Dylan Cleaver: ABs scrappy but Hadden has much to answer for

All Black loose forward Sione Lauaki bursts through the Scottish defensive line. Photo / Getty Images

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The only way Scotland coach Frank Hadden was going to come out of this one without a large omelette on his face was if his side won - and there was never any chance of that happening, despite a scrappy, error-riddled performance from the All Blacks.

Hadden's controversial selection policy, where he rested most of his frontline players, was a cynical ploy that has won him few friends in Scotland and none in New Zealand.

In the end, a humiliating 40-0 defeat was probably the second-most palatable result for Hadden. A closely fought match would have just posed a series of "what-ifs?"

What if Simon Taylor had been playing? What if the Lamont brothers had been given the opportunity to run at the All Blacks?

We'll never know. What we do know is that the front row the Scots sent out against the most powerful front row in the world was ill-equipped to handle the situation. At one stage there was genuine fear debutant Alasdair Dickinson could be hurt badly by Carl Hayman.

It wasn't fair to anyone to put him in that position in his first test.

Graham Henry probably can't be too vocal about the selections that will leave his side without a genuine 'test' before a quarter-final, probably against the fast-improving French at Cardiff. He, too, has danced some selection shuffles in his tenure.

He finds himself in a glasshouse with a pocketful of stones but there was a massive difference between any of the 'rotation' stunts the All Blacks coach pulled and this one. Henry never once sent out a team on to the field he thought would lose.

Hadden can talk all he likes about how he thought this XV was his best hope of victory here but in truth they were little more than rugby virgins, sacrificed on the altar of quarter-final qualification.

There are some bigger ideals at stake here though.

This match has been highly anticipated since the draw was made. How does Hadden face his countrymen who might have saved long and hard to buy a ticket for this match? Who might have brought their children along for their first rugby internationals? Expats who might have returned to Scotland just to watch this?

Can Hadden now blame any of those who decide that Murrayfield is not a place they need to visit again?

Hadden has thrown all his eggs into the Italy-at-St Etienne basket. Some of them have already broken however. How does that omelette taste, Frank?