KEY POINTS:
America finally got a black President, what price Scotland getting a victory against the All Blacks?
It was a question the local Edinburgh betting agency was unwilling to be drawn on, certainly not until nearer kickoff but the bloke with the book reckoned the visitors would need to give the locals a pretty hefty points start.
Scotland is going through some interesting times though, even as the global recession bites. Mega-millionaire Donald Trump has tentative approval to go ahead with plans to develop a new hamlet near the coast with shopping plazas, hotels and the obligatory golf course.
Former All Black looseforward Mike Brewer has also arrived after occupying various other coaching posts in the UK, with ambitious plans to take rugby ahead in Scotland. He has a wide variety of portfolios with the most prominent his work as forwards tutor for the national team.
Brewer's appointment has attracted a little criticism but there are many more, like those who support Trump's investment, who believe Scotland had to change plans and increase their investment if they were to make a renewed impact on the international rugby stage.
Will that happen this weekend? Could these Scots achieve what none of their predecessors have done and beat the All Blacks?
The Scots have been away in camp in Spain working on the rudiments of the game, sorting out their strategies for this weekend and being put through the physical and mental griller by Brewer and those on the coaching staff.
They have been presented with an All Black side which is, on paper, inferior to the combination which started this tour with a shaky 19-14 victory against the Wallabies in Hong Kong. There is no Richie McCaw or Dan Carter although both talismanic figures inhabit the reserves bench in case the test at Murrayfield starts to go horribly pear shaped.
This All Blacks team does not cut it with test experience - Liam Messam, Kieran Read and Jamie Mackintosh making their debuts while others such as Adam Thomson, Anthony Boric, John Afoa, Stephen Donald, Richard Kahui and Anthony Tuitavake have not played many internationals.
Individually they are useful players and it may be that after several weeks' training in anticipation of this moment, they will gel better than their more senior comrades did against the Australians in Hong Kong.
The flip side of that theory is that they could be so wound up, so keen to do well that they rush their plays and make fumbles at the beginning as they soak up the raw vigour and inquisition from the Scots. The weather may also have an impact as forecasts for later in the week have overturned the earlier view that Murrayfield would be spared some meteorological impact for the early evening kickoff.
Then there is referee Wayne Barnes. The young Englishman became well known to New Zealand following the World Cup last year and appears to be joined at the hip these days to his International Rugby Board boss Paddy O'Brien. There will be those who over-scrutinise Barnes. All we can hope is that he is fit, gets plenty of help from his touchies, and does not take the rulebook within a millimetre of its life. The game is way too fast for one official, let alone three, but no one has come up with or condoned a better solution while every piece of action can be scrutinised by spectators in slow-motion television. Referees are either masochists, have hides thicker than hippos, see themselves as sporting missionaries or simply live in a universe the rest of us do not comprehend.
We do have a better grasp of the players and for some this will be another golden chance to make the jump to the senior XV or at least cement a place in the reserves.
None more so than Isaia Toeava, whose wavering international career hit a strong spot in Hong Kong. He gets a repeat chance this weekend with Mils Muliaina still on baby-watch and if the 22-year-old utility has another consistent match he can be chosen as genuine multi-cover from the bench.
Joe Rokocoko returns after a mega-layoff and may not yet be fully gassed up for tests although he appeals as a better allrounder than Sitiveni Sivivatu while Kahui is classy and gets a third test in his preferred centre position. His "duel" with Conrad Smith should be one of the fascinations of this tour because they both show low error rates and contrasting attacking methods.
Read's accurate industry will be compared with Jerome Kaino's work at the top level which has tightened considerably this season while tighthead prop John Afoa, now recovered from his pre-tour knee strain, gets the chance to state his claim for the position vacated by Greg Somerville.
Coach Graham Henry noted this week how many future long-term All Blacks were being offered their chance in this test, men who should stay the distance towards the next World Cup if their games continued to develop. Murrayfield is an early stage in that development but one they should conquer along with the Scots.
