New Zealand are set to return to something closer to a first-choice line-up for next weekend’s clash with Ireland in Dublin after imperiously sweeping Scotland aside in the opening leg of their Grand Slam tour of the British Isles.
Even with Richie McCaw and Dan Carter confined to the bench until late in the game and three debutants in their starting line-up, the All Blacks had too much class for a Scotland side that emerged from a 32-6 defeat feeling it had played well.
”We haven’t chosen next week’s team yet but it’s fair to say there will be some changes for what will be another big test,” head coach Graham Henry said after his inexperienced line-up had restricted the Scots to two penalty scores.
Despite generous praise for the way Scotland played, Henry made it clear he regarded Saturday’s match in Dublin as a significantly tougher challenge than his squad faced at Murrayfield.
”The Irish [who beat Canada 55-0 on Saturday] are playing particularly well at the moment,” he said. ”They had a very good southern tour [with narrow losses aginst Australia and the All Blacks] and they will build on that so we’re expecting to face a very fine Irish side.”
Fullback Isaia Toeava could be doubtful for the Ireland match after being replaced at half-time here with a ‘stinger’ shoulder injury while replacement scrum-half Andy Ellis suffered a new rib injury which will have to be monitored.
Scotland have now played New Zealand 27 times over 103 years and their record reads won none, drawn two, lost 25.
This time they were undone by their failure to capitalise on a sustained piece of pressure at the end of the first half, when New Zealand were down a man following the sin-binning of Anthony Boric.
He made amends with his side’s fourth try after Anthony Tuitavake and Piri Weepu’s first-half strikes were followed by a game-killing touchdown from man-of-the-match Richard Kahui just after the restart.
Flyhalf Stephen Donald, who did well enough to ensure Dan Carter was not brought off the bench until the final ten minutes, contributed 10 points with four kicks landed out of five.
Scotland coach Frank Hadden said it had been a ”frustrating afternoon,” mainly because of his squad’s failure to convert a 9-6 advantage in line breaks into more scores.
”We played some good stuff today and created a lot of opportunities but there is no denying that when it came to finishing New Zealand showed their class and their defence was absolutely outstanding.”
Henry acknowledged his line-up had displayed a degree of rustiness but was broadly content with the performance of a a line-up featuring 12 changes that had started the previous weekend’s Bledisloe Cup win over Australia in Hong Kong.
”I was pretty happy. It was a good win to start the tour and there was some very good defence at times when we were under the cosh,” Henry said.
”But we turned over too much ball and gave away too many penalties to be fuly satisfied.
”Scotland took us by surprise with the adventure they showed and probably should have scored couple of tries, so it was a good effort in defence.”
The Scots had start promisingly enough with skipper Mike Blair breaking the line to send Chris Paterson on a run that earned the Scots an early lead from a penalty.
The advantage was handed back immediately when centre Nick de Luca was sin-binned for kicking the ball away in a ruck and Donald’s precise crossfield kick enabled Tuitavake to make the most of the tourists numerical advantage.
The All Blacks were gifted a second try when Phil Godman, preferred to Dan Parks at flyhalf, failed to kill Kahui’s grubber kick just to the right of the posts, allowing scrum Weepu to pick up and go over.
Any hopes of a fightback the Scots may have nurtured at half-time were crushed within two minutes of the restart, when Kahui broke clear and replacement Corey Jane dropped the ball within a yard of the touchline before Boric claimed his score six minutes from time. – AFP
