Scotland 21-43 New Zealand reaction: Townsend makes team warning as Tuipulotu holds hands up

Gregor Townsend has warned his Scotland players their places in the team are under threat as he made clear his disappointment with the level of performance in the 43-21 defeat by New Zealand.

The head coach felt his side were ill-disciplined and inaccurate during the Nations Championship match at Murrayfield in which the visitors outscored the hosts by seven tries to three.

Not even a first-half hat-trick by Scotland hooker Ewan Ashman could lift the gloom and the Scots failed to score a point in the second half.

Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu at full time after the defeat by New Zealand. | SNS Group / SRU

The All Blacks had led 24-21 at the break but pulled away after the interval to maintain their unbeaten record against Scotland which has now been extended to 34 games over 121 years.

Townsend hinted at changes for next Sunday’s Nations Championship game against Australia in Edinburgh.

“We'll have good analysis of the players' performances and obviously the team's performance and what we do next week because we have high standards, high expectations of the team," he said.

“We believe they can deliver them but if they can't, there are other players in the squad that can come in and do a job.”

While the first-half was even, with Ashman’s hat-trick - the first by a Scotland player against the All Blacks - countered by tries from Wallace Sititi, Ethan de Groot, Codie Taylor and Beauden Barrett, New Zealand shut out Scotland in the second period and scored further tries through Josh Moorby, Beauden Barrett again and Asafo Aumua.

“I’m clearly disappointed that we didn't put one of our best performances out there,” said Townsend. “That's what you prepare for. You obviously prepare to try to win games, but it's more about, ‘can we deliver a performance we can be proud of, our supporters can be proud of?’ And it wasn't there today. So that's frustrating.

“The disappointment in the first half was how we enabled New Zealand to get into the game and to get in our 22 by not having to do that much. When you get a penalty advantage or a penalty, you just kick the ball into the 22 and then you're able to build a power game or an evasive strike play game, which they showed and they scored points.

“From the other side, I felt the effort that was going into our attack, the breakdown was excellent in the first half. It was clearly putting New Zealand under pressure with two yellow cards [for Peter Lakai and Sititi] and three tries and I think a couple of times [we were] held up over the line. So those were the positives, but the negatives were we can't allow the opposition so much easy access.”

It was Scotland’s heaviest defeat by New Zealand since 2012 when Andy Robinson’s side were beaten 51-22 at Murrayfield. Townsend’s three previous matches in charge against the All Blacks have all been close, with the Scots having chances to win but he was left frustrated by the manner of Saturday’s defeat.

“I have high expectations of the team,” he said. “They have high expectations of each other and we didn't deliver them today.”

Asked if he was confident the players would be better next weekend against the Wallabies, Townsend said: “Yeah, well, they'll have to be. I've got evidence from the team over the last few seasons and definitely the last 12 months that they can be very accurate.

“I think the stats show we’ve had the fewest turnovers of any team in the top ten. It's a real credit to the players that the way we play, we have a lot of possession, but we don't turn over the ball much. Today we did. That wasn't good enough and our discipline in giving away 13 penalties isn't good enough.”

Few of Scotland’s big guns performed to the level to which we have become accustomed, although Townsend did praise Huw Jones and Ashman. Scotland were second best at the scrum, wingers Jamie Dobie and Kyle Steyn never really threatened and playmakers Finn Russell and Sione Tuipulotu failed to create much. Russell and halfback partner Ben White were subbed off after 63 minutes, replaced by Tom Jordan and George Horne.

“Just like any player, we felt the guys on the bench were going to potentially make a difference,” said Townsend. “It's about an opportunity for them.”

Tuipulotu had spoken pre-match of “chasing greatness” by becoming the first Scotland team to beat the All Blacks and the home captain said the “pursuit would continue”.

“It's not the conversation I wanted to be having after the game, I'd rather be having the conversation now that we created history,” said the centre.

“But yeah, I suppose the pursuit continues and we've got to regroup and go again. And the more we can play teams like the All Blacks and the Springboks and those Southern Hemisphere teams, the better I think for Scottish rugby. Usually they're three and four years apart.”

Tuipulotu held his hands up for the yellow card he was shown in the 50th minute, although in his defence it was for accumulated team infringements.

“I thought we got aligned pretty quickly in the first half and we managed to put some things together and I thought me getting yellow-carded probably didn't help the team a lot,” he said. “[When] a captain gets yellow-carded, it's not good for anyone. So I take full responsibility for that.

“I should have been on the field there during that period to help the team. So, yeah, I thought we just probably weren't as aligned and on the same page moving as a unit in that second half to put anything together.”