Opinion: Average All Blacks blunder on and why someone other than the Springboks will expose them

All Blacks walking back after Ethan de Groot try against Scotland.

It was hard to watch the All Blacks resort to scrumming for penalties.

Yes, before you get fooled by the 43-21 final score at Murrayfield, it’s worth noting that New Zealand was so bereft of ideas and penetration against Scotland that they largely relied upon referee Andrew Brace to generate them points.

Tries from lineout drives were about as frequent as the boos of the Edinburgh crowd, as the All Blacks maintained their unbeaten Nations Championship record.

Half-back Cam Roigard has seldom played so poorly for New Zealand, while the unloading of the benches spoiled what had been a decent first-half spectacle. Scotland played the better rugby in the opening 40 minutes, regularly scything through the All Blacks’ midfield defence.

If you were being charitable, you’d commend New Zealand on getting the job done. If not, then you might suggest there was almost nothing meritorious about their performance at all.

Centre Quinn Tupaea was adjudged the player of a match, in which Fabian Holland, Tupou Vaa’i and Ethan de Groot surely had more worthy claims.

The All Blacks backline, so roundly cheered after their romps over Australia, offered next to nothing in attack. Dual playmakers Damian McKenzie and Beauden Barrett often kicked good ball away as the game wore on, having decided there was no other way to get behind Scotland’s defence.

“We had a tough tour in Africa, came back and played some pretty impressive rugby against Australia and it just flowed on tonight,” Tupaea told the host broadcaster after the match.

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“We love playing this style of rugby and keeping the ball on the park. Our defence could be tidied up a little bit, but very pleased.”

The first half resembled most since McKenzie returned to first five-eighth and Barrett was reinstated as full-back. The All Blacks went side-to-side and offloaded incessantly, which is fine against a team as inept as the Wallabies.

Scotland are superior to them and, if not for the penalties that enabled them to kick to the corner, it’s hard to see how New Zealand would’ve generated points.

Credit to the hosts, whose more direct style repeatedly paid first-half dividends. The All Blacks led 24-21 at half-time and, if Scotland could scrummage, we could’ve had quite a different outcome.

It all came down to the 34th minute, when the first scrum of the game was packed. The All Blacks recognised Scotland couldn’t compete and that was that. There was a penalty to be had every time from there on and New Zealand capitalised on those.

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This Nations Championship is a great concept, but it’s not helping the All Blacks. The opponents might be better than Australia, but the winning margins remain comfortable enough to convince the brains trust that this brand of rugby is effective.

Only we know it’s not. South Africa smashed the All Blacks at the breakdown, destroyed their scrum and routinely stole their lineout ball.

None of those facets were put under pressure by Scotland and yet New Zealand’s expansive gameplan was still shown up.

The shame is that Scotland wasn’t good enough to produce more than 40 minutes of good rugby, because it’s going to take defeat to a team of that ilk to convince the All Blacks that trying to go around every opponent doesn’t work.

In the meantime they’ll blunder on, throwing the ball wide and waiting for defenders to fall over themselves. It’ll no doubt work against Wales, leaving you to hope that England can provide a sterner test.

This is still an average All Blacks side and someone other than the Springboks will expose them eventually.

READ MORE: Scotland v All Blacks: Result, scorers, match stats, line-ups