Scott wasn't so great when up against Wilson

There was an obvious parallel to be drawn between this morning's game at Murrayfield and the game between Scotland and New Zealand 12 years ago. In 2005, a hugely promising youngster made his All Black test debut, just as a hugely promising youngster had done 12 years earlier.

This morning it was Isaia Toe'ava. In 1993 it was Jeff Wilson, who announced his arrival by scoring a hat-trick and then landing a touchline conversion for good measure.

But there is an alternative story of Wilson's debut and it is the tragic tale of Scottish legend Scott Hastings who marked the Southlander that day. Hastings had toured New Zealand earlier that year with the British Lions. He was rated one of the best centres in the British Isles.

Inexplicably, the Scotland selectors decided to play him out of position on the left wing. The result was catastrophic - Scotland were hammered 51-15. In a game where Marc Ellis played at first-five, the All Blacks had a lot of joy attacking Scotland's left flank.

"I was a bit concerned," recalled the younger brother of Gavin Hastings. "I had only ever played on the wing a couple of times before.

"I didn't know much about Jeff Wilson and from memory I spent most of the week thinking I would be marking Va'aiga Tuigamala.

"We were pretty positive. Scotland A had done well the week before and there was a lot of confidence in our side leading into the game. But everything contrived to go against us on the day. We had to change in a marquee as the West Stand was being rebuilt. There was no atmosphere. Then Craig Chalmers [Scotland's first-five] limped off and I think Gavin had to go off as well. It was all over after 25 minutes.

"We just didn't play well at all and I was in tears after the game because I had played badly, the team had played badly and we had let everyone down. It was humiliating to have been part of a team that had been so easily beaten.

"Back then, people turned up to Murrayfield expecting Scotland teams to win. Even against the All Blacks, we were still rated a chance of winning."

Hastings hadn't really played badly, it was more that he had his inexperience in the position exposed. As one of the best defensive centres in the game, he was caught off his wing a couple of times, trying to make the hit early.

That opened up space for Wilson, although Hastings - part tongue-in-cheek, part serious - reckoned there was a forward pass in the build-up to one of Wilson's tries and that he beat the New Zealander to a touchdown for one of the others.

The experiment of playing Hastings on the wing was immediately abandoned and he was restored to the midfield for the 1994 Five Nations. He places that game in 1993 as possibly the worst day of his rugby career and was thankful that a couple of weeks later he got the chance to show Wilson what he was really about when the Barbarians brought the curtain down on the All Blacks' tour.

"I was very fortunate that I got to captain the Barbarians a couple of weeks later," said Hastings. "It helped restore confidence.

"I got a few more cracks at the All Blacks after that as well. In 1995 at the World Cup we scored 30 points against them. Sadly, they scored 48.

"It was always an honour to play New Zealand. The closest I ever came to beating them was in 1990. We'd won the Grand Slam that year and played pretty well down in Dunedin, losing the first test. Then, in Auckland, we played all the rugby and lost 21-18. It was the last game Buck Shelford played for the All Blacks as our back row had got the better of him."

It was a consolation of sorts. As was the fact that Wilson turned out to be one of the best wings ever to play the game.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY