Takapuna Beach will become a second home to Sebastien Chabal and his French teammates, who will spend 21 days on the North Shore.

Gisborne, Ashburton, Masterton and Wanganui will all host teams as the World Cup gospel is spread throughout the country.

Richie McCaw became the first person to be named the Kelvin R Tremain Memorial player of the year for a third time at New Zealand's premier rugby awards tonight.

New Zealand's oldest living All Black turns 99 on Friday and the New Zealand rugby community will join in the celebrations.

Tis the season to be jolly, and it's been a jolly good year for the All Blacks and our rugby union.

Herald on Sunday rugby writer Gregor Paul selects his World XV with only three All Blacks.

Rookie All Black Zac Guildford gets some good news after finishing the season on a low note against the Barbarians yesterday.

Coach Graham Henry admits to concerns about the gap between the All Blacks' top-15 and the rest.

The All Blacks finished their end of year tour this morning. Gregor Paul gives his verdicts on who stood out, who has more work to do and what the All Blacks have learned in the last five weeks.

Some Bryan Habana magic helped the Barbarians stun the All Blacks and rob them of an unbeaten six-match rugby tour today.

Grassroots rugby stalwarts will not get priority access for tickets to the World Cup final, but they will get to jump the queue at other games.

This was a strange old All Black season, not least for the fact that they lost more tests than in any other year.