KEY POINTS:
Former All Black loose forward Mike Brewer knows his audience.
He was more bullish with the local scribes discussing his new nation's chances of toppling the All Blacks for the first time than he was discussing the same chances with the visiting Kiwi scribblers.
Brewer was certainly optimistic Scotland would give a strong account of themselves this weekend but was a little more circumspect in detailing whether his new charges could achieve what all of their predecessors had found beyond them.
He was with the Scotland squad at the end of a camp in Spain when they watched the telecast of the All Blacks victory against the Wallabies in Hong Kong.
There was nothing he noted which would unduly trouble Scotland and he suggested a drastically changed All Black side would take some time to find their rhythm in the second match of the tour at Murrayfield.
"We can trouble them if our platform up front is stable ... We look at the way we want to play and that is based on the way the All Blacks defend.
"We looked at our platform and then watched the game from Hong Kong and as far as our scout was concerned, what was right what was wrong and I won't tell you the percentages that were right or wrong but we had a smile on our faces at the end of the game."
This will be Brewer's first week of international coaching duty with the Scotland pack after lengthy spells in England and Ireland.
He was sure controversial referee Wayne Barnes would not allow the "scrummaging shambles" which occurred in Hong Kong and if Scotland were competitive in that phase of the test, the game would then be won or lost in the collision areas.
Brewer left the All Blacks and New Zealand after a 30-test stint which included his part in the All Blacks' dramatic 21-18 win against Scotland at Eden Park in 1990 and ended in the dramatic World Cup final defeat against the Springboks in Johannesburg in 1995.
This would be a special week for him and the team, his first test with Scotland up against his old side.
"I will not try and demystify them, it is about us performing, doing what we do well and manipulating the visitors. It is an old cliche that if we get a performance it will be close," Brewer said.
He would sing both anthems and it would be a tremendous honour to be part of this weekend, he said. "Part of our strategy will be to keep as much ball as we can and ... attack the opposition ... if you are attacking the All Blacks you don't have to defend but if you give them the ball it is more of a lottery."
He did not subscribe to any view that Scotland were a better team when conditions were adverse, he felt their attack was as strong as any team he had worked with. Wet weather and the ELVs would result in a match that was 90 per cent kicking and 10 per cent running because it was too difficult to maintain momentum, possession and standards at the collision.
"It is a massively important game for us starting the season, and also this game and next weekend against Canada for where we want to be coming into the Six Nations.
"There have been a lot of chances in how we want to function and how we want to play the game, which has been done, and that means a lot of the players now have to spend a lot of time in front of computers learning different plays we are doing and what the opposition is doing."
Brewer said his coaching MO was to challenge every Scotland player every step of the way in training, in the gym, in the tutorial rooms. They needed to build a new Scottish rugby culture.
