KEY POINTS:
Never Before has the selection of a rugby team involved such heavy consultation and debate.
Since June, Scotland coach Frank Hadden has been agonising just what team he would put out to face the All Blacks later tonight.
With the Italians lurking six days down the track, Hadden had to weigh up whether self-preservation or fire and thunder was the way to go.
Defeat against the All Blacks is likely no matter the team Hadden picks. Defeat against Italy would probably lead to Hadden losing his job and taint him with the stigma to be the only Scottish coach in World Cup history to fail to take his side to the playoffs.
Would it, therefore, be wiser to simply sacrifice the All Black game by protecting the front-line troops? Or would there be sense in keeping the top side together to help them build some cohesion and fluidity to sharpen them ahead of the Italian test?
The World Cup ethos said give it a go. The ticket prices said give it a go. Those at Murrayfield tomorrow morning (NZT) will be light in the pocket. The top price is £165 - almost $500.
The natural inclination of the Scots is to give it a go, to play for keeps and think only in the now. Even All Black coach Graham Henry had tried to egg the Scots into giving it a go, publicly stating two weeks ago that he was sure Scotland would want to play their strongest side.
But 20 minutes after the Scotland team had defeated Romania, Hadden presented his assistant coaches Alan Tait and George Graham with the team he wanted to play the All Blacks.
It was a team he had come up with after lengthy discussion with former Scotland and British Lions coach Ian McGeechan. He also canvassed the views of Scotland's 25-Club - a group of former internationals who all earned a minimum of 25 caps.
The decision was made to keep the top team out of action. The schedule had given Scotland three tests in 11 days and there was no way Hadden could see his frontliners still being in once piece come the crucial clash against Italy if they had to tackle the All Blacks too.
The team announcement, when it finally came signalled, that Scotland's ambition at this World Cup is confined solely to beating Italy. If they do that, they will say job done.
But, despite the All Black game being one Scotland clearly don't believe they can win - or one that they are necessarily bothered whether they win - Hadden is still brimming with confidence about his side's chances. He has studied the All Blacks for a few seasons now and reckons the key to beating them is reasonably straightforward.
"To beat New Zealand, you need a massive defensive effort and you need a couple moments of magic," said Hadden. "While no side comes with a guarantee, we think the side we have selected is capable of that.
"All we know is that three days in 11 games is tough and it has compromised some of the decisions we have made.
"We still have one or two key players in there who we don't want to be vulnerable for the Italy game. We have rotated, not to the extent Graham Henry has because he has a lot more depth, but we have tried to create a competitive environment. We think it has worked and we have every confidence in the side selected."
He's probably the only one brimming with confidence. There's certainly some players like captain Scott Murray, Chris Cusiter, Chris Paterson and Andy Henderson who have genuine ability.
But there are areas of concern for the Scots where they look decidedly vulnerable. The scrummaging against Romania was troubled and the uncapped Alasdair Dickinson, a man not in the original World Cup 30, at loosehead, has not done much to build hope. He'll pack down and then most likely pack it in against Carl Hayman.
The Scottish backrow has a bit of pace and a bit of spirit but it is light on experience. John Barclay, who will turn 21 the day after the match, is also making his debut at openside.
For Barclay and Dickinson, the assignment couldn't be any tougher to make their debuts against Hayman and Richie McCaw.
If nothing else they will leave Murrayfield a lot wiser than when they came in.
So too might Marcus di Rollo and Simon Webster. Both players give Scotland a creative edge but they are not big men and the All Blacks will put traffic through their channels.
It would be a surprise if they didn't get enough opportunity to improve their defence and, in a funny way, that is what Hadden is hoping for.
Winning isn't really the core objective. What appears to be more important for the Scotland coach is that the players on the field finish the 80 minutes better equipped to put pressure on the players who started against Romania.
Hadden has focussed these past two seasons on building depth.
"That is a situation we have been trying to generate," said Hadden.
"Given our relatively small playing numbers we have to try extremely hard to make it competitive.
"There were times in the past where guys earned significant numbers of Scotland caps without any in that position.
"While we have some guys now who are, in my opinion, top quality international players, we also have competition everywhere. We need to do something special for our supporters. We need to make them very proud of our performances."
For Hadden to really make the nation proud, Scotland will have to vindicate his decision to sacrifice the All Black game.
That means they will not only have to beat Italy, really, they are almost duty-bound now to go beyond the quarter-finals.
Teams:
Scotland: Hugo Southwell, Nikki Walker, Marcus Di Rollo, Andrew Henderson, Simon Webster, Chris Paterson, Chris Cusiter, Alasdair Dickinson, Scott Lawson, Craig Smith, Scott MacLeod, Scott Murray (c), Kelly Brown, Dave Callam, John Barclay. Replacements: Fergus Thomson, Gavin Kerr, James Hamilton, Allister Hogg, Rory Lawson, Dan Parks, Rob Dewey
New Zealand: MacDonald; Howlett, Smith, McAlister, Sivivatu; Carter, Kelleher; Woodcock, Oliver, Hayman, Thorne, Williams, Masoe, McCaw (c), So'oialo. Replacements: Hore, Tialata, Jack, Lauaki, Leonard, Evans, Toeava.
Where's the Highland spirit?
Gregor Paul
Tucked in a forgotten corner of an affluent Edinburgh suburb lies Raeburn Place, the site of the first rugby international ever played.
Every day, thousands of vehicles stream past, their occupants oblivious that this unassuming green space is one of Scottish rugby's most symbolic venues. A physical reminder of a time of hope and adventure, living proof that Scotland once had an appetite to defy the odds.
Rugby was first played in Scotland in 1854 when Francis Crombie enrolled at The Edinburgh Academy with knowledge of the rules of rugby union that he had learned while at Durham School.
From there, the game blossomed and in 1870, representatives of four clubs - Edinburgh Academicals. Glasgow Academicals, West of Scotland and St Andrews University - decided it was time for aninternational match, so they wrote to the secretary of English club Blackheath.
"For our own satisfaction, therefore, and with a view to really testing what Scotland can do against an English team," the letter said, "we, representing the whole footballing interest of Scotland, hereby challenge any team selected from the whole of England, to play us a match, 20-a-side rugby rules.
"If entered into, we can promise England a hearty welcome and a first-rate match."
The English accepted the challenge and on March 27, 1871, a record crowd of 4000 came to Raeburn Place to see Scotland win by one goal to nil.
There's a certain sadness that 136 years later, at a ground barely a mile west of Raeburn Place, Scotland have been challenged to play the All Blacks - the greatest honour in the game.
The men of 1871 wouldn't have hesitated if that challenge had been presented to them. But the men of 2007 have backed away.
Minds have already been made up that defeat tonight is inevitable. That Scotland is no longer a nation that believes in the improbable.
Coach Frank Hadden, it seems, will be quite happy to die wondering. And what makes this retreat to safety so much harder to understand is that Scotland is currently riding a wave of nationalistic fervour that has restored pride and confidence and brought the country to the brink of independence.
Earlier this year, the Scottish National Party swept into power, taking control of Scotland's devolved Parliament. A referendum on seeking full independence will be held in a few years and favour is building for a breakaway.
What's driving that momentum is the realisation that Scotland doesn't need England to hold its hand any more.
The self-deprecating humour, borne by a predetermined certainty that Scotland has nothing to be proud, is no longer the prevalent voice in Edinburgh's watering holes.
Edinburgh's magnificently austere skyline is dotted with cranes, trying to keep pace with the booming financial services industry.
The world's biggest institutions are moving north in their droves to tap into the lifestyle and talent pool.
Specialist whisky bars keep popping up in the capital as proof the national drink is no longer just a medicinal tipple for the old and infirm.
Bookshops need increasing shelf space to stock the work of celebrated Scottish writers. Ian McEwen is a fixture on every literary prize's shortlist, Ian Rankin's John Rebus is globally loved and Irvine Welsh, of Trainspotting fame, leads a crew of authors specialising in a genre of fiction dubbed Tartan Noir.
James McAvoy is the new darling of Hollywood, Andy Murray is the greatest hope the British tennis world has had since Fred Perry and every corporation craves Scottish accents to be heard at their call centres for, according to surveys, the trust and affection people feel for Scots.
Even Dolly the Sheep, the world's first cloned animal, did her bit in alerting the world to the scientific prowess of Scots.
Scotland is in the midst of a renaissance every bit as powerful as the enlightenment of the eighteenth century that produced the great economist Adam Smith and philosopher David Hume.
It's such a pity, then, that the confidence and pride has not penetrated the Scotland rugby team.
Somehow they have closed off their minds to the possibility of beating the All Blacks to the point where they won't even give it a go.
That refusal to believe tonight's game is there for the taking is an attitude at odds with how the rest of the nation feels and it is most certainly one which would disturb those hardy men who thundered into the English in 1871.
Whatever the result against the All Blacks, Hadden and his team could do worse than spend even 10 minutes this week at Raeburn Place and realise the game they play only grew as a consequence of the intrepid spirit of their predecessors.
Those men and the hundreds of others who have followed them into the blue jersey deserve for that spirit to be honoured.
