All Blacks’ Biggest Loss: New Zealand’s Record Test Defeats

The All Blacks hold one of the best win rates in world sport, which is exactly why their rare heavy defeats stand out so sharply. New Zealand’s biggest loss by points margin is the 43–10 defeat to South Africa in Wellington on 13 September 2025 — a 33-point gap that broke a record set only two years earlier. This guide ranks the heaviest All Blacks Test defeats with verified scores and dates, explains the difference between a record margin and a famous one-point heartbreak, and looks at how New Zealand has responded each time.

The All Blacks’ heaviest defeat: 43–10 to South Africa (2025)

New Zealand’s record Test defeat is the 43–10 loss to South Africa in Wellington on 13 September 2025. The 33-point margin is comfortably the largest the All Blacks have ever conceded in a Test match. The game was a Rugby Championship fixture, and the result allowed the Springboks to reclaim the number one spot in the world rankings.

What made the scoreline so striking was how it developed. New Zealand actually led 10–0 after an early try, before South Africa responded with 36 unanswered points in a dominant, largely second-half onslaught. The defeat came a week after the All Blacks, coached by Scott Robertson, had beaten the same opponents 24–17 in Auckland — a reminder of how quickly fortunes can swing between two closely matched sides. For the longer story of this fixture, see our history of the All Blacks vs Springboks rivalry and the wider Rugby Championship.

The 35–7 at Twickenham: the previous record (2023)

Before Wellington, the heaviest All Blacks defeat was the 35–7 loss to South Africa at Twickenham in London on 25 August 2023 — a 28-point margin. The match was a World Cup warm-up fixture, played just weeks before the 2023 tournament, and it held the unwanted record for just over two years.

South Africa won through sustained forward power and the heavy use of their replacements, the so-called “Bomb Squad” of forward-dominated benches. New Zealand’s task was made far harder by ill-discipline: the side played more than half the match with 14 players or fewer after two yellow cards, an early injury and a second yellow for lock Scott Barrett that was upgraded to a red. The result prompted intense scrutiny of the team in the New Zealand media, but the All Blacks recovered to reach the final of the World Cup that followed.

Australia and the Bledisloe Cup: Perth 2019 and Sydney 1999

Two of New Zealand’s heaviest defeats came against Australia, both by 21 points and both long regarded as the benchmark before 2023. The more recent was the 47–26 loss in Perth on 10 August 2019, a Bledisloe Cup and Rugby Championship fixture that remains Australia’s biggest winning margin over the All Blacks. New Zealand again paid for indiscipline, with Scott Barrett red-carded just before half-time and Reece Hodge scoring twice for the Wallabies.

The 1999 Stadium Australia defeat

The earlier benchmark was the 28–7 loss at Stadium Australia in Sydney on 28 August 1999, watched by a crowd of around 107,000. Australia’s full-back Matt Burke kicked seven penalties, and a disciplined Wallaby pack starved New Zealand of possession and territory. For two decades this 21-point margin stood as New Zealand’s equal-heaviest defeat, matched only by Perth in 2019. The result sits within the long trans-Tasman history told in our guide to the Bledisloe Cup.

World Cup knockouts: the 2019 semi-final and 2023 final

Not every painful All Blacks loss is a record margin — the World Cup has produced two defeats that hurt far more than the scoreline suggests.

England 19–7, 2019 semi-final

At the 2019 Rugby World Cup, England beat New Zealand 19–7 in the semi-final at the International Stadium in Yokohama on 26 October 2019. England rattled the defending champions from the first minutes, with Manu Tuilagi scoring a try inside the opening two minutes and fly-half George Ford kicking the penalties after captain Owen Farrell’s goal-kicking role shifted through injury. England also made headlines before kick-off by forming a V-shape to face the haka. The defeat ended the World Cup reign of head coach Sir Steve Hansen, who stepped down after the tournament. The sequence of men who have led the side is covered in our list of All Blacks coaches.

South Africa 12–11, 2023 final

The 2023 Rugby World Cup final, played at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis on 28 October 2023, was lost by a single point, 12–11, to South Africa. New Zealand captain Sam Cane was sent off after about 28 minutes — the first player ever red-carded in a World Cup final — leaving the All Blacks a man down for most of the match. South Africa’s points came entirely from four penalties, while New Zealand managed a try and two penalties. It was South Africa’s record fourth world title. By margin it is only a one-point loss, but it ranks among the most agonising results in the team’s history; the role played by Cane is part of the wider story of the All Blacks captaincy.

Argentina’s historic upsets

Some of the most shocking All Blacks losses are not the biggest by margin but the most unexpected, and Argentina has produced two of them. On 14 November 2020, Los Pumas beat New Zealand for the first time ever, winning 25–15 at Bankwest Stadium in Sydney during the Tri Nations (the match was played there because of pandemic travel restrictions). Fly-half Nicolás Sánchez scored all 25 Argentine points. Before that night, Argentina’s best result against the All Blacks in more than three decades of trying had been a 21–21 draw in 1985.

Argentina then repeated the feat on home-and-away terms with a 25–18 win in Christchurch on 27 August 2022 — their first victory over New Zealand on New Zealand soil. Emiliano Boffelli contributed 20 points with the boot. Neither result is among the heaviest defeats by score, but both rank as genuine upsets in Test rugby.

Margin or moment: what counts as the “biggest” loss

The phrase “biggest loss” can mean two different things, and mixing them up is the most common mistake readers make. By points margin, the record is clear and current: the 43–10 defeat to South Africa in 2025 (33 points). By sense of occasion, the 12–11 loss in the 2023 World Cup final is the one many New Zealand fans find hardest, even though it was the narrowest possible defeat.

It is also worth separating one-off results from a trend. Heavy defeats remain rare across the full history of the side; a single bad night does not undo a win record that still tops most of world rugby. Readers interested in the other side of the ledger can compare these setbacks with the All Blacks’ biggest win.

Why defeats resonate so deeply in New Zealand

A heavy All Blacks loss carries unusual weight because of how closely the team is tied to national identity. The national side — known worldwide as the All Blacks (Wikipedia) — plays under the silver fern, a symbol that many New Zealanders treat as a shared possession rather than a mere sports brand. When the team loses badly, the head coach, captain and selectors face immediate and sustained media scrutiny, from talkback radio to national newspapers.

That intensity is often described by former players as a privilege rather than a burden. The pre-match haka — most often “Ka Mate” or the team’s own “Kapa o Pango” — is part of the same cultural fabric, a public statement of identity and challenge that endures regardless of the result on the scoreboard.

How the All Blacks respond and rebuild

New Zealand Rugby’s typical response to a heavy defeat is structured rather than emotional. Reviews of selection, tactics and set-piece play follow quickly, drawing on standard video analysis and performance data used across professional rugby. Historically, major losses have also coincided with leadership change: Sir Steve Hansen stepped aside after the 2019 World Cup, Ian Foster led the side to the 2023 final before Scott Robertson took over, and the 2025 record defeat renewed debate about the team’s direction.

The pattern that gives the team its reputation is the bounce-back. The All Blacks have repeatedly answered a comprehensive defeat with an emphatic performance in the following Test — including their recovery after the 2023 Twickenham loss to reach that year’s World Cup final. For most of the professional era, selection has also been reinforced by a long-standing eligibility rule: to be picked, players generally need to be contracted and playing within New Zealand’s domestic system, a policy designed to keep the core of the squad at home.

Vanliga frågor (FAQ)

What is the All Blacks’ biggest loss ever?

New Zealand’s heaviest Test defeat by points margin is the 43–10 loss to South Africa in Wellington on 13 September 2025, a 33-point margin in the Rugby Championship. It overtook the previous record, a 35–7 loss to the same opponents in 2023.

Was the 35–7 loss at Twickenham the record?

It was. The 35–7 defeat to South Africa at Twickenham on 25 August 2023 was the All Blacks’ heaviest ever Test loss from that date until September 2025, when the 43–10 result in Wellington surpassed it. The 28-point Twickenham margin is now the second largest.

When did Argentina first beat the All Blacks?

Argentina beat New Zealand for the first time on 14 November 2020, winning 25–15 in Sydney during the Tri Nations, with Nicolás Sánchez scoring all the points. The Pumas won again 25–18 in Christchurch on 27 August 2022, their first victory on New Zealand soil.

How did the All Blacks lose the 2023 World Cup final?

New Zealand lost the 2023 Rugby World Cup final 12–11 to South Africa at the Stade de France. Captain Sam Cane was red-carded after about 28 minutes — the first dismissal in a World Cup final — and the All Blacks played most of the match with 14 men, losing by a single point.

Who was coach during the All Blacks’ record defeat?

Scott Robertson was the All Blacks head coach for the 43–10 record defeat to South Africa in September 2025. By contrast, Sir Steve Hansen was in charge for the 2019 World Cup semi-final loss and Ian Foster for the 35–7 Twickenham loss and the 2023 final.