Scotland run New Zealand close at BT Murrayfield.
New Zealand had been criticised in the press for naming a ’second string’ squad – with 13 changes to the that beat England – to face a Scotland team fresh from victory over Argentina, but a second string All Blacks team equates more to a ‘1.1 string’ as there were only a couple of, relatively, unknown faces in the line-up. Vern Cotter, on the other hand, had kept faith with the previous week’s team and had named the same starters and a couple of enforced changes to the bench. Game on!
With the strains of “We’ll take the High road…” drowning out the ‘message’ from the Haka, Liam Messam put his all into it and set the tone for the next 80 minutes. Or so you would have thought… Dan Carter’s kick-off fell short and gave Scotland the chance to get possession and push the All Blacks back, deep into their own half.
However, New Zealand regained the ball and reversed the play to push the hosts back. The defence held, but an eighth minute penalty award went astray from Carter and the score remained 0-0. Not a great start from the ‘World’s best Stand-off’
From the restart, the ball came back at Scotland and centre, Mark Bennett, almost turned over Richie McCaw on half way, but McCaw held on and got the ball clear. Swinging the play left, Victor Vito slipped a tackle from Alex Dunbar – who took out his own winger in the process – and headed for the line. Stuart Hogg and Greg Laidlaw raced over and caught Vito a few metres out, but the big No. 8 had momentum on his side and crashed over for the try. Referee, Roman Poite, went upstairs for a quick confirmation, but the job was done and the score was 5-0. Carter missed with this kick as well, so no extras were added.
So was that the start of the avalanche? Maybe not… The visitors took the restart ball and, again, worked upfield, but a mistimed pass on halfway from McCaw to Vito was snatched from the air by Tommy Seymour and, with only the posts in front of him, he charged off to dive over under the posts for Scotland’s try and an 8-5 game. However, with Bennett stretched out on the pitch suffering a hamstring pull, a comedy of errors ensued, with nobody ‘available’ to take the tee out to an increasingly frantic Laidlaw. With Poite pointing out that the seconds were running out, he took the only other option and drop-kicked the conversion to make it an 8-7 scoreline with 12 minutes played.
The following 15 minutes or so were dominated by the All Blacks and they gave cause for concern on a couple of occasions. The first of these followed a typical New Zealand change of direction and the ball was swiftly moved across to Vito, who pulled in Seymour and left Charles Piutau free on the wing. However, Bennett had kept going and, with the aid of Hogg, forced Piutau to release the ball. Coming back from this, it was Man-of-the-Match, Jeremy Thrush’s turn to charge it the home defence and he almost made it through, dragging Laidlaw with him, but Alex Dunbar stepped in and the pair hauled him down a few metres short. A quick recycle and the ball was out on the right wing and again heading for the Scot’s line. This time it went over, but in the pile of bodies, the TMO unable to confirm whether the ball had contacted the turf, so Poite went back for a penalty, which Carter again pushed wide! He managed to redeem himself five minutes later, however, as another All Black’s attack ended with another penalty, which he knocked over to extend the lead to 11-7.
The final few minutes up to half time saw both sides being awarded, successfully kicked, penalties and they went into the break with the score at 14-10.
Scotland were, more than, holding their own up to this point so it was with far less trepidation than normal that the second half was welcomed. And it looked like business as usual as the visitors were straight onto the offensive and pushed the game deep into the Scot’s 22. But the defence held out and reversed the play, driving New Zealand back into their 22 with a well worked passing game which had the defence scrambling on a couple of occasions. Reward came in the form of a penalty which Laidlaw saw over to pull the team up to within a point at 14-13.
The next 20 minutes of the match were fairly evenly matched with both sides defending well and turning to the attack. However, they had to be content with a penalty apiece and the match went into the final 15 minutes with the score at 17-16 and either team capable of taking the win – not something that could have been said of a Scotland-New Zealand game in recent years. 
And it was the Scots who came up with the first chance. With a penalty advantage in his pocket, Laidlaw put a high ball into the goal area and, with Duncan Weir and Seymour contesting with Sonny Bill Williams and Ben Smith, the hope was there. Smith did the full back thing, however and came down with the ball, but Scotland still had their penalty. Right footed kicker, to the left of the goal – ideal to naturally swing the ball in. Job done? Well, no…. Somehow the ball stayed arrow-straight and Laidlaw had shaved the right hand post to miss the opportunity to take a historic lead.
Staring defeat in the face, the All Blacks seemed to grow in stature – if that was possible – and it took them just over five minutes of play to get the winning score. A close-in lineout was won in the air by Thrush and he fired over to touch down, much to the relief of his team mates, to push the score out to 22-16 and then Carter dealt the death blow with a successful kick that made it a two-score lead at 24-16.
The final six minutes of the game were fairly well dominated by the home side, but they couldn’t get the final break to score and the match finished in overtime with a penalty award to the All Blacks and thus ended the best chance that the Scots have had for ages to win.
Overall the New Zealander’s were the more clinical of the two, with a few too many mistakes still happening in the Scots game, but Cotter seems to have instilled a bit of confidence and fire in the team which may have been lacking a touch in the recent past.
Images from the match will appear here over the next few days
Nice pictures mate.
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