Cyprus players celebrate a victory over Austria in the European Nations Cup. It was their 21st in a row and they have won two more since.

When the All Blacks take the field against the Wallabies on Saturday, they’ll know they stand 80 minutes away from a landmark 18 successive wins.

If they come out on top, they’ll leapfrog the All Blacks of the late 1960s and the 1997-98 Springboks to further their reputation as one of the greatest teams in rugby history.

It’s an impressive feat, and would be a record for a tier one nation, but it won’t strictly be a world record.

Herald on Sunday

For all the talk of an unprecedented winning streak, one country has gone beyond 18. And it’s a streak that’s still going.

Despite the All Blacks’ undoubted supremacy, they’ll still have another five wins to go before they match the 23-game winning record of Cyprus.

Unlikely as it may seem, it’s the mighty Moufflons and not the All Blacks at the top of this particular leaderboard.

Cyprus is an unexpected place for a rugby team, let alone a record-breaking one. The football-mad Mediterranean island didn’t even have an international rugby team until 2006.

Their most successful coach was a member of the Royal Air Force who became involved after talking to someone in a pub. When the team travel abroad, they can’t afford to take a physiotherapist. And, according to reports, they played their first game in poorly-fitting shirts bought in, again, a pub.

Yet they keep winning. Aside from a 23-14 loss to Israel in 2008 – their only defeat so far – they’ve racked up an impressive record.

In their most recent match in May, they beat Hungary 46-13. In 2012, they thrashed Finland 52-5, Greece 72-5 and Bulgaria 94-3.

Admittedly, games are against lowly sides – Hungary are the highest ranked side they have played at 68 in the International Rugby Board world rankings, down to Greece, who are 102nd and last – but they keep winning.

Rugby has long been played on the once war-torn island, although mostly by UN peacekeepers and British troops stationed there. It was only when expats returned from England and, especially, South Africa around 10 years ago that the sport really grabbed a foothold. Still, their player base is around only 100. It’s football that rules the day.

“Football is king,” says Paul Shanks, director of rugby and former head coach. “Lots of money goes into football but, with our success, we’re slowly getting recognition. I’m not saying there’s been a massive swing in terms of the money but, in terms of support, we have locals coming along to games and watching now.”

“For the first two or three years, the sports federation here ignored us,” Cyprus Rugby Federation media officer Alexander McCowan says. “Although we were registered and affiliated, they didn’t even put us in their directory. It took us three years to even use the international stadium because they would rather let it go out to a second division football club than let us use it.”

“In the early days, we used to pay astronomical sums to scabby, little private playing-field owners to play international rugby.”

Resistance has eased within Cyprus’ sporting community with each successive win but it’s been a different story internationally. Despite initial encouragement, the IRB eventually prevented Cyprus from the chance to qualify for next year’s World Cup.

Unlike several of the opponents they’ve beaten so comprehensively, Cyprus are not a full IRB member nation. The IRB could have relaxed the rules like they did for the United Arab Emirates, but didn’t. It’s a decision that still rankles.

“It annoyed me at the time, but rules are rules,” Shanks says. “I’m not under the illusion that we would have gone on to the finals or anything but it just would have been nice to get recognition for what we’d achieved.”

“I guess the question for me now is, ‘what did the IRB lose by not allowing us to do it, or what would they have lost?’ Not an awful lot, to be honest.”

Nobody, not even the team’s coaches and support staff, is calling the Moufflons world-beaters. A minor sport in a small country, Cyprus rugby has a long way to go before mixing it with some of the bigger nations in the area such as Georgia, Romania, Russia and Spain, let alone the world stage. But there’s a feeling within Cyprus rugby that they deserve more recognition.

“I’m a massive fan of the All Blacks,” Shanks says. “I think they are the greatest team in the world and, if they keep on going the way they are, they’ll probably break the record of 23. But it is us who have 23 wins in recognised international matches.”