Long dark cloud lifts as All Blacks close the door on 24 years of pain

The 24-year All Black gloom has lifted.

Finally light, peace and relief for a long-suffering New Zealand. A country that has hemorrhaging badly through the devastation of the Christchurch earthquake and Pike River mining disaster can find relief in the fact that they are again officially the world's best in what they do best - playing, living and breathing rugby.

After all, it is their game. A rejuvenating game, but still a cruel game. It is an all-encompassing passion that has given them so much anguish - long stretches of nationwide depression in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007, but not in 2011 when it was again became New Zealand's glorious game. The New Zealand rugby heart is once more in union.   More Read