New Zealand destroyed all that was put in front of them in the Rugby Championship this year. Six games, six wins, six bonus points. They scored an average of over 43 points per match.
In the final Bledisloe Cup game, played two weeks after the end of the Rugby Championship, the All Blacks beat Australia for the third time in two months.
Wales coach Warren Gatland, himself a Kiwi, was at that Eden Park game on a scouting mission for his role as Lions head coach on their tour of New Zealand next summer.
Gatland told the Telegraph that he felt embarrassment during the game resulting from what he saw as a lack of humility by some from his native country.
Jeez...the English press gets some stick but that is quite a front page of the NZ Herald sport section! #rugby pic.twitter.com/tsAfzwEjW9
— Tim Groves (@TimGrovesTV) October 22, 2016
That deficit of humility included the New Zealand Herald. On the morning of that game against Australia, they published a sports section front page which depicted Australia coach Michael Cheika as a clown.
I was at Eden Park watching the game a couple of weeks ago and, as a Kiwi, I was embarrassed.
There was still a large portion of the crowd booing Quade Cooper. Get over it. Then there was the clown stuff in the Herald.
One of the things I was proud of as a Kiwi was showing humility. The All Blacks try to do that but there's a proportion of New Zealanders that have a little bit of arrogance and not humility. As a Kiwi I was sitting in the stands watching the game and I was a little bit embarrassed.
I don’t think the All Blacks are doing that. Obviously there’s history between Hansen and Cheika that’s come out on a few occasions but the squad and team have tried to play things down.
