The great tours compared: from the Originals and the Invincibles to four Grand Slams, South Africa and the Lions

For most of the 20th century an All Blacks tour was an expedition: months at sea, then 30 or more matches against counties, clubs, universities and the four home nations. Dave Gallaher's Originals played 35 matches in 1905-06. Since 2002 a northern tour has meant four or five Tests and nothing else. Comparing the great touring sides across that change is the last piece in our series of eras compared, after captains, coaches, nations, try-scorers, points, caps and the lost caps.

How tours changed

The 1997 tour was the last with a full midweek programme. From 2002 the tours were Tests only, apart from occasional matches against the Barbarians, Munster in 2008 and a France XV in Lyon in 2017. South African tours stopped altogether after 1996, when the Tri-Nations replaced them, and returned this year. The Lions' visits shrank the same way, from 35 matches in 1966 to ten in 2017.

A Grand Slam tour means beating England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales on the same tour. The All Blacks have done it four times: 1978, 2005, 2008 and 2010.

The great full tours, 1905 to 1997

We compare the tours that had a real programme of at least nine matches. Two numbers matter: the share of matches won (a draw counts as half), and a dominance score, the average winning margin per match expressed as a share of the total points in a typical Test of that decade, so that a 20-point margin in the low-scoring 1950s counts for more than the same margin today.

Ranked on win rate plus dominance:

The Invincibles and the Originals

The 1924-25 Invincibles won all 32 matches in Britain, Ireland and France, 838 points to 116, and all four Tests. They are the only All Blacks side to go through a full northern tour without dropping a game. Captain Cliff Porter was injured for much of the tour and played only the France Test; vice-captain Jock Richardson led them against Ireland, Wales and England. Bert Cooke scored 28 tries, Mark Nicholls 131 points, and a teenage George Nepia played every match at fullback. In the England Test at Twickenham, Cyril Brownlie became the first player sent off in a Test. Yet the Invincibles have no Grand Slam, because Scotland refused to play them.

The 1905-06 Originals were, on our measure, even more dominant: 976 points to 59 across 35 matches, a margin no other tour approaches. Billy Wallace scored 246 points and Jimmy Hunter 43 tries; Duncan McGregor scored four tries against England. Their one defeat, 3-0 to Wales at Cardiff Arms Park, turned on Bob Deans' disallowed try, still argued over 120 years later.

The others at the top

• 1989: Buck Shelford's side won all 14 matches, including Wales 34-9 and Ireland 23-6 and wins over all four Irish provinces and the Barbarians.
• 1967: Brian Lochore's team, arranged in a hurry after the tour to South Africa was cancelled because Māori players would not be accepted, went unbeaten in 17 matches and won all four Tests. Ireland was called off because of foot-and-mouth disease, and the team burned their kit before leaving London. Colin Meads was sent off at Murrayfield.
• 1963-64: Wilson Whineray's side won 34 of 36. Only a 0-0 draw with Scotland stood between them and a Grand Slam, and their only defeat was 3-0 to Newport.
• 1978: Graham Mourie's team won the first Grand Slam, by the narrowest of margins: Andy Dalton's late try against Ireland, Brian McKechnie's late penalty to beat Wales 13-12 after the famous Haden line-out, and a charged-down drop goal against Scotland. Their only defeat was 12-0 to Munster at Thomond Park, the first All Blacks loss in Ireland.

The 1972-73 side ranks lowest of the full tours. A 10-10 draw with Ireland denied them a Grand Slam, prop Keith Murdoch was sent home after the Wales Test, and the Barbarians beat them 23-11 in Cardiff, the game remembered for Gareth Edwards' try.

The Tests-only era

Since 2002 a tour is four or five Tests. 2005, 2008 and 2010 were Grand Slams under Graham Henry, and 2005 followed a 3-0 home series win over the Lions. Steve Hansen's 2013 side won all four Tests on the way to 14 wins from 14 in the year, and 2014 and 2017 were also unbeaten. 2025 was a near miss of a kind: Ireland were beaten in Chicago and Scotland and Wales on their own grounds, but England won 33-19 at Twickenham.

The 2026 tour is under way: Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday morning New Zealand time, Wales and England to follow, then the Nations Championship finals at Twickenham. There is no Ireland Test, so there will be no Grand Slam.

South Africa: the hardest tour

Five full tours to South Africa between 1928 and 1976 failed to win a series. Māori players were excluded in 1928, 1949 and 1960, and in 1970 and 1976 they toured as "honorary whites". The 1949 side lost all four Tests, and captain Fred Allen later named the absence of Johnny Smith and Vince Bevan as a main reason. The 1970 side was unbeaten outside the Tests and still lost the series 3-1. In 2010 the New Zealand and South African unions and the South African government apologised for the exclusions.

1996 was the breakthrough. John Hart's "Incomparables", captained by Sean Fitzpatrick, won in Durban and Pretoria to take the series, the first All Blacks side to do so; Fitzpatrick rated it above the 1987 World Cup.

The 2026 tour brought touring back: the All Blacks won all four provincial matches, including 54-0 over the Sharks, and the first Test at Ellis Park, then lost the next three, in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Baltimore, the first meeting of the two sides in the United States.

The Lions in New Zealand

The figures are the Lions' own across the whole tour, which included matches in Australia and elsewhere on most visits; the Test column shows the All Blacks' record in the Tests.

1971 is the Lions' only series win in New Zealand, secured by J.P.R. Williams' only Test drop goal in the 14-14 draw in Auckland, and the series in which Colin Meads captained the All Blacks for the only time. 1966 and 1983 were 4-0 whitewashes the other way. 2005, under Sir Clive Woodward, began with captain Brian O'Driscoll injured in the second minute of the first Test and ended 3-0, with Dan Carter scoring 33 points in Wellington. 2017 was drawn: the Lions won in Wellington after Sonny Bill Williams was sent off, and the third Test finished 15-15 after a late penalty was reversed.

What the comparison shows

On any measure, the two greatest touring sides the All Blacks have sent abroad are the oldest: the Originals of 1905-06 and the Invincibles of 1924-25. Their records were set against club and county sides of varying strength as well as Test teams, which flatters them a little; but they were also months from home, playing twice a week, with no replacements. Of the modern tours, the Grand Slams of 1978, 2005, 2008 and 2010 and the unbeaten sides of 1989 and 1967 stand out.

And the hardest destination in rugby remained South Africa, where the All Blacks needed 68 years to win a series.

Sources: Wikipedia pages for each tour and its match table, and the List of All Blacks tours and series; New Zealand Rugby, All Blacks statistics (Test results, cross-checked for every tour Test); RUGBE analysis. Where tour pages disagree on match counts (1928, 1949, 1960, 1908 Lions), we use the match tables.