Ashman's hat-trick in vain as All Blacks win 43-21 at Murrayfield

Ewan Ashman wrote his name into rugby history at Murrayfield on Saturday, but history alone was not enough to beat New Zealand. The Scotland hooker scored a first-half hat-trick against the All Blacks — the first ever by a Scotland player in this fixture — and still finished on the losing side as the visitors pulled away for a 43-21 Nations Championship victory. Scotland trailed by only three points at half-time, then failed to score a single point after the break.

It was a match of two sharply different halves. The first produced seven tries and a 24-21 scoreline that had a sold-out Murrayfield dreaming of a first Scottish win over New Zealand in 121 years. The second produced 19 unanswered points for the All Blacks, three more tries, and a reminder of why Scotland have now gone 34 Tests against these opponents without a win, with two draws in a rivalry stretching back to 1905.

A first half for the history books

New Zealand struck first through Wallace Sititi in the fourth minute, but Scotland hit back immediately. A superb 50-22 kick from Kyle Rowe gave the hosts field position deep in All Blacks territory, and from the resulting lineout Ashman drove over from a maul, with Finn Russell converting to put Scotland ahead. Ethan de Groot and Codie Taylor then crossed for New Zealand to restore a 17-7 lead, before Ashman struck again in the 26th minute, running a sharp line to finish while Lakai sat in the sin-bin for repeated offside offences.

Beauden Barrett restored the visitors' ten-point advantage with the first of his two tries in the 31st minute, but Scotland had the final word of the half. With Sititi yellow-carded for going off his feet, Scotland went to the corner, the backs piled into a five-metre lineout maul, and Ashman was the man at the back of it to complete his hat-trick two minutes before the break, Russell again converting. At 24-21, Murrayfield believed.

The treble put Ashman in select company. He became the first Scotland men's player to score a hat-trick against New Zealand, and only the fifth player from any nation to do so, after Australia's Greg Cornelsen, South Africa's Ray Mordt and Marius Joubert, and Wales' Tom Rogers. He is only the second forward on that list after Cornelsen, and the first front-rower. No Scot had previously managed more than two tries in a Test against the All Blacks, a mark reached by Doddie Weir at the 1995 Rugby World Cup and Tim Visser in 2012.

Discipline decides the second half

Whatever Gregor Townsend said at half-time, the second half belonged entirely to New Zealand. Josh Moorby crossed in the 48th minute, and moments later Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu was sent to the sin-bin in the 50th minute after a sequence of penalties against the hosts. Barrett crossed for his second try almost immediately, and replacement hooker Asafo Aumua sealed the win in the 68th minute. Damian McKenzie converted four of New Zealand's seven tries as the All Blacks won the second half 19-0.

Ill-discipline was the story of Scotland's collapse. The hosts conceded 13 penalties to New Zealand's eight, and Tuipulotu took responsibility afterwards for his side's failure to stay accurate after the break. Scotland had arrived at Murrayfield encouraged by four successive narrow defeats against the All Blacks, believing the gap had closed. Instead, the second half showed how quickly a promising position can slip away at this level when the penalty count climbs and the set piece comes under pressure.

Barrett reaches fifty

Barrett's double carried its own milestone. His first try of the afternoon was his 49th in Test rugby; his second, early in the second half, took him to 50, making him only the second All Black after Will Jordan to reach the mark. It was a fitting reward for a veteran full-back who had already helped stretch Scotland's defence with his running from deep, and it underlined the depth of quality Dave Rennie's side could call on once the game opened up after the break.

What it means

The result keeps New Zealand unbeaten in the inaugural Nations Championship, after three wins in the southern hemisphere section in July, and extends their unbeaten run in this fixture to 34 matches. For Scotland, the defeat is a familiar frustration, but Ashman's hat-trick is a genuine piece of history: the Edinburgh hooker, the only Edinburgh player in Townsend's starting XV, now has four tries in his last two Tests against New Zealand.

Scotland's attention now turns to next Sunday, when Australia arrive at Murrayfield still searching for a reset after their 45-22 defeat by England at Twickenham. Townsend's side will take belief from a first half in which they scored three tries against the All Blacks, but they will know the lesson of this match just as clearly: against the best teams, 40 minutes of brilliance is not enough without 80 minutes of discipline.