Having not beaten New Zealand in 32 attempts spanning 120 years, Scotland sense an opportunity despite the surprise absence of Duhan van der Merwe
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t is 100 years since Scotland played their first match at Murrayfield, but that is the least of the monuments confronting them this weekend. New Zealand’s unbeaten record against them stands at 120 years and counting. Which is to say, Scotland have never beaten the All Blacks, and Saturday represents their 33rd attempt.
The good news is that Murrayfield’s centenary celebrations will culminate in its showcase fixture of the autumn with Scotland given as healthy a chance of victory as they ever have been against these tourists. True, that means little more than that victory has not been ruled out, but recent contests between these two (all at Murrayfield, it should be said) have seen a narrowing of the usual margin of defeat. At times over this past century, those defeats have been hideous to behold. Not so any more.
They remain underdogs. At the time of writing, you can get a Scotland win at 3-1 with one high-street bookie, which equates to a nine-point head start, but most are rating the All Blacks as eight-point favourites. That just happens to have been the margin of victory the last time they played here, in 2022. Rarely can an eight-point win have looked so uncomfortable. Scotland lost the first 10 minutes 14-0, before scoring 23 unanswered points in the next 50.
