Last week, some All Blacks took in Edinburgh’s underground ghost tours. At Murrayfield on Monday morning (NZT), they received another fright. This time from a Scotland team that, on another day, could have achieved history.
Yet having witnessed his side emerge from a fraught fight,All Blacks coach Ian Foster believes they are heeding the harsh lessons of their last northern tour.
This time last year, the All Blacks staggered to successive losses against Ireland and France — a run that continued into this year’s home series defeat to the Irish.
While they were far from convincing against Scotland, who rallied from 14-0 down to score 23 answered points and hold the All Blacks scoreless for 50-odd minutes, Foster’s men saved three tries on their line to hold their nerve and improve their season revival to six straight wins.
Trailing by nine points in the final quarter the All Blacks stared down the barrel of their maiden defeat to Scotland.
With the help of their early-injected bench, TJ Perenara, Codie Taylor and Rieko Ioane adding notable impact, the All Blacks regained composure to finish with tries to Scott Barrett and Mark Telea to maintain their perfect record against the Scots.
“We’re delighted to come to Murrayfield. It’s always a game we’ve found difficult, particularly this year against a Scottish team that is on the rise. They’ve won some big tests the last few years so it was one we were a bit nervous about,” Foster said after the 31-23 escape.
“At 23-14 I wasn’t overly excited. They were accumulating those points through pressure and forcing us into a lack of discipline which was disappointing. You’ve got to give them credit for that.
“You train for scenarios like this. It’s a test win we’re very proud of.
“If you go back 12 months to the last two tests of the year, to where we tripped up in the north, both those tests we were in contention at the start of the last quarter but perhaps [we] didn’t show the composure that we showed today.
“That shows some good signs of growth. And that’s with a few guys who were getting opportunities, particularly the likes of Mark Telea playing his first test in that sort of environment with that pressure he’ll be really proud of what he did.
“We made a few changes earlier because we felt we needed to change the pictures. We felt Scotland had a roll on and we had to try a couple of different things. The likes of Rieko was a lot more direct and forceful with his carries in the midfield. Codie was outstanding. And TJ for his first test of the year and being out of the squad that was as good as he’s played for us in a long time. We’re delighted with that.”
New Zealand's Scott Barrett wins a lineout. Photosport
Of the seven starting changes and two positional tweaks Foster made following the record 55-23 win over Wales, Telea was the standout against Scotland. The Blues winger claimed two tries on the right edge to stake a serious claim to retain the jersey ahead of Sevu Reece for the All Blacks final test of the year at Twickenham next week.
“He couldn’t have done it any better — score an early one to settle your nerves and score a pretty important one near the end,” Foster said. “In between he caught the ball, had strong carries so I’m really pleased with him. We’ve been watching him the last few weeks and been pretty impressed so it’ll be good to get that first one under his belt.”
As they did in Cardiff last week, the All Blacks started superbly with two tries in the opening eight minutes. A penalty try and yellow card to Anton Lienert-Brown — after he took out Stuart Hogg in goal — opened the door to a comeback, and Scotland were good enough to seize it.
As is the case throughout their 32 tests against the All Blacks, though, the burden of history weighed heavily on the locals.
“I thought we were the better team for the majority of that game,” Scotland captain Jamie Ritchie said. “The next step is we’ve got to win those matches.”
Scotland coach Gregor Townsend rued the All Blacks earning three breakdown penalties on their line.
“It’s been five years since we played New Zealand and that will be the biggest lead we’ve ever had and we didn’t get the win,” Townsend said. “We scored 23 points to nil during a 50-minute period. Those margins you have to kick on and win and we didn’t do that today.”
Blues captain Dalton Papali’i, named man of the match, stood up at crucial times on defence and at the breakdown for the All Blacks.
“He’s carried on how he played for us last year and he’s grown an arm and a leg since then,” Foster said. “He’s tough, particularly in the games up here he’s well suited to the type of close quarter games that are played. We’re delighted with his form. He’s a hungry man and he wants to play and he’s playing really well.”
Reflecting on their scoreless period, All Blacks captain Sam Whitelock lamented a string of penalties but the All Blacks will also need to review their ball security before the headline assignment against England.
“Our discipline allowed them back in with the yellow card and they punished us when we were down. We’ve got to adapt quicker. We can’t have accumulative penalties,” Whitelock said. “They scored a lot of points because we gave them an easy ride down field. Scotland know how to squeeze teams and we gave them opportunities there. We were 14-0 up and, all of a sudden, we were down by a few.”
