by John Preece
Scotland welcomed an All Blacks team determined to improve on, what they regarded as, a disappointing performance against England the previous week. Unfortunately for Scotland, they appeared to do just that, by running in and converting 7 tries to none.
Scotland opened the scoring after 4 minutes with a penalty from No. 10 Dan Parks, but that was the last time Scotland put any points on the board. They came close a few times, winning penalties from scums, but choose not to take the opportunity to kick for goal.
The All Blacks, on the other hand, ran almost everything and finished the first half 28-3 ahead.
The second half looked a bit better from a Scotland point of view, with the team retaining possession of the ball for a large part of the half. However, New Zealand defended well, turning over ball on several occasions and eventually scoring another three converted tries.
The referee, Dave Pearson, ended the game a couple of minutes early, due to what looked like a serious injury to Max Evans, with memories of his brother, Thom’s, neck injury against Wales to the fore. However it turned out to be an injured shoulder, which, while still serious, should not lead to curtailment of his career, unlike his brother, who announced his retirement earlier in the week.
Elsewhere, Scotland Head Coach, Andy Robinson, stated that he felt the team had let down the Nation with shortfalls in both defence and attack and work would have to be done on the training field to ensure that South Africa (20th November at Murrayfield) were given a stiffer test.
With this result, New Zealand demonstrated why they have been at the top of the International tree for so long with a determined and clinical performance, which underlined the gulf between them and the rest of the rugby world.
Look out Ireland and Wales!
Photographs also by John Preece
