Following the All Blacks’ 43-21 victory over Scotland, here are our five takeaways from the Nations Championship clash at Murrayfield.

The top line

Dave Rennie’s men continued their winning streak in the inaugural Nations Championship and maintained their unbeaten run at the home of Scottish Rugby courtesy of a ruthless attacking display and a second-half shutout.

The set-pieces took centre stage today, with the tries flowing in the first half from the lineouts, the first coming through Wallace Sititi with the back-rower charging away after a dummy carry from Peter Lakai.

It was a statement of intent from the visitors after just three minutes but the Scots’ reply was swift as Kyle Rowe expertly dissected the All Blacks‘ backfield with a pinpoint 50:22. From the ensuing lineout, Ewan Ashman got his first five points of the afternoon and there was more of that in store for the hooker.

Ethan de Groot was next to cross the whitewash with the prop forward benefitting from a smart kick and the immense work-rate of Beauden Barrett who won a penalty inside the Scottish 22. Scrum-half Cam Roigard quickly tapped the ball and moments later it was the Highlanders loosehead who powered over.

Lakai went from providing the deception for Sititi’s score to grabbing five points of his own as New Zealand went into a 17-7 lead but the flanker was sent to the sin bin soon after, which gave Scotland an opportunity to counterpunch, which they duly did. Sione Tuipulotu pulled the strings along with Finn Russell, with Ashman making the final carry to score his second try.

Despite being down a man, the All Blacks had a reply and through the most experienced man on the pitch as Beauden Barrett latched onto a Damian McKenzie flat pass to score his 49th Test try to extend the visitors’ lead to 24-14.

Sititi would replicate Lakai in scoring a try and visiting the sin bin when he was yellow-carded in the 32nd minute and whilst he was off the pitch, Ashman created history by becoming the first Scotsman to score a hat-trick against the mighty All Blacks.

That meant that Gregor Townsend’s men trailed by only three points after a helter-skelter first half but the second 40 minutes belonged to the men in black.

Josh Moorby got the scoreboard ticking again just eight minutes after the break as he benefited from a dominant scrum, and Barrett followed two minutes later to complete his brace and bring up 50 Test tries – becoming only the second player to do so for the All Blacks after Will Jordan. The Scots attacked ferociously but not accurately as New Zealand’s defence held firm and the game was put to bed and well beyond reach in the 67th minute as replacement hooker Asafo Aumua raced away for a try.

New Zealand benefitted from clear and obvious obsession

There is an obsession from Australia and New Zealand that the TMO should only intervene when the action is clear and obvious, which World Rugby has opted in its protocol for the fourth officials.

In fact, Rennie even weighed in on the potential of the TMO’s intervention earlier this week after naming his team. He predicted that the stoppages for reviews would differ from match to match depending on the officiating team. Today, Andrew Brace was willing to let TMO Olly Hodges make decisions in the background, trusting that he would get them right without his intervention.

The All Blacks benefitted from that and the need to only intervene when it is clear and obvious when it came to Sititi’s try off the back of a suspect set-move from a driving maul. New Zealand set the maul outside the Scottish 22 and at the back, Lakai broke away without the ball and towards the opposition’s midfield with Sititi following shortly after as he carried closer to the maul with ball in hand and scored.

It was a brilliant bit of deception, a move the All Blacks have used before and Leinster deployed against Connacht recently but is it legal?

Law 16.11 concerning this reads: “During a maul players must not: (c) Take any action to make opponents believe that the maul has ended when it has not.”

Making this call live is nigh on impossible for Brace, but it would be something that could be reviewed; but Hodges clearly felt that there was not clear and obvious evidence to bring it to the referee’s attention. Brace could have called for a review himself, but again, World Rugby are attempting to keep the game flowing and New Zealand are one of the nations who are pressing that they do so. Would Brace have viewed the decision differently had an official review occurred? We will never know.

Reviewing the footage, Lakai and Sititi certainly don’t break off simultaneously, but it was nip and tuck.

Ewan Ashman enters the history books

Before today, only four players had ever scored a hat-trick against the All Blacks: Australia’s Greg Cornelsen, South Africa’s Ray Mordt and Marius Joubert, and Wales’ Tom Rogers, with Cornelsen being the only to score four in one match.

However, that number grew to five at Murrayfield as Scotland hooker Ashman went over three times in the first half. The front-rower will surely be asked to buy around from his fellow forwards and should probably oblige, as two of his three came from the work of his fellow pack men.

Ashman still deserves credit for his ability to finish off the opportunities that came his way. The first was classic hooker play at the back of a driving maul, the second was a sharp line that he ran to deliver the killer blow on an All Blacks’ defence that was reeling, and the third was a well-timed breakaway from the back of the maul to score. The Scotsman is also the second forward to score three against the men in black and the first in 48 years – Cornelsen becoming the first-ever player to do so.

The hooker has certainly benefitted from the stricter officiating around the mauls, but that should not take away from his special achievement today.

Scotland slayed by All Blacks’ ruthlessness

This fixture wasn’t nearly as close as it was 12 months ago, with the All Blacks ultimately pulling away from Townsend’s men and blowing them away in the second half. What played in New Zealand’s favour this time around was just how much rugby this team has played together recently after Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series and the Bledisloe Cup.

Conversely, this Scottish side hasn’t played together since the July Nations Championship matches. The cohesion was perhaps most evident in the opportunities that the visitors took and the ones that the hosts didn’t.

Rennie’s side averaged a touch over three points per entry into the Scottish 22, Townsend’s men averaged less than two and a half. The Scots didn’t lack opportunities, making nine entries but routinely spilled the ball or wasted chances to score points. That ruthlessness comes with cohesion but the Tana Umaga-coached defence deserves its credit too, as the All Blacks were excellent in patches and particularly in their red zone.

It’s worth noting that all but one of Scotland’s tries came through the set-piece, with the outlier being a prolonged period in possession and a systematic breakdown of the defence over multiple facets of the play, and those do happen.

All Blacks scrum shows some grunt

The improvements in the All Blacks scrum were evident against the Springboks in the latter stages of Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry series and then again in the Bledisloe Cup versus the Wallabies. However, Scotland posed a different challenge, a team that revels in the set-piece battle, but Rennie’s big men not only rose to the challenge but thrived.

It took some time, but in the second half, the All Blacks really turned the screws and put the hosts under pressure, so much so that they opted for a scrum from a penalty, and Moorby reaped the rewards from the strong platform set by the pack.

New Zealand have always been a competent scrummaging nation at worst, and at times dominant, but earlier this year it was an Achilles ‘ heel for the team. The improvements have been slow, but today felt like a statement performance from the men up front that the All Blacks scrum is turning the corner and getting back to the highs that it was once at.

There was even a hunger to pack down in the scrum, courtesy of tighthead Fletcher Newell, who asked Andrew Brace whether they could re-pack the set-piece inside New Zealand’s 22 from a free-kick instead of kicking – sorry Fletcher, you can thank World Rugby for the answer being no. We marked this match as a litmus test for the New Zealand scrum and they very clearly passed it with flying colours.

What was plainly evident is that the All Blacks are a different beast when the scrum is operating well and so is the lineout, with their tries all coming from the set-pieces.