New Zealand arrived in Cardiff on Sunday their record, if not their nerves, intact following a 30th consecutive victory over Scotland, the world champions wondering whether their coach, Steve Hansen, is the best or the luckiest gambler in Test rugby.
Hours after the game in which Hansen had fielded an iffy second XV, the coach was insisting Scotland had done him a huge favour in testing players who may figure for New Zealand at next year’s World Cup. Others were marvelling at the All Blacks’ ability to get out of jail.
Quite what Saturday night in Edinburgh did for Hansen’s World Cup planning will not be known for another 10 months, or until he announces his squad.
More immediately it is unlikely too many from Saturday will figure on Thursday when Hansen reveals his team to play Wales. It is more likely to resemble the one which beat England 24-21 at Twickenham nine days ago – complete with Conrad Smith, who has rejoined the party after dealing with family matters back home – with the only bolted-on survivors from this outing being the captain, Richie McCaw, and possibly the back who seems to be able to play almost anywhere, Ben Smith.
The rest will have had an exhibition match against USA Eagles and a Scottish dogfight to make their case and, on the evidence of Saturday, Aaron Cruden should also make the starting XV ahead of Dan Carter, the 55 minutes the fly-half spent on Murrayfield’s new surface proving that even superstars can look rusty and fallible when they have not started a Test for a year.
The 32-year-old, who seems to have been dogged by injury since the 2011 World Cup, spent most of his 102nd Test searching for form. He looked nervous, threw frustratingly inaccurate passes, lost possession and failed to rack up early points on offer. In short, he mirrored the performance of those around him.
When Carter trotted off it was at a point in the game when Hansen had turned to his cavalry and those, such as Julian Savea, Sonny Bill Williams and Ben Franks, he had put on the bench just in case things threatened to unravel. They had.
Four points ahead at half-time, the All Blacks’ lead was twice trimmed to a point and Scotland would have gone in front had their captain and kicker, Greig Laidlaw, not pushed a penalty wide. Instead – and much as they did against Ireland last autumn and Australia last summer – New Zealand dug deep and 18st of Auckland muscle called Jeremy Thrush forced his way over to preserve their unbeaten streak against Scotland.
It therefore seemed a slight exaggeration when Hansen said “That was the perfect game for us” before explaining he was talking about future planning rather than merely winning games. “We have a lot of respect for Scotland and what they were going to bring.
“We felt they were an up-and-coming side but for this tour we felt that we wanted to give all the guys at least two innings. The USA was the first one and this was a big step up, and we could not have asked for a better game because they had to earn the right to win it.
“They had to stay mentally strong. They were under a lot of pressure at times and came through very well. Pressure is a funny thing for young athletes and you have to learn to cope with it.”
Scotland headed off to train for Tonga this Saturday wondering when they would next come so close to ending New Zealand’s 109-year run against them, their new coach, the Kiwi Vern Cotter, convinced they are on the right road.
After beating Argentina he stuck with the same starting XV and they came back after going an early try down, poaching one of their own through the wing Tommy Seymour following an ill-judged McCaw pass before stretching the All Blacks to the limit in the second half.
“Nobody likes losing, and these guys least of all,” Cotter said. “That is encouraging. Not liking losing is a quality. We got close but we didn’t get there so we have to say we are disappointed, but when you look at the content of what the players did out there, it’s hard for a coach to be unhappy when you see that effort, desire and determination.”
Scotland Hogg; Maitland, Bennett (Lamont, 23), Dunbar, Seymour; Russell (Weir, 60), Laidlaw (capt; Cusiter, 75); Dickinson, Ford, Murray (Cross, 30), R Gray, J Gray, Harley, Cowan (Denton, 72), Ashe (Beattie, 57)
Try Seymour. Con Laidlaw. Pens Laidlaw 3.
New Zealand B Smith; Slade, Fekitoa (Williams, 55), Crotty, Piutau; Carter (Savea, 55), Perenara; Moody (Crockett, 51), Parsons (Coles, 46), Faumuina (Franks, 55), Thrush, Bird (Romano, 51), McCaw (capt), Cane, Vito (Messam, 37)
Tries Vito, Thrush. Con Slade. Pens Carter 3, Slade.
Referee R Poite (Fr). Attendance 67,500.
