Scotland take on New Zealand in the November International Rugby series at Murrayfield on Saturday and the Scots are still searching for a first ever win over the All Blacks.
Scotland v New Zealand, Saturday 8th November, Edinburgh, KO 17:10 (South African time)
Referee: Nic Berry (RA)
Assistant Referees: Pierre Brousset (FFR), Morné Ferreira (SARU)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU)
Weather Forecast - Edinburgh
Scotland:
Scotland tuned up for this with a 85-0 demolition of USA at this venue last week. They rested a few regular starters but still smashed the main handicap line of 42.5 points and scored 13 ties in total.
Scotland’s mid year program saw them win at the Maori All Blacks (29-26), they lost in Fiji (29-14) and then beat Samoa (41-12).
Earlier this year Scotland finished down the field in the Six Nations with 2 wins and 3 defeats. They started with a 31-19 home win over Italy before defeats at home to Ireland (32-18) and away to England (16-15). Their second win came at home to Wales (35-29) and they finished that tournament with a 35-16 loss in France.
In the November international series of 2024 Scotland beat Fiji (57-17), Portugal (59-21) and Australia (27-13) but they lost to South Africa (32-15).
After this the Scots will host Argentina and finally Tonga.
New Zealand:
New Zealand took on Ireland in Chicago last week. They started as favourites at around 5.5 points on the main handicap line and conceded the first 10 points of the game before reducing the deficit to 10-7 at half time and completing the comeback in the second half to run out winners 26-13. Savea, Williams, Sititi and Roigard were the All Black try scorers but there was subsequent bad news with both Scott and Jordie Barrett now ruled out of this match through injury.
New Zealand won 4 and lost 2 of their Rugby Championship matches this year, finishing as runners up to the Springboks with both teams on 19 points.
They began well with a 41-24 victory away to Los Pumas but having remained in Argentina for the second round the roles were reversed and they went down 29-23. In Round 3 they edged out the Springboks 24-17 in Auckland but a round later the wheels came off in Wellington as the Boks romped to a record 43-10 win. The All Blacks did finish with back to back wins over the Wallabies (33-24 at home and 28-14 away) but their points difference was way inferior to that of South Africa.
In July New Zealand completed a 3-0 clean sweep of a visiting French team, winning the first test 31-27, the second 43-17 and the third 29-19.
In the November 2024 series the All Blacks beat England (24-22) at Twickenham and also got the better of Ireland (23-13) in Dublin. They lost a thriller in France (30-29) and finished off with a 29-11 victory in Italy.
After this New Zealand will visit England and Wales
Recent Head to Head
Nov 2022 INT Edinburgh Scotland 23–31 New Zealand
Nov 2017 INT Edinburgh Scotland 17–22 New Zealand
Nov 2014 INT Edinburgh Scotland 16–24 New Zealand
The teams have played 32 times with New Zealand winning 30 matches and 2 games ended in a draw (and those draws came back in in 1983 and 1964)
Team News
Scotland: 15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Rory Hutchinson, 12 Sione Tuipulotu (captain), 11 Kyle Steyn, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben While, 8 Jack Dempsey, 7 Matt Fagerson, 6 Gregor Brown, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Scott Cummings, 3 D’Arcy Rae, 2 Ewan Ashman, 1 Pierre Schoeman.
Replacements: 16 George Turner, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Elliot Millar Mills, 19 Marshall Sykes, 20 Rory Darge, 21 Josh Bayliss, 22 Jamie Dobie, 23 Tom Jordan
New Zealand: 15 Will Jordan, 14 Leroy Carter, 13 Leicester Fainga’anuku, 12 Quinn Tupaea, 11 Caleb Clarke, 10 Beauden Barrett, 9 Cam Roigard, 8 Peter Lakai, 7 Ardie Savea (captain), 6 Wallace Sititi, 5 Fabian Holland, 4 Josh Lord, 3 Fletcher Newell, 2 Codie Taylor, 1 Ethan de Groot.
Replacements: 16 Samisoni Taukei’aho, 17 Tamaiti Williams, 18 Pasilio Tosi, 19 Sam Darry, 20 Du’Plessis Kirifi, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Billy Proctor, 23 Damian McKenzie
The Betting
Average early show, subject to change
Scotland +7.5 points at 9/10
New Zealand -7.5 points at 9/10
Note, odds quoted are available at the time of writing but are subject to change.
This Weeks Bets
Brent Graham's betting angle and plays for this week’s internationals will be posted on this blog.
Finally, all this week's rugby tips from members of the Goodforthegame community can be found on the weekly rugby thread on our brand new discussion forum. If you haven't done so already, register a forum account here.