<\/p>\n
\nRory Hutchinson of Scotland celebrates his try with Kyle Steyn, 2025.
\nPhoto: Brett Phibbs \/ www.photosport.nz\n<\/p>\n
All Blacks v Scotland<\/p>\n
Kick-off: 4:10am<\/p>\n
Murrayfield, Edinburgh<\/p>\n
Live blog updates on RNZ Sport<\/p>\n
Scotland’s Kyle Steyn will start on the wing against New Zealand in their Autumn International series fixture as they celebrate 100 years of playing at Murrayfield and seek a first-ever win over the All Blacks.<\/p>\n
Scotland thumped the United States 85-0 last weekend and barely raised a sweat, but have made several changes for the clash with New Zealand, who they have only met five times in the last 17 years.<\/p>\n
Steyn will partner fellow wing Darcy Graham and fullback Blair Kinghorn in the back three, with Rory Hutchinson to partner the experienced Sione Tuipulotu in the centres.<\/p>\n
Tuipulotu’s duel with New Zealand rival Leicester Fainga’anuku will be one of the key battles to watch.<\/p>\n
“There is a lot of competition through our team, the backs in particular,” Scotland coach Gregor Townsend said.<\/p>\n
“Rory has been in the form of his life, defensively he has been outstanding. He will blend really well with Sione, and is a good passer and a kicker.<\/p>\n
“Kyle has been in excellent form too and it is a competitive area in that wing position.”<\/p>\n
Finn Russell and Ben White resume their half-back pairing having started all five matches in this year’s Six Nations.<\/p>\n
Ewan Ashman is at hooker with props Pierre Schoeman and D’Arcy Rae either side of him, while Scott Cummings and Grant Gilchrist make up the second row.<\/p>\n
Jack Dempsey is at number eight, with Gregor Brown and Matt Fagerson on either flank.<\/p>\n
New Zealand have won 30 of their 32 matches against Scotland to go with two draws since the teams first met in 1905.<\/p>\n
Townsend knows the challenge waiting for his side as the All Blacks chase a Grand Slam this year, having come from behind to beat Ireland 26-13 in Chicago last weekend.<\/p>\n
“They had a great win last week, they have had a lot of matches this year against quality opposition. They are cohesive and coming here to play for a Grand Slam,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The mindset to win (from Scotland players) has been there right from the beginning and the players are aware of the challenge, but also the opportunity we have this weekend.”<\/p>\n
Scotland team<\/p>\n
15 – Blair Kinghorn, 14 – Darcy Graham, 13 – Rory Hutchinson, 12 – Sione Tuipulotu (captain), 11 – Kyle Steyn, 10 – Finn Russell, 9 – Ben White, 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<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
– Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory Hutchinson of Scotland celebrates his try with Kyle Steyn, 2025. Photo: Brett Phibbs \/ www.photosport.nz All Blacks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":267149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,1590,63,1589,44,1591,1588,1586,1587,760,85],"class_list":["post-267148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-audio","tag-australia","tag-current-affairs","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}