'Scotland grew another leg': Relieved New Zealand explain second-half collapse and ill-discipline

New Zealand led 17-0 at the interval thanks to tries from Cam Roigard and Will Jordan, but Scotland returned after the break rejuvenated and levelled the scores with 20 minutes remaining after New Zealand played 30 minutes with a man down following yellow cards to Leroy Carter, Wallace Sititi and Savea himself.

However, New Zealand regrouped and substitute Damien McKenzie scored an impressive individual try in the corner and booted a long-range penalty to maintain the visitors’ unbeaten record over the Scots.

“Scotland grew another leg,” said Savea, “and it's a testament to them. I said it in the week, they're a quality side. Seventeen-nil down, they're going to throw everything at you, and they did, and parts of that game we didn't handle it. It's on us to actually when we are in the lead like that, how can we be more ruthless, because, you know, we weren't.”

Savea admitted it was tough to watch Scotland whittle down their lead. "Yeah, I was off the field,” he laughed. “But, as a leader, you're hurting on the sidelines, but at the same time, you've got to come on and bring composure, bring energy, the right sort of energy the boys need, and I thought that's what we did. First and foremost, not get carded and put our teams under pressure, and then obviously just keep trying to stack moments.

“I think we're sitting here and we're acting like a loss, but we won, and as an All Black, we're really grateful and blessed. I know in rugby, you're never satisfied, you're never happy with the performance. But to come out of that on a special occasion and under the pressure we were under, we're really grateful and happy.”

Super-sub gets loads of praise

New Zealand head coach Scott Robertson paid tribute to his super-sub Damian McKenzie and admitted his team needs to tighten up its discipline - starting against England next weekend.

“I thought Damian was pretty handy, wasn’t he?” said Robertson. “Part of the day in 20-odd minutes. You need someone that’s clutch and he is pretty mercurial.

“At half-time we were pretty clear on what we needed to do. Then we dropped the kick-off and 20 minutes later we were under a lot of pressure. Proper Test match. We got three yellow cards. It’s something around self-control, those little impulses and the decisions we made - we could have been better at.

“There were some amazing efforts in defence. We were so proud of that. We could have just rolled over and given up on one of the efforts, but we didn’t. We stayed in it for such long periods of time, and when we needed to turn over, we did.

“The execution wasn’t perfect. We could have put them away and it could have been 30 points. But we won tough and that’s what we’re really proud of.

“It was 17-all, wasn’t it? Momentum was their way and we got the yellow cards. But when we held the ball we looked good. We just wanted to get the ball back, and we stole a lineout and momentum came back our way. We just wanted the momentum swing, and we got it, and that’s what saw us home.”