The history of this fixture suggested Scotland needed a near-perfect performance, although I expected the visitors to have an off day.
It wasn’t like that, but the show was sensational.
Scotland fought bravely in tight spaces, especially on their own line, but gave up two weak tries due to weak defending at the top of the pitch.
After just three minutes, the imposing Josh Lord burst through a huge gap in a ruck before nonchalantly lobbing the ball to scrum-half Roigard.
That took the wind out of the crowd and Murrayfield was silenced again moments before half-time when Scotland were caught napping and Sititi sent on Jordan.
However, the atmosphere changed completely when Gregor Townsend’s team came out of the gap like a man possessed.
Ashman went down after a powerful surge from the pack and Savea was sent packing for an infringement during that maul.
Russell then swerved to find Steyn and the winger, preferred to Duhan van der Merwe, came in for this 14th international try.
The noise from the crowd was deafening as White was stopped dead in his tracks and Schoeman had the ball knocked out of his hands in the whitewash, while a stretching Graham was unable to hold on as he reached the line.
Scotland continued to advance and Russell missed a penalty to level the match.
With Sititi guilty of a deliberate hit, the hosts had all the momentum, but more importantly they were unable to get ahead.
Once they had their full team and the power of their bench back on the field, New Zealand found a second wind.
It looked like Blair Kinghorn had arrived in time to put McKenzie in touch, but he managed to get out of the tackle and turn.
McKenzie made a woeful conversion attempt but then put the game beyond Scotland in the final moments with a monstrous long-range penalty.
