All Blacks: Stadium is not the happiest hunting ground

Brad Thorn celebrates Kieran Read's late winning try in Sydney in 2010. Photo / Getty Images

At which stadium do the All Blacks have the worst record? Most would nominate French or African grounds - but last night's venue in Australia is right up there, writes Gregor Paul.

The beginning was ominous, a portent of what was to come. The Olympic Stadium - as it will forever be known in Kiwi minds despite numerous name changes - has been a relatively unhappy hunting ground for the All Blacks since they first played there in 1999.

Their first outing was a disaster: more than 103,000 people crammed into see the Wallabies enjoy a record 28-7 victory and, with the World Cup around the corner, further agony awaited the All Blacks.

The next visit to Sydney in 2000 produced what many consider the greatest test ever played - the topsy-turvy 39-35 last-minute win for New Zealand in a game so pulsating even Australians accepted their role as loser, so proud were they to have been involved in something so special.

The other interesting statistic that came out of that game is that 2000 is the only immediate post-World Cup year when the All Blacks have won in Sydney.

In 2004, they lamely fell out of contention when they didn't have any ball carriers to take the fight to Australia. In 2008, with an injured Richie McCaw, they disintegrated in the second half after running themselves into the ground in the first.

It was the first game of the Graham Henry versus Robbie Deans battle and it was most definitely a home victory. The All Blacks were a rabble by the end - confused by the experimental laws of the time, they were out-played, out-fought and out-coached.

It brought back memories of 2003, when the All Blacks arrived in Sydney ahead of their World Cup semifinal full of confidence they were going to progress. They had, after all, hammered Australia only four months earlier at the same ground - scoring 50 points at a canter. But when they returned later in the year, when it really mattered, it was Australia who progressed to the final.

Sydney was a lonely, horrid place for New Zealanders that night in 2003 as it was in 2008. That, however, was the last time they have lost in Sydney. In 2009, they scraped through thanks to a Dan Carter penalty with three minutes to go and it was a Kieran Read try late in the piece that saved the day in 2010.

Before last night's game, the All Blacks had played 12 times at the former Olympic Stadium and won six. A 50-50 record is about as poor a record as they have anywhere in the world. They haven't lost at Twickenham for more than 10 years; haven't lost in Paris for the same length of time and have never lost in Dublin or Edinburgh.

Even their African record has been better than it has been in Sydney.

The All Blacks have won six times in nine tests against the Springboks in Cape Town and have beaten the Boks four out of five times at Loftus Versfeld.