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EDINBURGH - Remembrance Sunday was a typically sombre occasion in the Scottish capital today, the mood hardly lightened by their rugby side's continued waging of a losing battle at Murrayfield yesterday.
Newspaper reaction to the All Blacks' 32-6 defeat of Scotland was muted as a predictable outcome was dissected.
Scotland had been buoyed by the fact coach Graham Henry included three debutants in a starting 15 which that had only six players with more than 10 caps.
But that statistic was irrelevant as the All Blacks scored four tries to none to remain unbeaten in a rivalry spanning 103 years.
"After all the pre-match hype that this could have been Scotland's best chance for a generation to beat the All Blacks, it was, well, the same old story actually," The Guardian newspaper opined.
"New Zealand fielded what was largely a second-string team and they outscored the Scots by four tries to nil, to ease to victory with the absolute minimum of fuss.
"If truth be told, it was all rather an anticlimax. And the less-than-capacity crowd obviously thought so, as they did one of those wretched Mexican waves in the second half."
"Different plotline, same old story," wrote Mark Palmer in the Times.
"This match toyed with breaking traditions, but ended up confirming a few hoary truths ... New Zealand were edgy but they won and they were comfortable. Why? Because Scotland not only failed to take their chances, but gave Graham Henry's side far too many, far too easily.
"New Zealand did not need too play well to win well, and that will frustrate the hell out of (coach) Frank Hadden and his new assistants."
The Sunday Herald's rugby correspondent Alasdair Reid said any optimism the Scottish took into the match had been "extinguished by good old-fashioned New Zealand ruthlessness".
"Frank Hadden's side never really had the nudge in any significant area of the game. New Zealand were faster across the prairies and sharper in contact by far," he wrote, before chiding the performance of English referee Wayne Barnes.
"Most galling of all, Scotland took nothing from a scrum where Euan Murray gave newcomer Jamie Mackintosh an introduction to test rugby that could more properly be termed an interrogation.
"Frustratingly, referee Wayne Barnes refused to come down heavily on the All Blacks' misdemeanours in that area, his indulgence allowing the visitors to ride out an intense period of Scottish pressure just before halftime."
The Scotsman newspaper also identified the time frame during Anthony Boric's spell in the sinbin late in the first half as a turning point after Scotland failed to ram home their numerical advantage.
"This gargantuan pack of Scottish forwards had been picked specifically to bully the All Blacks in exactly this situation and still they failed to force the score," it said.
"This result was doubly disappointing given the scratch 15 that Graham Henry fielded had three new caps and a host of players who are not a household name anywhere other than their own household.
"The plain fact is that Scotland lost to New Zealand's second 15 and, on yesterday's performance, they would not fancy their chances against the third string."
- NZPA
