 ahead even before Steve Borthwick brought on the Pom Squad 25 minutes from the end – there was sadness, too, in watching the All Blacks reduced to this.
It was like watching something dying. This felt like more than a defeat for the All Blacks. It felt like the death of an idea. It felt like the loss of a wonderful culture that has enthralled the world of sport. It felt like watching a magician's tricks exposed. It felt like people laughing at him.
The All Blacks have been called, at various times in their history, the Invincibles and the Incomparables. This lot are more like the Inconsolables.
New Zealand were outplayed in every aspect of the game. There was only poignancy in the close-quarters handling that has been one of the trademarks of their dominance deserting them completely. To see Beauden Barrett reduced to a shadow of himself… there were times when you just wanted to look away.
Their two tries in the first half carried echoes of their beauty, particularly when scrum half Cam Roigard speared a pass out wide off one leg as he was falling to the ground ahead of New Zealand's first score. A couple of line-breaks from Will Jordan set the pulse racing, too. Jordan's consolation try 15 minutes from the end brought his team back to within six points of England.
But they were rare shafts of light. Another shocking handling error from the All Blacks was gleefully exploited by the marauding Henry Pollock and Tom Roebuck went over to make the final score 33-19. England were dancing on a grave. The headstone said: All Blacks.
