All Blacks: Frequent peaks between World Cups

All Blacks coach Graham Henry. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The All Blacks have won 999 games in their celebrated history and on Graham Henry's watch have extended the team's test winning record to 85.71 per cent.

It is an extraordinary record, one they want to extend with victory in their first visit to Soweto where they will play at the vast National Stadium next Sunday.

Victory would confirm the All Blacks as Tri-Nations champions for the 10th time and continue their remarkable unbeaten sequence this season.

All those statistics underline their record as the most successful international rugby team in history with their only weakness occurring every four years since their first World Cup triumph in 1987.

Is there a pattern to those failures? And if there is one, does it matter?

Probably not to Henry, whose gaze next year will be all on placing an exclamation mark on the end of an extensive international coaching career.

But, out of politeness, Henry pulled the bar graph towards him and studied it with that earnest look he used to give his school classes. His response was not immediate or apparent.

Did he think there was any correlation between what happened the year before the World Cup and the tournament?

"This rugby team, and the people involved in this rugby team, want to play well," he said. "We spend a huge amount of time trying to achieve that.

"That's the job we are appointed to do and that's the job the players are meant to achieve. It is about winning and playing rugby we are proud of and how do you change that? Why would you want to change that?"

The All Blacks were always trying to improve and it had been well documented that there had been some real pluses this season.

"This chart is something for the punters to ponder, to make of it what they will. We play 14 tests this year, which is double what they did 20 years ago, and we do not have any 'soft' internationals."

In every World Cup year except 2007, the All Blacks improved their winning percentage from the year before. But they collected the silverware just once.

It did not matter whether the All Blacks were running at a 92.5 per cent success rate as they were in 2006 or a miserable 28.6 per cent as they were in 1998, the World Cup eluded them the following season.

This year they have won all seven tests with another seven to go, all offshore.

Tomorrow week they will walk on to the National Stadium in Soweto. The arena was upgraded in 2007 with a capacity of 94,700 and if that is achieved, it will be the largest crowd to attend a rugby match in South Africa since 95,000 watched the first Lions test of 1955 at Ellis Park.

Soweto has a population of about five million and is home to South Africa's most famous football clubs, the Kaiser Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.

This clash will be the 81st test between the All Blacks and Springboks.