All Blacks coach Ian Foster has spoken of his pleasure at his side’s composure in the final quarter as they overtook Scotland for a 31-23 victory this morning.
His counterpart Gregor Townsend, however, is probably wondering if his nation will ever get a better chance for a first win against New Zealand.
“There’s mainly disappointment – disappointment that we don’t get to play New Zealand every year like we used to,” Scotland coach Townsend said.
“It’s been five years. It’s the biggest lead we’ve ever had against New Zealand in our history and we didn’t get the win.”
His captain Jamie Ritchie went further, saying, quite rightly, that Scotland were the better team for the majority of the game.
Making history again for the wrong reasons (from an All Blacks' perspective) would have ratcheted up the pressure once again on the coaching staff, but the visitors re-found their rhythm late the game through a greater adherence to the basics and one or two helpful decisions by Irish referee Frank Murphy.
After conceding two converted tries to Samisoni Taukei’aho – from a lineout drive – and Mark Telea, chasing a Jordie Barrett kick for a try on his Test debut – Scotland outplayed the All Blacks for more than 50 minutes.
They were the better disciplined team (the All Blacks were penalised 8-4 in the first half), had a better performing back three in Duhan van der Merwe, Stuart Hogg and Darcy Graham, and won the collisions.
In striking back via a penalty try when Hogg was prevented from scoring off the ball by the yellow-carded Anton Lienert-Brown, the Scots were level soon after via Graham’s intercept of David Havili’s pass and calmly accumulated further points from the boot of the recalled Finn Russell to lead 23-14 heading into the final quarter.
The All Blacks lacked control and backline leaders among a shuffled attack that included returns for midfielders Havili and Lienert-Brown and a rare start for halfback Finlay Christie, who didn’t display the quality he may have liked.
Up against them was a team playing with increasing confidence in front of a noisy Murrayfield crowd, but a combination of a couple of lucky breaks – the big one was a yellow card for replacement loose forward Jack Dempsey for an intentional knock-on when it appeared accidental – some other key penalties, and the influence of the reserves bench turned the game.
“It was a yellow card, the referee called it,” Townsend said. “I don’t have an opinion on it.”
Foster, who gambled by making wholesale changes to his squad after their good win against Wales, said: “It was a Test we were a little nervous about so I was delighted to come away with a good win for many reasons.
“One is the composure we showed in the last 20. When you’re away from home against a team that has got their tails up it’s hard to turn that around. I thought the work done by Sammy [Whitelock] and the leaders on the park and the bench, in particular, really gave us a lot of composure and enabled to finish that Test really strongly.
“At 23-14 I wasn’t overly excited. They were accumulating those points at that stage through pressure and forcing us into errors and into ill-discipline, which was annoying, but you have to give them credit for that.
“You train for these scenarios – if you go back 12 months and the last two Tests of the year where we tripped up in the north, we were in contention for both of those Tests at the start of the last quarter but we didn’t show the composure that we showed today.”
In scoring two of the All Blacks’ four tries on debut – the first and last - Telea had a day to remember, as did loose forwards Ardie Savea and Dalton Papali’i, both of whom were strong over the ball and won several key turnovers.
But it was the bench that excelled, and in particular recalled halfback TJ Perenara in his first Test in one year to the day.
Jordie Barrett’s penalty with 17 minutes remaining cut the deficit to 23-17 and the All Blacks made the most of Dempsey’s yellow card two minutes later – taking the lead via a converted try by Scott Barrett from the resulting attacking scrum and continuing their momentum with Telea’s second try brilliantly converted from the right sideline by Barrett for an important eight-point buffer.
“We made a few changes earlier because I felt we needed to change the pictures a little bit,” Foster said. “I felt that Scotland had a roll on and we needed to try a few different things. The likes of Rieko [Ioane] came in and I thought he was a lot more direct and forceful in the midfield.
“He brought a sharper feel for that. I thought Codie Taylor was outstanding and TJ, for his first Test of the year – he’s been out of the squad and come in and I thought that was as good as he has played for us for some time. We’re delighted with that.”
Before the game the big crowd applauded former international Doddie Weir, now suffering from motor neurone disease, and Scotland captain Ritchie said the popular former lock served as inspiration.
“I said to Doddie before we went out, ‘we want to do it for you’, and I think he’ll be proud of us and the way we performed," Ritchie said. "It’s just unfortunate we were on the wrong side of the result. We were the better team for the majority of that game.
“It’s pretty tough. To be penalised within a metre of the line three times, it’s tough to take. If you look at the game, we certainly had more chances. It’s pretty gutting.”
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