Losers lose. By my count that’s 14 defeats for the All Blacks since 2020, under Ian Foster and now Scott Robertson. Chuck in a couple of draws and this is undoubtedly a period of sustained mediocrity.

Among the other things losers do is blame referees and Television Match Officials. They complain about how the haka is received as well.

A sure fire way to discern if you’ve succumbed to a losing culture, is the celebration of periods of promising play.

God save me from the next person who tells me how well the All Blacks played for 65 minutes at Ellis Park.

Never mind that the All Blacks actually lost 31-27 to South Africa, on Sunday morning.

I’ve seen this movie before.

I grew up watching Wellington and then the Hurricanes.

Sure, they regularly rose to the small occasions, dispatching average opposition with consummate ease.

Only it was often a decade or more between NPC titles and almost 40 years spent watching other unions defend the Ranfurly Shield.

The Hurricanes could be absolutely sublime, when it suited, but battled to contend for Super Rugby playoffs let alone championships.

All the while we enthused about the brilliant stuff and opined that, if the team could just string that together for 80 minutes, they’d blow everyone off the park.

None of us were remotely objective. We all saw more in the players than was actually there and no-one was prepared to really stand up and say the performances weren’t good enough.

In those moments when we did get a bit fed up with either Wellington or the Hurricanes, we decided it was simply coaching that was holding these wonderful players back.

And so we got what we got, for year after year, season after season. Revelling in the good, but never addressing the bad. Our faith was blind, after all.

That’s why I don’t see a quick fix for these All Blacks.

We have our new coach and yet the outcomes and deficiencies are largely the same.

Are we actually going to do or say anything about those? Or will we simply focus on the 60 minutes that suit our delusion and cross our fingers the team can punch out a full 80 this weekend?

I’d couch things differently if this was a team of rookies. I’d cut them slack, accentuate the positives and potentially paint a positive picture of the future.

Unfortunately this is not an inexperienced All Blacks squad, most of whom are now well-versed in defeat.That’s why I largely dismissed their recent win over Argentina at Eden Park.

The flaws exposed the previous week in Wellington were plain for all to see again at Ellis Park.

This remains a team unable to manage or close out a game. To get out of its own half, to make good decisions and to execute when the result is on the line.

It’s no-one’s fault but their own that they surrendered at 27-17 lead in Johannesburg, because this is the established pattern.

I don’t care who the ref or TMO were or what they did or didn’t do. I’m not bothered by what South Africa does with their bench or whether a plane flew over the ground or not. I’m old enough to remember the “flour bomb Test’’ at Eden Park in 1981, after all.

A jet potentially disrupting a haka is small beer compared to the projectiles dropped on the All Blacks and Springboks back when I was a boy.

But I digress.

Organisations – be they governments, local councils or teams – rarely change of their own accord.

They all believe they have the right ideas, people and culture to succeed. They all believe its ignorance, jealousy or the tall poppy syndrome that motivates their critics.

I’ve spent most of my life loving the All Blacks, just as I have Wellington and the Hurricanes. It’s because I care that I get angry.

As a sports writer, there is no easier ride in the world than covering a winning team.

But this All Blacks team is a losing one. Worse, it’s a team that appears unwilling or unable to learn from its increasing number of defeats.

You’re welcome to keep making excuses for them, if you want. To blame external factors for what happened at Ellis Park, to celebrate the good 60 minutes and overlook the bad.

I just don’t think it’ll get us anywhere.

Until enough people demand change, these All Blacks will keep serving up the same ultimately ineffective stuff.