Scots so close to shocker

SCOTLAND NEW ZEALAND 17 22

CAPTAIN John Barclay declared himself “gutted” after Scotland fell agonisingly short of a first ever win over the All Blacks at Murrayfield.

Stuart Hogg looked to break clear in the final seconds of the game, but was denied by a superb match-saving tackle from Beauden Barrett.

“The amount of work that has gone into that, from one to 23... we’re gutted to be honest,” Barclay told BBC Sport. “Gutted we lost, but very proud of the effort. That’s one that got away.

“It’s disappointing but we have to look at the positives, because that’s one of the best teams in world sport, not just rugby. What we’ve done is pretty good, we’ve got to finish the job off next week (against Australia).”

Hogg declared himself “bloody disappointed” after being denied an historic winner.

“We firmly believed all week,” he said. “The challenge was tough, we were aware of that and just came up short. You don’t get to play these games on many occasions against the world’s best and to come up just short is bloody disappointing.”

All Blacks skipper Kieran Read admitted Scotland gave his side a scare as they looked to rally from 22-10 down.

“It was a massive challenge, and we certainly knew it was going to be that way. They came out firing and threw the ball around.”