Scotland fully backed their “immaculate” kicker and captain Greig Laidlaw despite the crucial penalty miss in Saturday’s BT Murrayfield clash with the All Blacks.
The TV microphones picked up Laidlaw’s call to his team “let’s make history” late in the game but the scrum-half’s only missed kick of the day was a key one, the penalty chance from wide on the left that would have had the Scots 19-17 ahead against New Zealand going into the final ten minutes.
Try-scorer Tommy Seymour who had his second interception score in successive weeks, this time off a pass from no less than the All Black captain Richie McCaw insisted it was a collective chance missed.
“Things resonate around a team and at one point we thought we had it,” said the wing. “We managed to get a penalty straight from a kick-off after they’d scored, bringing us back to a point.
“I think it was a little bit surprising for the All Blacks as they had gone four points up and we had got straight back at them. We then had the penalty to go in front, but there’s no point in dwelling on that alone.
“Greig has been slightly short of immaculate for us off the tee so he was very unlucky. To be honest, when the cross-field kick came later and I didn’t take it, that put us under pressure as well.
“We had opportunities and unfortunately it didn’t come off for us, but we can be proud in what we’ve done. In a way it’s good good to be disappointed for the right reasons.
“We didn’t go out and fail to perform or play. We did so many things right and put ourselves in a position where we could have done more.”
Laidlaw believed he had the right line with the kick, but pointed to the fact that there was still plenty time left in the game.
“We will never know that,” he said when asked if Scotland would have gone to win if the kick had been successful.
“Clearly, I’m frustrated. I take pride in my kicking and I’m disappointed it stayed out to the right.
“It was just on the right post, but it stayed there. It’s unfortunate that it didn’t come back in. I wish it had gone over, that’s for sure.
“Then again, credit to the All Blacks, they always play for 80 minutes managed to get over the line, taking the game away from us in the dying stages.”
Scotland had to take confidence from the performance, the captain stressed.
“The last couple of times we played New Zealand, we shipped a lot of points and were well beaten by half-time,” he said. “To be right in it near the end, we’ve got to take confidence from that.
“But we’ve also got to learn from it, we can’t let it be a flash in the pan. We need to learn from this and from the Argentina game because we’ve got another big game against Tonga next week and we have to put together an 80 minute performance there.”
Scotland will be forced into a least one change with Mark Bennett’s first half hamstring strain already ruling him out of consideration. One of the youngest players in the squad is likely to be replaced by the eldest, with Sean Lamont having an excellent game for more than an hour as a replacement.
There may be more changes with nine other players getting treatment from the medical team in
Alasdair Dickinson (lower leg), Alex Dunbar (ankle), Adam Ashe, Blair Cowan (both neck strain), Richie Gray, Ross Ford (both shoulder), Tommy Seymour, Greig Laidlaw (both hand) and Euan Murray (groin).
However head coach Vern Cotter, while calling the performance “definite forward progress” seems loath to make any changes for the game against Tonga at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock next week.
“I think these guys would probably also like to put the jersey on next week as well,” he said. “We will sit down and talk things through and make a decision, probably later in the week depending on how the players recover.
“I thought we improved in the second half despite the injuries (to Bennett and Murray) because we stood off a bit in the first half.
“We wanted to keep the score close so that they would have doubts and make errors. I think we achieved that at times.
“The players are playing for each other. They want to do well. There is a collective energy which I think is important.”