'Fully loaded' All Blacks out to preserve Scotland record

Published7 hours ago

New Zealand assistant Mike Blair says the All Blacks will come to Murrayfield "fully loaded" as they seek to preserve their unbeaten record against Scotland on Saturday.

With recent meetings between the sides decided by single-digit margins, Blair says there is a respect for the threat the Scots will pose in the Nations Championship meeting.

"When I played, New Zealand played their second-string team. They gave guys opportunity against us," he said.

"Times have changed from that. We're fully loaded. We're ready to go."

In 33 attempts and 121 years of trying, Scotland have never beaten the All Blacks, and as desperate as they are to end that barren run, New Zealand are just as keen to protect their unblemished record.

"It's really important," said Blair, who played 85 times for Scotland and was head coach of Edinburgh from 2021 to 2023.

"We've got a couple of long-standing records. The Eden Park record [the All Blacks have not lost a Test there since 1994], every time we play there, there's an extra edge to it because you don't want to be the team that loses that record. It's definitely a huge motivation.

"We're really proud of that record [against Scotland]. We know over the last four matches it's been close, so it's going to be a tough contest for sure."

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Having worked under Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend with both Glasgow Warriors and Scotland, Blair retains a strong relationship with his former international team-mate.

"We've been in touch this week," Blair said. "When I was over after the fourth Test [against South Africa], I was over for a couple of weeks and caught up with them and make a point to do that.

"We're just a little bit more cagey around certain things, how we believe the game's developing now and what we can do, because obviously we're up against each other now and I think we play each other before the World Cup as well.

"You need to be aware of certain plays the opposition might do over shape, but you've really got to trust what you're trying to do. I certainly feel like that with attack, you'll make little tweaks in your detail depending on what the defence offer, but if we get our game right then we can impose ourselves.

"So there's a bit of inside knowledge but I don't think it carries a huge amount of weight."

Blair says the squad and staff are still coming to terms with the shock death of the All Blacks head of security, Logan Cadwallader.

Cadwallader passed away suddenly on Sunday following the squad's arrival in Edinburgh, with head coach Rennie saying "we are all devastated".

"It's been a tough couple of days," said Blair.

"Logan was a big part of the All Blacks for 10 years and very close with players and management and obviously a huge, huge shock and it's taken time to deal with."

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