Scotland 17-25 New Zealand
All Blacks squander 17-point lead before late try
A 33rd attempt, a 31st defeat and crucially still no win for Scotland against the All Blacks. And so the search will go on. Let us not resort to that familiar lament, if Scotland could not win it here, will they ever? It is true, they had as gilt-edged a chance as they may ever have, New Zealand forced to play a total of half an hour a man down, having been shown three yellow cards. It is true, Scotland showed remarkable spirit to recover from 17-0 down at the break to level on the hour. But the All Blacks remain deadly, deadlier than Scotland.
This Scotland team is deadly too, but it is a question of deadliness when it matters. That is where they continue to come up short. New Zealand wrote the manual – and did that a long time ago.
This time it was Damien McKenzie who proved the difference. His stunning 50-22 with 10 minutes remaining and the scores still locked at 17-17 set up pretty much New Zealand’s first attacking position of the half. His brilliant finish in the corner a couple of minutes and a couple of attacking lineouts later gave the All Blacks the lead just when it matters. Then, with a minute to go, he landed a penalty from an angled 45 metres or so to put them more than a score ahead. Crushing. Or, more accurately, fatally piercing.
