All Blacks v Scotland: All Blacks confront emotional challenge as Scotland sense opportunity - Gregor Paul
All Blacks v Scotland – 3.10am, Sunday
Gregor Paul in Edinburgh
The All Blacks were struck by genuine tragedy earlier this week when their long-serving head of security Logan Cadwallader died.
Sport, so riddled with hyperbole, often tries to contextualise wins and losses as great or catastrophic and the language leads to a loss of perspective.
But losing a valued team member has made the week in Edinburgh an emotionally wrought experience for the players, coaches and management who have been grief-stricken and heavily impacted by the sight of their hotel swarming with paramedics and then police.
“He meant a lot to the team so there has been a big emotional toll,” All Blacks coach Dave Rennie said on Thursday when he named the team to play Scotland. “It has really rocked the squad.
“He wouldn’t be happy with us moping around the week and not put in a performance … but it has been a tough week.”
And that is precisely the challenge the All Blacks face – trying to find a way to process what has happened and yet somehow turn up at Murrayfield and deliver a performance to honour the loss of a man many of the team considered a friend.
But as Rennie says, the All Blacks just need to find a way because that’s what All Blacks do. And also because they are facing a Scotland team for whom he has the deepest respect as well as detailed knowledge.
Rennie, who spent three years at Glasgow between 2017-2020, played an instrumental role in shaping the careers of some of the key members of the Scotland team.
As did his assistant Mike Blair, who played for Glasgow at the tail-end of his career before then joining Rennie’s coaching staff as an assistant coach.
Blair also spent time as an assistant with the Scotland team before becoming head coach of Edinburgh between 2021-2023, and so the All Blacks have a uniquely deep understanding and relationship with this Scotland team.
There were reminders of that during the week when the All Blacks trained at Merchiston Castle on Tuesday and Thursday, while on Wednesday, Blair was back at the school, this time to watch his son play halfback for the First XV against Dollar Academy.
Rennie and Blair had also appeared at an event organised by sponsors of the Glasgow Warriors, and for the latter, there would have been a sense of familiarity when he faced the media mid-week, knowing and recognising faces for the first time since he was appointed All Blacks assistant earlier this year.
As preparation weeks, this one has been like no other and it has come just as the All Blacks face arguably what will be the best prepared, most talented and confident Scotland team of the professional era.
No one has bothered to coin any phraseology to label this Scotland team, but they have in their midst generational talent such as Finn Russell, Sione Tuipulotu, Huw Jones and Kyle Steyn, and other genuine world-class stars in Kyle Rowe and Blair Kinghorn.
This is a team that uses the ball as well if not better than any other in world rugby and in Steyn, they have arguably the best kick retriever in the business.
The talent is most definitely there, but there is still the whole question of whether they truly believe they can beat the All Blacks. It’s a mental hurdle that the Scots just don’t seem to be able to clear.
They have had no problem beating England recently and put them away in Edinburgh again this year, while also scoring 50 points against France in one of the most destructive and innovative performances in Scotland’s history.
This is why it has felt this week like rugby has greater traction in Edinburgh than it ever has. There are player promotions everywhere – sponsors’ branding in shop windows, posters promoting upcoming games plastered anywhere they can be, and a handful of trams which now buzz down the city’s iconic Princes St covered entirely in action shots of the players.
Maybe 10 years ago Scotland would have been intimidated by the All Blacks, but not now. Not now that they have found an identity and place in the public imagination in a way that maybe the only Grand Slam winning team of 1990 ever has.
The Scottish fanbase has fallen in love with the way this team plays because they are the great entertainers. Russell is one for the impossible and Jones has a crazy ability to scorch through holes no one else has seen.
But none of this answers the question of whether Scotland truly believe they can make history by becoming the first to beat the All Blacks.
They had a golden chance to win last year when an All Blacks team full of vulnerabilities and insecurities fell apart after halftime. And maybe that was their chance because the All Blacks team they will encounter in 2026 may be similar in personnel to the one they met last year, but it is entirely different in mindset, ability and culture.
Rennie’s All Blacks are tougher, more cohesive and structured. They know their game, they respect the threat and they have confronted the trauma they faced this week and talked about how best to process it.
Sunday will be an emotional day for the All Blacks, but they will use that to ensure it is not a historic one for Scotland.
Gregor Paul is one of New Zealand’s most respected rugby writers and columnists. He has won multiple awards for journalism and written several books about sport.
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