Scotland stunned by All Black's speed

Scotland captain Andy Nicol was stunned by the speed of the All Black counter-attacks in Saturday's first Test, which saw Scotland concede a record 11 tries in their biggest Test defeat.

Nicol thought the Super 12 competition provided Southern Hemisphere teams with a big advantage in terms of playing the game at high speed.

Nicol and Scotland coach Ian McGeechan blamed their team's high error rate for the 11 All Black tries. "We've got a second chance," McGeechan said. "We will look very hard at ourselves and work on the aspects we are very disappointed with."

Scrumhalf Nicol said he was amazed at the speed with which the All Blacks were able to hit back from defence. At least five All Black tries came from counter-attacks, twice after Scottish centre Gregor Townsend lost the ball in the tackle.

"They get organised very quickly. It just happens - you take the ball in and the next thing you know they've taken it and are coming at you like an express train," Nicol said.

"The Super 12 encourages players to use the space and be comfortable with the ball in hand. The All Blacks tight five are all athletes. Now we have to work really hard on our ball retention and tackles."

McGeechan said that although his team kept the ball for long periods in the first 20 minutes, they lost patience or were frustrated by the All Blacks defence.

"We started doing things that we didn't need to. We have to learn to be a bit more patient." New Zealand coach Wayne Smith played down Saturday's win. "I was surprised by the margin of the score, especially as Scotland had so much pressure in the first half. It was our counterattacking that brought the scores," he said.

Scotland will be without worldclass lock Scott Murray, who suffered a rib injury in the first half of the match, for the rest of the tour. He will be replaced by Australian-born Nathan Hines. Hines received an SOS call late on Saturday night and was on a flight out of Edinburgh within two hours.

"It is a tremendous blow, because Scott was playing very well on this tour," said McGeechan.

Murray is the second player to join the tour casualty list after hooker Steve Brotherstone flew home with a shoulder problem, although his replacement, Glasgow Caledonians' Gavin Scott, linked up with the party yesterday and will be on the bench for the match against Hawke's Bay tomorrow. Scotland travelled to Napier yesterday to prepare for the encounter.

SCOTLAND (Team for Tuesday): D Lee; C Murray, D Officer, A Bulloch, C Joiner; G Shiel (capt), G Beveridge; J Petrie, M Leslie, D Mackinnon; S Campbell, I Fullarton; G McIlwham, S Scott, A Jacobsen. Replacements: G Scott, M Stewart, N Hines, R Reid, G Burns, D Hodge, C Moir.