On Saturday week at Murrayfield, Scotland will face the All Blacks for the 34th time, the overall picture skewed ever-so-slightly in New Zealand's favour. They've won 31 and the Scots have won zero.

Draws in 1964 and 1983 - halcyon days, kind of - is as good as it has got for the underdogs since these nations first met 111 years ago.

Speaking on the BBC's Scotland Rugby Podcast on the day he announced his squad for the Nations Championship, Gregor Townsend goes through his own story with the Kiwis, about the dog days he experienced as a player - two of them ending 62-31 and 69-20 - and how the inferiority complex his generation might have felt is not the same anymore.

"It's almost like two different lifetimes," he says. "As a player, I don't think we ever felt we could win the game.

"There were moments within games over in Auckland in 1996 when we had opportunities, but they were always going to pull away from us. I've not felt that as a coach."

As coach, he has gone up against the All Blacks three times, all in Edinburgh. A 25-17 defeat in 2025, a 31-23 loss in 2023 and a 22-17 reverse in 2017.

"I felt every time we've played against them, we've had opportunities to win and the belief has been there," he said.

"We might have lacked the composure. Certainly last time, a year ago (Scotland fell 17-0 behind but then came roaring back to level at 17-17). We were just playing so much accurate, physical rugby. But we didn't take the chances.

"So there is a difference. I feel it in the players. But I didn't feel that in the 90s when we went up against them."

The coming months are seismic for Scotland with the culmination of the Nations Championship, then Townsend's final Six Nations, a World Cup warm-up against New Zealand in Dunedin, followed by the coach's last act, the World Cup itself.

Scotland have not played an away Test against the All Blacks since 2000, a two-Test deal, one in Auckland and the other at Carisbrook in Dunedin. New Zealand won the first 62-31 and the second 48-14. Townsend played in both.

Regular summer games against higher calibre southern hemisphere opposition has been crucial in Ireland's improvement in recent years, but Scotland have been denied that exposure. The global calendar has now changed and the Scots will be one of the main beneficiaries.

In Townsend's time as coach, he has had one game against the Wallabies in Australia, one against the Springboks in South Africa and none against the All Blacks in New Zealand. In the same period of time, Wales have played seven away Tests against the big three from the south, England have played nine and Ireland have had 10. Ireland have had four Tests in New Zealand in just nine years compared to Scotland's zero in 26 years.

"That's great for Scottish Rugby, great for our players to get that opportunity to play New Zealand in New Zealand," he said. "It's a really good preparation for us for the World Cup as a stand-alone game. It's one we've missed for so many years."

Just when we thought the famous Toony Tombola - the expression given to Townsend's capacity for naming left-field players in his squads - had been decommissioned, he has come up with Ollie Leatherbarrow.

The 24-year-old Newcastle Red Bulls flanker has started just one game for his club this season, but he's in and Magnus Bradbury and Freddy Douglas are not. It was a surprise. To most people, at least.

"It's not a surprise for us as coaches because we've been watching him pretty regularly over the last six months," Townsend says of his new back-row. "We feel that he can cover the three positions.

"He carries really well and, when we looked at the stats for this season, the best carrying forwards that we could select, he was up there. Him and Seb Stephen [Glasgow Warriors hooker]."

Leatherbarrow, a former Scotland Under-20 player, has not started many league games - fewer than 30 - for Newcastle, or for his previous club, Exeter Chiefs. It's a huge call for the coach, who says he wants a close look at the player just to see if he's good enough to be involved beyond the autumn.

Bradbury and Douglas have been a key part in Edinburgh's march to the top of the United Rugby Championship table, so their exclusion was the big talking point.

"We feel right now is an opportunity to look at Ollie, either in that role as eight or seven, or covering all three off the bench," Townsend adds. "We have Matt Ferguson who covers eight, Josh Bayliss can play eight and both those guys have gone really well for us.

"Gregor Brown played eight against Fiji. For the Six Nations, Magnus will be one of those players in the mix. They're close decisions.

"With Freddy, there's a bit of bad luck in who he's competing against - Rory Darge, who has been our vice-captain, been our captain. He's clearly our number one openside.

"And you've got Jamie Ritchie, who covers six and seven. Josh can cover all three positions. Liam [McConnell] can cover seven, too.

"Freddy is playing really well. He's worked on parts of his game, his ball-carrying, his tackle, his dominance in tackle, and his tackle decision, whether to go for the ball or not. And he's still been able to produce those big turnovers. So, yeah, it's a good position to be in."

Townsend has earned a reputation for innovation in the way he seeks new ideas from different sports. In this camp and for the next few weeks, Scotland have a specialist coach helping them.

Here, the name Justin Longmuir might not mean a whole lot. In Australia, he's a very big deal.

Longmuir is coach of Fremantle Dockers in the Australian Football League. He took his team all the way to the Grand Final at the end of September, where they lost agonisingly to the Brisbane Lions. Longmuir was named coach of the year regardless.

"We were speaking to Fremantle Dockers and it looked like we were getting an assistant coach to work with us," Townsend says.

"I think Kyle Steyn had mentioned it to Pete Horne [Scotland assistant coach] about trying to get someone from the AFL to help us with contesting the high ball.

"So we were excited that we were getting an assistant coach and then the head coach, Justin, said, 'I'd love to do that'.

"I'm sure our players will get tips and principles that not only they can apply over the next two weeks but they can work on and continue for the next 12 months. Already we've changed some of the language. We're using AFL language. He talks about things that we hadn't even considered - the technique of not only going up for the ball but trying to win the ball on the ground.

"When we kick now, it's about winning the ball. You win that battle, you're a long way to winning the game."

Every one of these games has enormous significance. New Zealand, Australia, Japan in the Nations Championship in November. Italy and Wales at home, France away, Ireland home and England away in the Six Nations. France home and away and then New Zealand in Dunedin as World Cup warm-ups - and then on to the biggest stage they go.

As Townsend says, this time next year Scotland will be playing knockout rugby at the World Cup. Every decision he makes from here on in will be pored over. The countdown to Australia has now started.