Scotland head coach Andy Robinson was frustrated with his side's slack defensive display in the 51-22 defeat by New Zealand at Murrayfield.
The Scots took an early lead when Tim Visser scored his first of two tries, but the world champions responded with three converted tries in a 10-minute spell and New Zealand went on to extend their unbeaten run to 18 Tests.
Geoff Cross also bagged a try for the Scots, but a disappointing day was worsened by the news that flanker Ross Rennie suffered a dislocated shoulder.
"If you sit off New Zealand they're a very good attacking team and they will take you apart," said Robinson.
"That was a lesson that we knew before going into this game, that we had to get off the line, that we had to put them under pressure.
"We did in parts, but you've got to do that consistently for the whole 80 minutes. I thought we just dropped off a little bit on our line-speed and allowed them to play too comfortably."
The All Blacks finished with six tries as Julian Savea (two), Israel Dagg, Corey Jane, Andrew Hore and Ben Smith touched down, while the composed Dan Carter kicked 21 points.
Asked about Carter's fine individual display, Robinson said: "When you give a guy like that time and space he'll pull the strings.
"He's a fantastic footballer and rugby player. We had to put him under pressure. When he does break the line the team normally score from it."
The only negative for New Zealand came when Adam Thomson was sin-binned for stamping on Alasdair Strokosch's head, but the Scot insisted there should be no further sanction.
"I would say the yellow card's fine. I wouldn't take it any further. It wasn't a big deal," said Strokosch.
Comments
ferdie says...
Don't think there is any chance Thompson will not receive a suspension - as Hansen said though, the difference between malicious or reckless - regardless it is a boot-on-head offence, 1-2 matches my guess.
Posted 13:54 12th November 2012
melkdave says...
Not surprised his frustrated ,Scotland usually are good defencivly.But the amount of missed tackles by them against the ABs was well not acceptable by any standard.If they had done their usually defencive display ,that scoreline would have been alot closer.Not all doom and gloom though ,Scotland do have posatives despite the not very flatering scoreline..Get the defense fixed ,and Scotland wil be a team to watch ,as they really look on the right track now imo.
Posted 09:14 12th November 2012
Isograford says...
Well at least Strokosch is being sensible about it, Thomson's foot had hardly touched his head before it was off again. McCaw has had far worse directed at his head this year.
Couple of soft tries conceded to the Scot's but only one genuinely created one, and an otherwise decent display for a team with 10 changes from the top AB lineup.
Plenty of promising aspects to the Scot's play to work on that might see them do well in the Six Nations this season hopefully.
Posted 07:39 12th November 2012
cuw3100 says...
"I would say the yellow card's fine. I wouldn't take it any further. It wasn't a big deal," said Strokosch.
well done AS. U r an example to all these barbie dolls in football , who try to get other players banned by play-acting.
rugby is indeed a man's game - all the best!!!
Posted 06:51 12th November 2012