Gregor Townsend expressed his disappointment over Scotland’s sluggish start and defensive lapses as they narrowly lost to New Zealand at Murrayfield.

Scotland, aiming for their first-ever win against the All Blacks, found themselves trailing 17-0 at halftime. The visitors capitalized with early tries from Cam Roigard and Will Jordan.

Roigard’s try came within the first three minutes, following a break by Josh Lord through a glaring gap in the Scottish defense.

Despite the All Blacks being reduced to 14 men three times during the match, they withstood a fierce second-half comeback from Scotland, who managed to equalize at 17-17.

Townsend praised his team’s spirited response but admitted their initial performance fell short of expectations.

Townsend was left proud yet disappointed after watching Scotland run New Zealand close again

Scotland were left to rue missed chances having had the All Blacks on the ropes in the second half

‘It is hard to find the words,’ said the Scotland head coach, whose team also came agonisingly close to beating the All Blacks in 2017 and 2022.

‘We are really disappointed. I’m proud of the effort and character that went into that performance, but also really frustrated as well.

‘The win was there and we needed to kick on when it was 17-17. Outstanding by us to get back into the game, but we need to win these games. We need to make that next step.

‘The reality is that there’s always a winner and a loser in sport and this is not the final game in our season, the final game in the players’ careers. They’ve got one next week. We’d love to play New Zealand more regularly.

‘We will play them next year in the new Nations Cup. So we just have to make the most of the opportunities when we get, but if we don’t, then we make sure we become a better team for it.

‘I would love to play New Zealand next week again, because of what we have learnt from that performance.

‘They are a quality side. I thought they played a lot more rugby than they have done in the Rugby Championship. It made it a really open game.

‘I think they showed in the last 20 minutes of the Ireland game last week that they’re confident to move the ball in their own half.

‘We took a little while to settle in defence, which was frustrating for us. You can’t start slowly in defence or be a little bit passive in defence against an attacking team like New Zealand.

‘I thought we defended our line very well throughout. I thought that was a positive, and then we grew defensively. But, yeah, I think we were just slightly off it in that first 10 or 15 minutes.’

Scotland fought back with tries from Ewan Ashman and Kyle Steyn after the break, with Darcy Graham also having the ball knocked out his hands for a try which would have put Scotland ahead.

Darcy Graham is left gutted as Scotland go down fighting at Murrayfield 

The All Blacks were on the ropes and, with such a weight of momentum behind Scotland, it looked like they would go on to finally end the 120-year wait for a victory in this fixture.

But Damian McKenzie scored right at the death with an outstanding finish in the corner, after the visitors had spent much of the second half camped in their own territory.

The Scots were also held up over the try-line on two occasions in the first half, with Townsend admitting that those moments proved pivotal.

‘There was a lot more pride than frustration,’ he said. ‘At half-time, we needed to come back in terms of scoreboard. New Zealand were outstanding at times in that first half.

‘The frustration for us actually came more when the game was 17-14 rather than 17-17. We had three chances to go ahead and I think that would have made a massive difference.

‘The momentum was with us at 17-14 and that would have forced New Zealand to do something different. So yeah, they had one opportunity in the second half [and scored from it].

‘They took it and the game changed massively. We had many more. We took some of them, but we didn’t take that one extra. that would have put us into the lead going into the last 50 minutes. So that’s frustrating.’

Winger Graham was often found with a New Zealander on his coat-tails 

Scotland fly-half Finn Russell had to have his left knee heavily strapped and was taken off in the closing stages, but Townsend was unclear on whether it is likely to pose any issue moving forward over the next fortnight.

‘His knee was the initial injury and I thought he was outstanding even though he had that knee strain,’ said the Scotland head coach, who now faces two remaining games against Argentina and Tonga in the autumn schedule.

‘The reason we took him off is just because he had an ankle [issue] too, so there were two injuries he was carrying. He doesn’t think they’ll be serious, but it’s obviously too early to say.

‘But during that period, I think just after his knee injury, he had a great 50-22. He was very physical in defence and was obviously a big part of our attack.

‘So we hope he’ll be fit for next week, but we have to deal with injuries. We lost two Lions going into this game, or two Lions weren’t available, but we’ve got other players that can step up.’

Meanwhile, All Blacks fly-half Beauden Barrett said: ‘It was a true Test match and exactly what we prepared for.

‘We have a lot of respect for this Scotland side. It wasn’t an ideal second half for us but we found a way. We knew they were a tough defence to break down. Really difficult to penetrate.’