Jeremy Thrush's late try finally killed off a valiant Scottish challenge as New Zealand scrapped to a 24-16 win at Murrayfield.
The Scots performed exceptionally, acquitting themselves with more grit and more aptitude than in any recent encounters with the World Champions, keeping pace with a much-changed, but nonetheless exemplary All Blacks unit until the 74th minute, and recording their narrowest defeat in this fixture for 23 years.
Second-row Thrush barrelled over to quash the hopes of those among a 66,000-strong home crowd who, with time ticking and Scotland trailing by a point, began to believe the impossible - a first-ever victory over New Zealand - might be imminent.
Though it is rather a benign clich・ in truth, their performance, building upon last week's success against Argentina would always bear greater significance to Vern Cotter and co than the final outcome.
In that regard, the Kiwi coach must be delighted, though more than a touch rueful that, with ten minutes remaining, Greig Laidlaw spurned the opportunity to kick his side ahead.
This was a weakened All Blacks XV, but that must be clarified through the prism of the best team in the world - by any other standard, it was awesome.
And then there was the bench: where Scotland could call upon Duncan Weir and Sean Lamont to bolster their backline, New Zealand had Sonny Bill Williams and Julian Savea ready and waiting. If there exists a more lethal reserve double anywhere in the game, I haven't seen it.
Yet while it is easy to saturate one's dialogue with superlatives when eulogising the All Blacks, and particularly these All Blacks, they are fallible. Steve Hansen's side didn't quite click in attack, and credit must go to Scotland for exerting pressure, and pouncing when presented with opportunities, Tommy Seymour's interception try a prime example.
The waves of cautious optimism lapping at these shores is well-documented, and right from the off, there was a sense the hosts would not crumble as they have done so many times before, that they would not be pushed around by their illustrious guests - even born-again Christian Euan Murray was in the thick of the early handbags.
For all the Scots' defiance, however, the omens were not promising when with ten minutes gone, Victor Vito, harnessing loose skills honed during his sevens days, dummied, shrugging off Ross Ford's limp tackle, broke forty metres down the left side and powered through Stuart Hogg to finish brilliantly in the corner.
World rugby's leading Test marksman, Dan Carter, on his return from injury, was wide for the second time to the delight of most of Murrayfield, having pulled a penalty attempt two minutes prior.
In years gone by, Vito's strike would probably have spelled the beginning of the end for Scotland, and indeed it might well have done, had Richie McCaw, of all people - while Mark Bennett was prone and receiving treatment - with overlap and opportunity beckoning, not seen his pass plucked from the air by Seymour, the winger racing clear to score his second interception in as many weeks under the sticks.
Laidlaw converted, and Bennett was sadly carted off, a hamstring injury ending his game, with Lamont his replacement in midfield.
And having been comprehensively flattened by the hulking Thrush, fly-half Finn Russell joined his fellow youngster on the bench, albeit temporarily, Weir stepping in for ten minutes to allow his teammate to undergo concussion assessments.
Carter, the deity, the magician who dazzled on his last visit to Edinburgh, was still looking a tad rusty as he spilled a couple of passes, and miscued the odd punt, but knocked over a pair of straightforward penalties to put the Kiwis back ahead.
The Scots were holding their own, but the bruising collisions took their toll; Murray was the third in garish red to hobble off before half-time, replaced by Geoff Cross.
Laidlaw struck again to cut the gap to a point as the interval loomed, but Carter once more slotted from the tee to cancel out the captain's goal with the last kick of the half.
Scotland started the second period with incision, thanks to another Seymour interception and two line breaks from Hogg and Sean Maitland, yielding a second penalty for Laidlaw.
Hansen rolled out his big guns on 55 minutes, with Savea and Williams replacing Carter and Malakai Fekitoa, the giant winger showing glimpses of his power from midfield, and after Scotland tried and failed repeatedly to run the ball from deep, Colin Slade punished them with three more points, taking over the kicking duties.
Straight from the restart, however, New Zealand were penalised, and Laidlaw once more kept Scotland a single point adrift.
When the Blacks strayed offside two minutes later, the scrum-half stepped up, and suddenly, remarkably, with ten to play, the hosts had a chance for the lead. Murrayfield dared to dream. Laidlaw's kick skewed wide.
Then the All Blacks did what the All Blacks do. They won back possession, put themselves in their opponents' 22, and patiently cycled through the phases. The red line of defiance finally creaked, and Thrush, a real presence in the loose, forced his way to the whitewash from close range; the look on his face betrayed his sense of relief that this game had finally been put to bed.
Slade converted, and though Scotland threw everything at the Kiwis in the final three minutes, they could not cut the deficit any further.
That said, they trooped off with heads aloft, and took the acclaim from supporters that, in the space of two weeks, feel an awful a lot better about the state of their rugby.
Man of the match: Jeremy Thrush made yards aplenty in the loose, tackled fiercely, was at the coalface throughout a dominant scrummaging display and scored the all-important try.
Moment of the match: Greig Laidlaw's miss. Ten minutes is a long time to play against New Zealand, but with the scoreboard and the crowd behind them, who knows what might have been ...
Villain of the match: A few spats, but nothing too sinister to report.
The scorers:
For Scotland:
Try: Seymour
Con: Laidlaw
Pens: Laidlaw 3
For New Zealand:
Tries: Vito, Thrush
Con: Slade
Pens: Carter 3, Slade
The teams:
Scotland: 15 Stuart Hogg, 14 Sean Maitland, 13 Mark Bennett, 12 Alex Dunbar, 11 Tommy Seymour, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Greig Laidlaw (c), 8 Adam Ashe, 7 Blair Cowan, 6 Rob Harley, 5 Jonny Gray, 4 Richie Gray, 3 Euan Murray, 2 Ross Ford, 1 Alasdair Dickinson.
Replacements: 16 Fraser Brown, 17 Gordon Reid, 18 Geoff Cross, 19 David Denton, 20 Johnnie Beattie, 21 Chris Cusiter, 22 Duncan Weir, 23 Sean Lamont.
New Zealand: 15 Ben Smith, 14 Colin Slade, 13 Malakai Fekitoa, 12 Ryan Crotty, 11 Charles Piutau, 10 Dan Carter, 9 TJ Perenara, 8 Victor Vito, 7 Sam Cane, 6 Richie McCaw (c), 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 Charlie Faumuina, 2 James Parsons, 1 Joe Moody.
Replacements: 16 Dane Coles, 17 Wyatt Crockett, 18 Ben Franks, 19 Luke Romano, 20 Liam Messam, 21 Augustine Pulu, 22 Sonny Bill Williams, 23 Julian Savea.
Referee: Romain Poite (France)
Assistant Referees: Johnny Lacey (Ireland), Stuart Berry (South Africa)
TMO: Gareth Simmonds (Wales)
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