New Zealand resist Scotland in a tight 17-22 win

Scotland 17-22 New Zealand, BT Murrayfield Stadium
Scorecard

New Zealand did manage to resist a late fightback from Scotland despite being one man down in the final quarter as they registered a hard-fought 17-22 win at BT Murrayfield Stadium on Saturday.

Finn Russell kicked a sixth minute penalty to get Scotland off the mark following an infringement from Waisake Naholo. Russell had a chance to double the lead soon after Vaea Fifita was penalised but his kick was off the target.

There was a nervy moment in the New Zealand camp when a TMO was consulted after Naholo took Stuart Hogg out in the air but the Dark Blues was awarded just a penalty which they couldn't quite convert it.

At the stroke of half time Beauden Barrett helped New Zealand open their account and level the scores 3-3 with a penalty of his own.

The All Blacks showed a lot of intent in the second half as a long-range pass from Rieko Ioane set up a touchdown for Codie Taylor and soon Damian McKenzie also went past the line in the 50th minute with Barrett's conversion stretching New Zealand's lead to 3-15.

Steve Hansen's side suffered a major setback when Sam Cane was sin-binned in the 60th minute for a cynical foul on defence near the try line and shortly Jonny Gray scored the opening try for the Dark Blues.

Despite being one man down, McKenzie offloaded to Barrett in the 66th minute with the fly-half slotting a converted try as the scoreline remained 10-22 with the final 10 minutes were nearing. However, New Zealand were held back further when Wyatt Crockett was yellow carded in the 70th minute for a tackle on Ali Price. They had a 12 point lead to defend with one man down.

Scotland gathered momentum as Huw Jones went past the line in the 76th minute and Russell converted it to bring down the gap to five points but their efforts were not quite enough to register their first ever victory over New Zealand.