​Wait of 120 years and counting for Scotland national rugby team’s first win v New Zealand goes on

​The hosts fought back from being 17-0 down at half-time to draw level at 17-all with a penalty from fly-half Finn Russell on the hour mark, and for almost quarter of an hour after that, a first victory in 33 attempts looked to be within their grasp or, failing that, a third draw, after others in 1964 and 1983.

It wasn’t to be, however, as replacement left-winger Damian McKenzie put the white-shirted visitors back in front with a 74th-minute try and added a penalty five minutes after that to take the game out of reach of their hosts.

That was the third game in the two sides’ last four meetings to be decided by an eight-point margin in the All Blacks’ favour after losses at Murrayfield by 31-23 in 2022 and 24-16 in 2014, with 2017 seeing another close-run thing on home turf as the Scots went down 22-17.

Head coach Gregor Townsend continues to be encouraged by the tightness of those margins, however, and believes an upcoming increase in frequency of games against New Zealand, having only gone up against them three times in the last decade, could work in their favour.

They’ll meet again next summer in the Nations Cup, a league to be contested once every two years in the summer and autumn international windows, pitting teams from the northern hemisphere against their opposite numbers the other side of the equator and culminating in a final and play-offs in a year’s time.

“We’d love to play New Zealand more regularly,” said the former Gala and Border Reivers back.

“We will play next year in the new Nations Cup, so we just have to make the most of those opportunities when we get them.

“Normally, it would be South Africa and Australia we’d play next November. We always get a chance to play two of the southern hemisphere giants, but now we'll get to play them all over the next 12 months.”

Scotland host Argentina this coming Sunday and Tonga seven days later, with kick-offs at 3.10pm and 1.40pm respectively, and having seen the Pumas up their game thanks to taking on New Zealand twice annually in the Rugby Championship, beating them 29-23 at home in Buenos Aires in August and away in Wellington by 38-30 last year, sandwiching defeats in Auckland and Cordoba, Townsend reckons more regular meetings could benefit his side too.

“You get the benefits of playing these top teams,” said the 52-year-old.

“Argentina have shown that, Australia have shown that, if you play them regularly, twice a year.

“Over the last few years, we’ve toured Argentina a lot and not New Zealand.”

Scotland’s tries on Saturday were scored by hooker Ewan Ashman on 45 minutes and left-winger Kyle Steyn on 50, both converted by Russell, in front of a capacity crowd of 67,144.

The All Blacks’ other tries were touched down by Cam Roigard on two minutes and Will Jordan on 39, with Beauden Barrett converting both and also kicking a 28th-minute penalty.

Hawick’s Darcy Graham, the only fellow Borderer in Townsend’s starting XV, wasn’t able to add to his tally of 34 international tries despite opportunity knocking twice, being held up at one point and knocking on at another.

The right-winger was joined by fellow ex-Green Rory Sutherland on 55 minutes as a replacement for loosehead prop Pierre Schoeman but he had to go off for a head-injury assessment 13 minutes later.

Also playing was Galashiels-raised Wallace Sititi, at blindside flanker, for the visitors.

Graham, 28, is now on 49 caps and Sutherland, 33, on 45.