To anybody who has been watching the Scottish professional clubs this season, there was a depressing familiarity to the national side’s demise against the All Blacks - plenty of line breaks, plenty of half chances but in the end nothing to show for it.

Frank Hadden, the head coach, reckoned his team had won the line-break battle 9-6, but New Zealand scored from four of them and dropped the ball on the line another time; Scotland didn’t get one of theirs to the line.

It was so reminiscent of how Edinburgh carved open Castres half a dozen times in the Heineken Cup but scored just once; how they were given a lesson in finishing by Leinster; how Glasgow camped in the Newport Gwent Dragons’ 22 for the last quarter of their European match and failed to score. The same failings were echoed at Murrayfield.

Allister Hogg, the Scotland No 8 called into the side 24 hours before kick-off after Simon Taylor went down with a calf strain, reckons the difference is that while teams like New Zealand expect things to break for them, the Scots are still caught by surprise when they do.

“They were lethal on turnover ball, they didn’t have to create that much, it was just winning the ball, moving it quickly and that was it, they were so quick to react and had such pace,” he said. “We are making all these breaks but it is a question of finishing them. It is a hard thing to practice, it is hard to simulate those positions.

“It is instinctive but it is one thing that New Zealand are very good at, anticipating the break. The support players expect the guys to go through and they make sure they are there to take the ball further. That is one thing we can learn, to expect our key guys to get beyond the defence and be looking for the offloads.”

Depressingly, not for the first time a Scottish side was given a lesson in streetwise rugby. While Wayne Barnes, the referee who has had his own run-ins with New Zealand, had a steady game in most aspects, the big calls all went the way of the All Blacks. So when Nick de Luca kicked the ball clear after making the tackle, he was sent to the sin-bin for Scotland’s first penalty offence of the game. By contrast, New Zealand had to give away half a dozen penalties in their own 22 before Anthony Boric got the same treatment.

Then came the scrums. As Mike Blair, the Scotland captain, remarked wryly, they opted for a scrum instead of the penalty, and seven-and-a-half minutes later were still scrumming on the New Zealand five-yard line. As scrum after scrum went down with New Zealand wilting under the assault from Euan Murray, Barnes consistently refused to intervene, resetting rather than penalising as the clock ticked away.

Two big calls, and both cost Scotland dear. They conceded 13 points before De Luca was back in action; three-quarters of the Boric sin-bin was eaten up by scrums and Scotland came away with nothing.

As for De Luca, he was amazed at the way he was punished. “It was a first offence, so the yellow card could be seen as harsh. I have apologised to my teammates, it is not what you want. It was probably a penalty offence, but I was surprised at the card. It wasn’t a great start, but I was happy with the way I came back and the way I contributed to the rest of the game.”

The positive aspect for Scotland was that they are breaking defences and sooner or later should learn how to score from these positions, and the physicality of the performance shocked the All Blacks, who had expected a much gentler game.

“The attitude of the players, the number of breaks we made and the way we stuck in was great,” Jason White, the former captain recalled after lengthy injury problems, said afterwards.

“Next week is massive for us, we need to take on board some of the things we did well and improve.”