Aiming for what would be just a fifth northern hemisphere clean sweep in their storied history, the New Zealand side have embarked on their tour at an interesting juncture.
Matches against the Irish team, the Scottish side, England and the Welsh team await Scott Robertson's side across the coming month but, beyond the chance to equal the teams of previous successful tours in the history books, the matches will be used as a measure to assess the improvement of the side under a head coach now 24 months into from taking up the reins.
Questions over a absence of an distinctive approach, enduring debates over player choices and leavings from the management team have all fueled the sense that the most famous squad in the game is currently one in a period of transition.
Most importantly, it is the decline in outcomes from a previous peak set between the World Cups of 2011 and 2019 that has prompted some to suggest that we have transitioned away of the era of Kiwi superiority.
Before their travel for the fall series, it was confirmed that in the coming year, in the absence of the Rugby Championship, the All Blacks will face the Springboks in a summer series called 'an unprecedented series'.
Traditionally the game's two strongest sides, there is little doubt over who has recently got the better of what promoters have labeled 'The Ultimate Contest'.
In recent seasons, the South African team have secured a couple of global tournaments, three southern hemisphere titles and a tour against the home nations team to be regarded as the side of their generation.
New Zealand have maintained to defeat Ireland when it counts most, overcoming Saturday's opponents in the tournament knockout stages of the past two tournaments. They have, meanwhile, lost just a couple of the last fixtures with England, have beaten Wales in each game since 1963 and have always been victorious by the Scottish team.
But the diminishment of their standing as the game's gold standard will persist as an irritation.
While the New Zealand team dominated through the 2010s - securing eighty-seven percent of their fixtures, as well as winning the Webb Ellis on two occasions - the global tournament of 2019 can now be seen as when the hierarchical structure shifted in the international rugby.
New Zealand defeated South Africa in their initial fixture of the championship in Japan, but it was the South Africans who were eventually successful in Yokohama.
After that event, the All Blacks' winning percentage has dropped to 71%. The Springboks themselves lost ten of their subsequent fixtures but, from the beginning of 2023, have achieved victory at a percentage (83%) to rival even the previous All Blacks side.
During the same period, the South African team have secured victory in the majority of the past fixtures between the sides, including victory in the recent championship match.
While securing their latest continental championship, Rassie Erasmus' side administered a significant beating on the All Blacks courtesy of 36 unanswered second-half points in Wellington, a result which has ignited another round of debate concerning the direction of the squad under their leader.
Maybe most jarring for followers of the New Zealand team will be that, alongside their characteristic physicality, South Africa's success has come with an attacking verve more commonly connected with their traditional rivals.
When the All Blacks were at the peak of their powers a decade past, they were a clinical transition team capable of shredding rivals from any part of the field and at any point of the contest.
Today, their playing philosophy is unclear as Robertson, who has handed out multiple new players during his 24 months in charge, tries to primarily create the more prosaic building blocks of a winning team.
It has recently revealed that the supporting manager overseeing attack, their offensive coordinator, will leave his role after the upcoming matches, making him the next individual of Robertson's ticket to exit after another coach walked away last year after just limited matches.
It was not merely previous achievements, but his style, that was predicted to carry over from his former team when he took over after the global competition but, so far, both are still a work in progress.
When financial organization the company acquired shares in All Blacks in recent years, the following communication spoke of the "pursuit of international expansion" for the organization.
That objective has perhaps been more challenging by the absence of a global icon. Ardie Savea and the collection of Barrett brothers continue to be well-known figures in the game, but the concentration of stars has never been spread wider. Their leader is the single New Zealand player to win international honors in the recent years, in comparison to 10 in multiple seasons between previous generations.
Rather, efforts have been implemented to introduce the All Blacks into emerging regions.
The opening phase of this European campaign brings New Zealand not to the Irish capital but the American city, a return to the stadium where Ireland obtained a landmark success in the match nine years ago.
After the easing of pandemic limitations, the New Zealand team have additionally
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