The Dominion Post this morning describes the All Blacks as being "On the brink of greatness".
Well, maybe.
According to the paper "Wallabies coach Robbie Deans wondered out loud yesterday if his side had met 'one of the great' All Black sides. There is growing evidence to support such a view and if McCaw's side can seal the Tri-Nations in front of 94,000 South Africans at Soccer City in a fortnight, it will be indisputable."
Oh dear. This purple prose has been prompted by the results in the first half of a competition which , let us remember, does not involve England, France and Argentina, all of whom out-performed New Zealand in the 2007 World Cup.
Surely the term "greatest" needs to be reserved for the greatest, not just the team du jour - which, admittedly, is the All Blacks, more often than not.
I don't even accept that the team which wins the Rugby World Cup deserves to be called "the greatest". After all, look at the performance of England, following its win in 2003. And look at South Africa, since its win in 2007. Both teams may have been "the greatest" for the three matches over two weeks during which they won their respective victories, but neither was "the greatest" for much longer after the competition was over.
So what does "the greatest" mean, when it comes to rugby?
Does it mean anything at all?
There is a reliable measure of quality among the international teams, which is this: the best rugby team at any time is the one which can consistently beat its major opponents in their own country. So when the All Blacks beat the Springboks for the first time in a series in South Africa - I think this was in 1996 - that was the feat of a team which was plainly the best in the world at the time.
But that still doesn't make that All Blacks team - or any team which achieves similar success - "the greatest". If any team is going to earn that title, I would suggest a quite different standard. It is this:
No team has yet won back-to-back World Cups. For the record, the winners so far have been:
1987 - New Zealand
1991 - Australia
1995 - South Africa
1999 - Australia
2003 - England
2007 - South Africa
The first team to win consecutive cups will probably deserve to be called "the greatest". Naturally, I'm hoping that the first team to achieve this will be the All Blacks, but first they will have to win in 2011. The auguries are very good, but they have been good before. So far, in Rugby World Cups since 1987, the All Blacks have invariably punched below their weight.
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