Book excerpt: A complete history of rugby’s most famous yet enigmatic team, the New Zealand All Blacks, told by the men who have worn the iconic black jersey. Go behind the scenes with the world’s most successful sports team. From the legendary 1905 “Originals” all the way through to Richie McCaw’s record-breaking back-to-back World Cup champions of 2015, this is a history of the All Blacks like you have never experienced it before. Thanks to exhaustive archival research and exclusive new material garnered from a vast array of interviews with players and coaches from across the decades, Behind the Silver Fern unveils the compelling truth of what it means to play for the team that has dominated Test match rugby for over a century—all the trials and tribulations behind the scenes, the glory, the drama and the honor on the field, and the passionate friendships and bonds of a brotherhood off it. Absorbing and illuminating, this is the ultimate history of New Zealand rugby—told, definitively, by the men who have been there and done it. “A treat for anybody who enjoys a little inside track into the great and controversial moments. There is little as revealing in sport as thoughts delivered straight from the horse’s mouth.” —The Rugby Paper