Vern Cotter
Scotland coach, New Zealander Vern Cotter, will be relishing the opportunity of guiding the Scots against New Zealand and has urged his players to embrace playing against the best team in the world.
Cotter has promised “a very positive approach” to the game after handing the national team their first success at home against the Pumas since 1990.
Cotter has made a promising start to his time in charge of the Scots, winning three of four Tests on the road earlier in the year, and beating Argentina 41-31 in Edinburgh on Saturday.
The former Bay of Plenty coach, Crusaders’ assistant coach and Clermont certainly isn’t getting too carried away, especially with what’s immediately in front of him.
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Given his heritage, it didn’t take long at a media briefing following the Scots’ win over the Pumas for questions to be turned towards the assignment against the All Blacks this weekend and whether his Kiwi background may give him any advantage.
“No, not really. We’re looking at just another opposition, and a very, very good one.
“We’re taking a very positive approach. We’ll prepare as best we can and certainly the game and how it unravels will be important to us.
“We’ve got to embrace the opportunity to play against the best team in the world and really see where we sit,” he said.
Cotter said some heavy analysis of the win over the Pumas would reveal what tweaks would need to be made.
“We’ll sit back quietly and assess what we’ve done. I’ll be working hard to think of a couple of new things for the All Blacks game. Things that went well we’ll be looking to develop, and things that didn’t work quite so well, we’ll be trying to get a more complete performance next week,” he added.
Cotter was pleased with the character of his side, especially after they conceded an early try to the Pumas.
“I really enjoyed watching the players playing for each other, with men down, yellow cards, and seeing our players get up and encourage others to get up and help one another. And of course I’m really pleased for them to get over the line and score the five-pointers,” Cotter told BBC Radio Scotland.
“There were certainly things out there to work on. We’re not getting carried away.”
Scotland scored five tries to beat the Pumas, though their improved attack was tempered by some late defensive slip-ups that allowed Argentina to score 21 points in the final quarter.
There were also some worrying signs against the always-powerful Pumas scrum and Cotter knows the All Blacks will be able to exploit both these areas unless improvements are made.
“We’ll be very honest about the end of the game, and how we conceded penalties,” Cotter said.
“We’ll analyse it completely and there will be a lot of player input as well. They were very quick to point that out in the dressing room at the end there as well, so that’s something we will look at.
“Look, we want to be consistent all over the park, resilient and consistent, and I think sometimes we scrummaged very well and sometimes perhaps didn’t.
“But they are a very good scrummaging team and the All Blacks are as well, and you only have to look at their games in the Rugby Championship to see that they have accessed opposition teams through their scrum. So we knew that was going to be a big challenge.
“We will look at that with full honesty and see what we can do to improve it.”
Scotland have never beaten the All Blacks in 29 tests but have two draws to their credit, 25-25 in Edinburgh in 1983 and 0-0 at the same venue in 1964.
The All Blacks have comfortably won the last six encounters, all at Murrayfield, averaging 50 points on their last two visits.
Scotland have drafted in Edinburgh scrumhalf Sam Hidalgo-Clyne as precautionary injury cover for Henry Pyrgos, who was injured in the win over Argentina.
Pyrgos suffered a concussive episode after entering the game as replacement and will now be subject to a graduated return-to-play protocol.
“The IRB head injury assessment (HIA) trial proved its worth yesterday. It allowed us time to assess Henry fully and ensure he received the appropriate care,” Scotland team doctor, James Robson said.
Other Scotland players received treatment for injuries that Dr Robson described as “significant bumps and bruises” but, at this time, are not considered a lasting concern.