Ardie Savea’s yellow card early in the second half at Murrayfield might have given Scotland a sniff, but the All Blacks managed to get some impact off the bench to close out their second game of the Grand Slam tour.
Savea’s ten minutes in the bin wasn’t the only time an All Black player sat on the chair off the field, with Leroy Carter spending time on the sideline for tripping a Scotland player, while Wallace Sititi was penalised for stopping an attack by knocking the ball down.
The All Blacks have had discipline issues under Scott Robertson in the past, but the stand in captain for the injured Scott Barrett believes they just need to be more accurate in those situations.
“Yeah, I think we started well in the first half, and then, like Razor said, it’s just myself getting a yellow card, and we’ve got to be more accurate in those moments,” Savea told reporters post-match in Edinburgh.
“Those are just individual fixes that we can look hard in the mirror and do that, but that’s footy, and I’m just proud of the boys because that could have gone either way.
“We can either take a breath and move towards that pressure for what the Scottish were bringing to us, or we just be calm and then focus on our next moments and next moments, and I thought we did that towards the end.”
When Savea was sent to the bin, especially without their normal captain in Scott Barrett and vice-captain in Jordie Barrett, a lot of the leadership pressure was put on the senior players like Codie Taylor and Beauden Barrett.
Savea feels like the team dealt with the pressure of being down to 14 men well, keeping composed during Scotland’s momentum swing.
“As a leader, you’re hurting on the sideline, but at the same time, you’ve got to come on and bring composure, bring energy, the right sort of energy the boys need.
“I thought that’s what we did, not just myself, but Beauden and Codie while I was off, they led really well. So first and foremost, not get carded and put our teams under pressure and then obviously, just keep trying to stack moments again.”
The 105-Test loose forward says that despite the patchy performance against Scotland, they won, and they can move onto England next weekend at Allianz Stadium in London.
“We’re sitting here acting like we lost, we won and as an All Black we’re really grateful and blessed, I know in rugby you’re never satisfied, or we’re never happy with a performance,” Savea said.
“But to come out of that and the special occasion that it was for Murrayfield, and as an All Black under the pressure we were under for the boys to come out with the win, we’re really grateful and happy.”