Scotland trail in All Blacks’ wake once more despite Ewan Ashman hat-trick

Scotland never got going; Murrayfield never got going; New Zealand did. Scotland have had some agonising defeats here in recent years, as they chase that first win against the All Blacks. This was not one of them. This was dispiritingly routine.

Despite a hat-trick of tries for Ewan Ashman, the irrepressible hooker, in the first half, Scotland could not register a point at all in the second. New Zealand cantered away to a tally of seven tries, two for Beauden Barrett who beetled through Scotland’s outside defences with ease, scoring 19 unanswered points in the second half.

We always speculate at this time of year whether it is of advantage to the southern-hemisphere teams to arrive in the north fully match fit, or whether they might be fatigued at the end of their season. There was no question which team looked on it for this one. Scotland looked as if they were disconnected, which might be expected in their first outing of the season, but that has not been the case in those agonising defeats at this same time of year in the past. This flop will prove galling.

Whether it will feel so for the north in general, as the devisers of this weird Nations Championship will hope, remains to be seen. There may or may not be much esprit de corps among the teams of the north, but one thing is for sure, the All Blacks and the Springboks look a class apart at the top of the south’s table. Four wins out of four; four bonus points out of four. Two rounds of round-robin to play.

At times tries seemed almost too easy to come by. That applied to Scotland as much as the other way round in the first half, when seven tries were scored, but the home team could not rejoin the party after the break.

There has been a feeling for a while that lineout-and-drives have begun to dominate the modern game – and the directives issued during the off-season targeting defensive players disrupting these have hardly discouraged teams from going for the corner. All but one of those seven first-half tries featured attacking lineouts from penalties kicked to the corner, four of them directly from the subsequent mauls set up.

Two of Ashman’s hat-trick of tries were from neatly executed Scotland lineouts, and Wallace Sititi and Codie Taylor’s were likewise taken for the All Blacks. The visitors held a three-point lead at the break, despite yellow cards shown to Peter Lakai and Sititi. Scotland were actually penalised more in that period, but New Zealand’s offences were committed during peak pressure.

Ashman’s second try was from open play, following the mandatory penalty to the corner after Lakai’s yellow. Huw Jones was held up, and from the dropout Kyle Steyn broke down one wing, Kyle Rowe down the other, and Ashman hit a fine line off Ben White’s pass.

But New Zealand had the bonus point after half an hour. Their second try had followed some fine interplay down the left between Tupou Vaa’i and Josh Moorby. Cam Roigard took a tap penalty after a chase of Beauden Barrett’s chip ahead, and Ethan de Groot drove over from close range. Their fourth, though, came from another attacking lineout, this one spun wide after a few juicy drives round the fringes, where McKenzie put over the most senior of the game’s three Barretts, Beauden, with sweet timing.

Scotland badly needed to be the first to make a move after the break. They did not.

New Zealand it was who pulled away in the third quarter with seeming ease. Novelly, they chose to scrum an attacking penalty and showed how to score of that set piece, too. Scott Barrett’s long pass was gathered by Moorby for a simple run-in. Rugby shouldn’t be made to look so easy.

Worse was to follow for the Scots. The captain, Sione Tuipulotu, was sent to the sin bin, as Scotland continued to infringe with the All Blacks now constantly on the attack. They sent that penalty to the corner, but showed off a prettier interpretation of the attacking lineout, McKenzie looping round Quinn Tupaea to put Beauden Barrett over for the second time.

Murrayfield was well and truly silenced, which was bad, given there was another half an hour still to play. Asafo Aumua’s try in the final quarter, New Zealand’s seventh, hardly shifted that vibe. Another penalty to touch, another lineout. This one was far enough out to make a drive unrealistic, so they worked a try another way. The throw went long, and Lakai looped blind and sent Aumua clean through.

Easy. Too easy. That first win over the All Blacks looks as distant a dream as ever.