Why Is New Zealand So Good At Rugby?

For a country with a population of approximately 5. 5 million, New Zealand is incredibly productive when it comes to creating rugby stars. Since 2003, New Zealand has led the World Rugby rankings for almost 14 years, nearly 10 of which were consecutive (between November 2009 and September 2019).

How is it possible, and why is New Zealand so good at rugby? We’ve collaborated with a Hamilton native Edward Howarth of DashTickets to learn more about the reasons behind New Zealand’s success and rugby’s cultural significance for the nation.

Tradition

If we want to properly explain New Zealand’s rugby phenomenon, we need to first establish its status. As the country’s official website puts it, rugby is the national obsession of New Zealand.

This statement may seem a bit too expressive at first, but when you consider how impactful rugby is, it makes perfect sense, experts from Kasinobonus. io suggest. Rugby in New Zealand is a giant industry that employs thousands of people and plays a huge part in the country’s tourism strategy.

However, rugby is not just a very popular sport — it is tied deeply to the country’s history, communities, and traditions. As Jamie Wall explained for Rugby World, rugby clubs are often seen as the hearts of communities, where people meet to chat or celebrate special occasions.

New Zealand’s national rugby team coach Steve Hansen once said for the New York Times that rugby was one of the first opportunities for a colonized country to express itself and show that it could be successful by beating the British Empire, its colonizer.

“If you go back far enough, this team was the first to give New Zealanders the confidence that, hey, we can compete against the big wide world, and that’s why I think there’s a connection with every New Zealander and the team,” he said.

The early success New Zealand has found in rugby has led to increased popularity, which, in turn, has led to greater demand and higher expectations for success, says Edward Howarth of DashTickets.

“It is a bit of a snowball effect, which you can see especially clearly with the incredible win streak All Blacks had from 2009 up to 2019. Every new win further popularized the team, further establishing rugby’s role in our culture, and inspiring more and more young people to play it professionally,” says Howarth.

Training and motivation

In New Zealand, children start playing Rippa Rugby — a smaller, non-contact version of the game — as early as primary school, using dedicated grass playing fields. From this moment onwards, they will encounter rugby training for the rest of their education, and the core strategy of the game will stick with them by the time they decide to go pro. New Zealand Rugby, or NZR, is an institution specifically established to support players at every step of their career, ensuring the best coaching, facilities, and resources.

Not only is the country’s training system focused on rugby, but children often play it with their friends as well. The country’s climate and housing structure provides them with perfect weather conditions as well as vast backyards where they can train their skills and imitate their favorite All Blacks players.

As experts from Kasinobonus. io put it, while the overall population of New Zealand might be smaller than in some other countries, the percentage of people involved in rugby since their early days at least in some way is incredibly high — and that results in a huge number of professional athletes who have to uphold incredibly high standards.

The motivation is there too — for a young New Zealander, rugby is one of the most straightforward roads to international success, as well as a chance to earn fame and respect among fellow compatriots. This leads to an incredibly high competition, which enables coaches to pick the best of the best athletes for the team.

The result

Currently, New Zealand’s national team is one of the most recognized in the world, although South Africa surpasses it by one World Cup championship due to their victory in 2023. As of January 2025, New Zealand keeps a third place in the World Rugby rankings with 90,36 points and holds the world record of 96,57 points achieved in 2016.

Source: Channels TV