EDINBURGH, Nov 7 : New Zealand kept up their unbeaten record against Scotland, blowing away their hosts in the second half as they won 43-21 in imperious style in their Nations Championship at Murrayfield on Saturday.
There were 10 tries as both sides showed elements of their running game but errors and yellow cards also impacted on the outcome, with Scotland looking rusty and the All Blacks finishing strongly.
Veteran back Beauden Barrett scored two tries to bring his test tally to 50 with Wallace Sititi, Ethan de Groot, Peter Lakai, Josh Moorby and Asafo Aumua also crossing the line for the Kiwis and Damian McKenzie kicking four conversions
Hooker Ewan Ashman notched a hat-trick of tries for Scotland in the first half, all converted by Finn Russell.
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The win keeps New Zealand alongside South Africa, who thumped Italy earlier on Saturday, on 20 points at the top of the Southern Hemisphere standings but defeat for Scotland comes a heavy blow to their hopes of topping the Northern Hemisphere section.
"We played our rugby in the first half but we probably left points out there. We were nowhere near accurate enough second-half, and we couldn't stick with them, it's really disappointing," said Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu.
The first of seven first-half tries came in the fourth minute as All Blacks’ attacking intent was signalled straight away with a penalty opportunity spurned and a clever decoy from the resultant lineout allowing Sititi to burst over.
But there was an immediate response from the hosts after Kyle Rowe’s long kick earned them a 50-22 and, from the resultant lineout, Ashman scored.
Two tries in four minutes put the All Blacks 10 points clear in the 20th minute with De Groot bursting over after scrumhalf Cam Roigaard took a quick tap penalty and Lakai scored from a lineout maul to make it 17-7.
Yellow cards for Lakai and Sititi meant New Zealand were effectively down to 14 men for the rest of the half with Ashman scoring twice more to complete his treble but in between Barrett crossed for his first try.
There was a three-point difference at the break with Scotland still holding out hopes of ending their 121-year winless streak against New Zealand, who have now won 32 of 34 meetings between the sides with two draws.
But the All Blacks stepped up a gear to score three more tries in a second half littered with stoppages as Scotland made many errors and had their captain sent to the sin bin.
Josh Moorby’s 48th-minute try in the corner was followed two minutes later by Barrett’s second score and substitute Aumua burst through to claim the last of the All Blacks’ 19 unanswered second-half points in the 67th minute.
The gulf in class was all too evident after the break with New Zealand looking much more cohesive, having had an eight-match tour of South Africa and two Bledisloe Cup matches against Australia since July when Scotland last played.
"It's pleasing, we had a tough tour in Africa, came back and played some pretty impressive rugby against Australia. We love playing this style of rugby, keeping the ball on the park," said All Blacks' man of the match Quinn Tupaea.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Ed Osmond)
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