Scotland's familiar frailties brutally exposed in All Blacks schooling

Fair play to the All Blacks. At least this time they didn't wait until the closing minutes to put Scotland away, they took them out of their misery way earlier than that. A small mercy, in a sense. No dramas, no late moments of All Black genius required, no clutch try to swing it in the end and break Scottish hearts.

Those late sucker-punches? They're the worst. If you're going to lose to the All Blacks, maybe it's better to be routed than robbed, better to be outclassed than walking away with a sense of grievance or a feeling a win was left behind. This was a systematic dismantling, all over in the 51st minute when Beauden Barrett, as much of a genius now at the age of 35 as he ever was, scored his second try of the day.

Barrett is now on 50 Test tries and 148 caps. Murrayfield witnessed one of the all-time greats on Saturday; classy, intelligent and ruthless. Any notion Scotland could bring an end to 121 years without a win against New Zealand was trampled underfoot by Barrett and his band of brothers; blood brothers and otherwise.