All Blacks’ performance against Scotland won’t be good enough against England

Sunday, 9 November 2025

ANALYSIS: The All Blacks continue to look less than the sum of their parts.

They needed some individual brilliance from Damian McKenzie to beat Scotland 25-17 in Murrayfield, but they spent an awful lot of the test in their own territory and lacked control for long periods.

The three yellow cards reflected their lack of discipline, while their failure to crack Scotland when they had a sustained period of pressure close to their line in the first half almost came back to haunt them.

During that period, the All Blacks looked uncertain if they wanted to use their forwards to bash through the front door or find space on the edge - and the Scots visibly grew in confidence when they repelled them.

Even though the All Blacks led 17-0 at halftime due a Will Jordan try just before the break, they never looked like they were physically on top of the Scots and it was no surprise to see the home side build up a head of steam in the second half.

The All Blacks’ performances against Ireland and Scotland over the past two weeks won’t be good enough to beat England at Twickenham next week.

They need to find more consistency and with just two tests left in the year it still doesn’t look like they have a razor-sharp idea of what the game plan is.

The All Blacks XV looked more connected in their impressive 31-14 win against England ‘A’ in Bath overnight on Sunday, and they’ve only been together as a group for a few weeks.

Perhaps the All Blacks’ relative inexperience is one factor - for all of Peter Lakai and Wallace Sititi’s positive contribution at Murrayfield, the former was guilty of a poor knock-on at the start of the second half and the latter coughed up a cheap yellow card with a blatant knock-on.

And, in their defence, they won the final quarter for the third test in succession as the bench forwards again added some impact.

However, Scotland blew multiple chances and star No 10 Finn Russell was playing on one leg for most of the test before he finally succumbed to a knee injury with about five minutes remaining.

The All Blacks’ incomplete performances this year have been puzzling. As evidenced by some of the individual contributions over the past two weeks - and that convincing All Blacks XV win over England’s shadow side - the quality and depth of players isn’t the issue.

But there still doesn’t appear to be the ability to piece together long periods of compelling rugby, particularly against the better sides.

They also lost more aerial battles against Scotland than they won, and England will go after them in this area at Twickenham - particularly as in-form Caleb Clarke will miss the test after copping a hip to the head during a tackle at Murrayfield.

England will also take on the All Blacks up front after seeing Scotland - not noted for their tight-five prowess - power over for a maul try in which Ardie Savea was also yellow carded.

The grand slam tour rolls on to London, but the All Blacks will need to find some significant improvements in the space of a week.