Richie McCaw, Graham Henry and All Blacks Honoured at Halberg Awards

The All Blacks were crowned supreme champions for the first time since 1987 at last night's Halberg Awards, claiming the top award in New Zealand sport after their World Cup-winning efforts in 2011.

Other contestants for the award were Sportsman of the Year, Richie McCaw, Sportswoman of the Year, Valerie Adams and Disabled Athlete of the Year, Sophie Pascoe.

But really, it was a one-horse race for the award as the rugby-mad nation honoured its first World Cup-winning team in 24 years, and there were no surprises when the All Blacks were named winners.

The All Blacks' dominance didn't stop here, with captain Richie McCaw picking up Sportsman of the Year and coach Sir Graham Henry being awarded Coach of the Year.

McCaw edged out fellow All Black Jerome Kaino, rower Mahe Drysdale and jockey Mark Todd for the award. Realistically it was going to be between Richie McCaw and Jerome Kaino, both of whom could consider themselves unlucky had they not walked away with the spoils.

Kaino was undoubtedly the star of the rugby world in 2011, consistently delivering top performances and imposing himself physically on every game he played. This was perhaps best seen in the one test he didn't play, where the All Blacks struggled to gain dominance at the breakdown against the Wallabies and consequently went on to lose the game.

He was a game-changer in every sense in the word, as shown at the New Zealand Rugby Awards where he claimed the Kel Tremain Trophy for New Zealand Player of the Year.

Then on the other hand there was McCaw, the best player in the world for the best part of the last decade and inspirational leader of the All Blacks since 2006.

He led the team in 2007, when the team failed to win the World Cup despite being heavily favoured for the title. They seemed ready to do that until literally the last 20 minutes of the game that would see them exit. While for most All Black captains this would mark the end of their time in the job, McCaw soldiered on and faced up once again four years later.

McCaw played most of 2011 with a foot injury that would have crippled most men—but not McCaw. He went on to play a key role in the All Blacks' win, proving to be arguably the top player in the final two games of the tournament.

Add to this all the off-field issues McCaw had to deal with and the enormous amount of pressure on his shoulders, and it's hard to deny him his second consecutive Sportsman of the Year award.

Likewise, it's hard to deny Graham Henry the Coach of the Year award. After his failures in 2007 he suffered a great deal of criticism, particularly upon being reappointed ahead of Robbie Deans for the next four years. 

As it turned out, the move was a master stroke, and other than the team's injury-riddled year in 2009, he amassed an impressive record that ranks right up there with the great All Black teams, capped off with a World Cup win in 2011.

While McCaw and the team would have been feeling enormous pressure to deliver the goods, the pressure on Henry was even more pronounced, and the risks he took on the way to masterminding the All Blacks' win makes him a deserving recipient of the award.

But it could only be the Team of the Year, the All Blacks, that won the Supreme Award.

Rugby is a team sport after all, and it was as a team that the All Blacks would win their final two World Cup games against Australia and France. 

With that chapter of All Blacks folklore officially closed, we now must ask: What do the next four years have in store? 

Only time will tell.