KEY POINTS:
EDINBURGH - As if having Dan Carter, Richie McCaw and Carl Hayman on board was not enough, New Zealand coach Graham Henry believes Lady Luck is smiling benevolently on the All Blacks at this World Cup.
Having watched his squad wrap up a place in the quarter-finals with
a 40-0 demolition of a second-string Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday, Henry voiced his relief that they got to this stage without having incurred any series injuries.
"We've qualified for the quarter finals - that was the first step and it is really important," Henry said. "And we have been lucky that we have not had too many injuries.
"We have got everybody involved and there are a lot of people contesting for places in future matches. So it has all been very positive so far."
Sunday's convincing win was marred slightly by some glaring mistakes which probably cost the All Blacks from adding at least three tries to their tally of six touchdowns, and the final count of handling errors reached an unusally high 20.
Henry acknowledged that his side could have been sharper but said the positives, in terms of much-improved performances from the scrum and the line-out, outweighed the negatives of the afternoon's work at Murrayfield.
"That (the high error count) was a little bit frustrating and we will address that, but I don't think it is a major concern. You have got to give the Scots a bit of credit.
"It was highly contested in the tackle area, a very physical game, the most physical we have had and that will be a valuable lesson for us."
Henry admitted that, with one Pool C match against Romania to come, his staff will now start to focus on their potential quarter-final opponents.
"The Romanian game is important for the guys who are playing, important for their selection in the future," he said. "It is not as though they will go in under-done.
"Obviously the coaches are doing some work on likely opposition after the game against Romania, but we started that before we left home."
Henry's only injury concern is Leon Macdonald, who limped off midway through the first half on Sunday with a bruised thigh muscle but the full-back is expected to be back in action after a few days rest.
Scotland coach Frank Hadden meanwhile insisted he had no regrets over his decision to field a weakened line-up to ensure he could name his strongest side when his side go up against Italy on Saturday with second place in Pool C - and a quarter-final place - at stake.
"We have a huge advantage now," Hadden said. "Instead of taking four or five days to recover we can train tomorrow. And that will give us five days proper quality build-up to the match that will decide how well we do in this competition."
Hadden revealed that Chris Paterson, who was replaced by Dan Parks after just 20 minutes, had gone off after receiving a poke in the eye but would be ready to feature against Italy.
"We are still very determined to make our supporters very proud of our performance at this World Cup," Hadden added.
"It was not our decision to have the World Cup the way it is," he said. "When I first looked at the draw I could not believe it (Scotland playing three matches in 11 days). We just have to deal with it, crack on and do whatever we can to advance in the competition.
"Scotland have gone down more heavily in the past to New Zealand teams that have not trained together for 16 of the last 18 months."
Sunday's match saw Doug Howlett became the leading try-scorer in All Blacks history, his two touchdowns taking his personal tally to 48, surpassing Christian Cullen's record of 46.
McCaw, Byron Kelleher, Ali Williams and Carter were New Zealand's other try-scorers.
- AFP
