The temptation, in a year which has seen the All Blacks battle for wins and form — and stack up a few unwanted firsts — is to dwell on how close they came to racking up another unwanted first by losing to Scotland in Edinburgh thismorning.
But to do so would be too dismissive of the Scots, who produced a top-drawer effort that was smartly considered and well-executed, and it would also underplay the qualities the All Blacks showed to stay in the fight and find a way to get the job done.
Sometimes there’s no point dwelling on the fine detail, worrying about the All Blacks lack of attacking shape, the way Scotland shortened them up all too easily and New Zealand’s inability to get and keep the ball.
Rugby, especially when the All Blacks come North and encounter a passionate home side playing at a higher-than-normal intensity, is just about getting the win.
It’s not easy to make it pretty, or to play with the sort of polish everyone wants and the best way to define a performance is simply by the result.
What mattered in Edinburgh is that the All Blacks found a way to claw their back from being 23-14 down midway through the second half, to slowly and steadily subdue a Scotland side that was starting to sniff history.
Mark Telea celebrates scoring his second try. Photo /Getty
Having been pulled in all sorts of directions for the first 60 minutes, unable to do much about Scotland’s purring lineout and ability to keep making space for themselves, the All Blacks finally came good in the last 20.
They treasured possession more, made better tackles and smarter decisions, and eased the pressure on themselves.
It was a return to direct rugby, confrontational through the forwards, and the smash-and-bash approach once again came good in the final stages — and it would be churlish not to recognise the character, control and composure that it took for the All Blacks to wrestle the momentum back and score two tries in the final 12 minutes.
Why they were under so much pressure for the first 60 minutes is something they will have to examine in the days to come. The primary reason was that once again they lacked discipline at the tackled ball and scrum engagement, handing Scotland easy get-outs from tough places on the field.
It’s been an area of frustration all year for the All Blacks — somehow they seem unable to read referees or to find their timing and cohesion at the breakdown the way they should.
Against Wales last week, they were mostly clean and clinical at the breakdown and they had things all their own way. In Edinburgh they couldn’t produce the same volume of dominant ball carries to build the same sort of momentum.
The Scottish defence was not only supremely well organised, but technically proficient, too, with their defenders managing to get under the ball carrier to prevent any hope of a quick release.
The home side had clearly done their homework and realised they couldn’t be passive like Wales, couldn’t let the big All Blacks forwards get on that same roll where they carry hard and directly, win the ball back quickly and go again. Because when they do, the All Blacks are all but unstoppable.
Without that momentum, the All Blacks were a little lost at times. They looked rattled with the pace the Scots were generating and confused as to why they were not managing to make any real breach of the home side’s defence after they scored two early tries.
Scotland’s performance highlighted the fact they are the forgotten men of next year’s World Cup, lumped in a pool with South Africa and Ireland, having been given no chance of featuring in the knock-out rounds.
But the global game doesn’t work so simply and rigidly anymore as surely everyone has noticed this year.
Scotland are a wild card, good enough to trouble and beat any team in the top five — maybe not often, but they don’t need to stack up the wins to be a massive influence in France next year.
It’s hard to understand why they are not rated more highly given they produced an attacking flow that the All Blacks couldn’t match.
But none of that matters. The game isn’t about who builds the most momentum, or best attacking patterns.
It’s about who scores the most points and New Zealand did that and can move down to London now with a little more confidence built that they can scrap it out in this part of the world and find a way to win.
