Gregor Townsend delighted at overseeing first-ever Scotland rugby victory v Maori All Blacks

That 29-26 win at Whangarei’s Semenoff Stadium was the two sides’ first meeting since an 18-15 loss for the Scots in New Plymouth, also on New Zealand’s North Island, in June 2000, with Ian McGeechan in charge, and only their third ever, the other one being a 24-8 beating at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium in November 1998, with Melrose’s Jim Telfer as head coach.

Edinburgh hooker Harrison, making his fourth international appearance, was one of 11 players yet to reach double figures for caps in a starting line-up with just 132 caps between them, backed up by a bench only adding another 84, with George Turner’s 45 accounting for more than half that total.

On for the first 50 minutes before making way for Turner, 32, the 23-year-old was part of front-row with just five caps combined at kick-off, loosehead prop Nathan McBeth having two and tighthead Fin Richardson being hitherto uncapped.

Glasgow Warriors scrum-half George Horne, now with 37 Scotland appearances to his name, was the most-capped player in head coach Gregor Townsend’s starting XV and he shared vice-skippering duties with blindside flanker Josh Bayliss.

Inside-centre Stafford McDowall was named as captain for the second time, having previously taken charge for his country’s 59-21 win against Portugal at Murrayfield in November.

That was the opening match of this summer’s tour for Townsend’s squad, with two more to follow – against Fiji in Suva this coming Saturday and Samoa back in New Zealand, in Auckland, on Friday, July 18.

Edinburgh hooker Harrison is one of three Borderers in the Scots’ touring party, along with Hawick’s Darcy Graham and Rory Sutherland, but he was the only one in a match-day squad featuring three new faces.

Joining him, Richardson, McBeth, Horne, Bayliss and 14-times-capped McDowall, 27, in the weekend’s starting XV were Ollie Smith, Harry Paterson, Rory Hutchinson, Arron Reed, Adam Hastings, Marshall Sykes, Cameron Henderson, Andy Onyeama-Christie and Ben Muncaster.

Turner’s fellow replacements were Alec Hepburn, Will Hurd, Max Williamson, Gregor Brown, Alexander Masibaka, Fergus Burke and Jamie Dobie.

Former Peebles player Harrison made his international debut as a replacement during a 52-11 win away to Chile last July 2024, scored his only Scotland try to date later that same month in a 31-19 victory versus Uruguay and was handed his first start against the Portuguese in November.

The tourists’ tries on Saturday were scored by scrum-half Horne at the double, right-winger Paterson and left-winger Reed, with fly-half Hastings adding three conversions and a penalty.

Touching down for their hosts were Sam Nock, Isaia Walker-Leawere, Kurt Eklund and Gideon Wrampling, with Rivez Reihana kicking two conversions and Kaleb Trask another.

Former Gala and Border Reivers player Townsend, 52, was delighted to see his side get this summer’s tour off to a winning start, saying: “The Maori are a quality side and we decided to put a team out that weren’t as experienced, knowing that it’ll be a great development and learning experience for them, but we also wanted to win this game and we’re so pleased that we did and with how we set that win up in the first half, how clinical we were, and then the pressure around set-piece and our defensive effort at the end saw us through.

“We’re really pleased that the tour’s started on a positive and that the players who haven’t played that much for Scotland and players that were coming back from injury were able to be part of a winning side.

“The good thing is we found a way to win. I think it was probably beyond expectations, knowing what the Maori did last week in Japan and how strong they’ve been against touring teams, that we were so far ahead, and we knew that they would come back and they got an opportunity and went through a number of phases, got back into the game and it looked like they had the momentum at the end.

“We’re delighted because that could easily have ended up with them winning with the pressure they had on us in the 22, and it would have been really disappointing and devastating to lose at the end, having led for so long, so we’re so glad we saw it through.

“It’s a marker put down. That effort at the end – 28 or 29 phases in defence, a man down, defending your goal-line – showed what playing for Scotland means for our players.

“It’s a great way to start the tour and if we can see that effort, that physicality from the players next week, that alignment in how we want to play on this tour, then it should set us up.”

Scotland have won nine of their 11 games against Fiji to date, the most recent being a 57-17 victory at Murrayfield in November featuring four tries from Graham.

That followed a 54-17 win at home in November 2018 for a side captained by Jedburgh’s Greig Laidlaw and also including Hawick’s Stuart Hogg and a 27-22 defeat in Suva June 2017, Townsend’s first loss as Scottish head coach and also Kelso’s Ross Ford’s record-breaking 110th and last appearance for his country.