Scotland 18 New Zealand 30

New Zealand steamrollered their way to an emphatic 30-18 win over Scotland in their World Cup quarter-final at Murrayfield.

The All Blacks ran in four tries to two and will now face France in the semi-finals at Twickenham next weekend.  The other semi-final will be between defending champions South Africa and Australia.

Wing Tana Umaga scored two tries and full-back Jeff Wilson and giant wing Jonah Lomu one each for the All Blacks, while fly-half Andrew Mehrtens kicked two penalties and converted the first two tries.

Scotland's points came from late tries from flanker Budge Pountney and wing Cameron Murray, a penalty and a conversion kicked by wing Kenny Logan and a drop goal from fly-half Gregor Townsend.

New Zealand -- the runners-up in 1995 -- continued their rampage through the tournament and underlined their status as odds-on favourites.  Both Scotland's tries came late in the game when the result was beyond doubt.  The Kiwis scored 176 points and conceded just 28 in winning their three group matches and the gritty Scots, who were playing their final match under coach Jim Telfer, had no real answers to their poise, power and control.

Scotland are the reigning Five Nations champions but the gap in standards between the southern hemisphere and the north was again underlined by New Zealand's dominance.

New Zealand maintained their record of never having lost to Scotland in 21 meetings dating back to 1905 but lost key man Mehrtens to a knee injury at halftime.  He was replaced by Tony Brown and his condition will cause concern to the All Blacks over the next few days.

The Scots, playing in their change tangerine strip, struggled from the start to keep pace with the tournament favourites in a match played in pouring rain and on a damp, slippery pitch.

After surviving some brief early pressure, New Zealanders took the lead through an eighth-minute Mehrtens penalty.  Umaga's 12th-minute first try was the result of a fine charge up the middle by Lomu, the tournament's leading try-scorer.  It took five men to subdue Lomu and when the New Zealanders eventually moved the ball wide, Umaga was on hand to cross the line.

Wilson's try in the right corner -- which saw him pass 200 points in test rugby -- was set up by the pace, awareness and fast hands of Mehrtens, who slipped the ball wide for the fullback to power over the line.  Mehrtens' kick made it 17-0.

The Scots got on the scoreboard through Logan's penalty after 20 minutes but Mehrtens responded in kind five minutes later, although the metronomic kicker did miss a subsequent drop goal attempt.

New Zealand were resolute in defence, but had to survive some uncomfortable moments before Umaga scored his second try in injury time after a superb handling movement and a fine final pass from centre Christian Cullen.

Townsend's drop goal after 49 minutes didn't lead to a Scottish revival.  Instead, Lomu squandered an opportunity for his sixth try of the tournament at the other end when he dropped the ball when over the line.

It wasn't long, however, before he did cross for the 25th try of his All Black career when the Scots were unable to halt his power down the wing.  Brown's kick missed, but the margin was 24 points and the game was out of the Scots' reach.

Pountney got a pushover try for the Scots with 14 minutes left -- his first international try -- and Logan converted.  Murray then went over in the last minute, but it was too little, too late.

New Zealand's win leaves France as the only side capable of winning the World Cup for the first time.  The All Blacks won the first tournament in 1987, Australia triumphed in 1991 while South Africa were victorious in 1995 and have yet to lose a World Cup match.

The Teams:

Scotland:  1 Paul Burnell, 2 Gordon Bulloch, 3 Tom Smith, 4 Scott Murray, 5 Doddie Weir, 6 Budge Pountney, 7 Martin Leslie, 8 Gordon Simpson, 9 Gary Armstrong (c), 10 Gregor Townsend, 11 Kenny Logan, 12 Jamie Mayer, 13 Alan Tait, 14 Cammie Murray, 15 Glenn Metcalfe
Reserves:  George Graham, Stuart Grimes, Robbie Russell
Unused:  Duncan Hodge, Cameron Mather, James McLaren, Bryan Redpath

New Zealand:  1 Craig Dowd, 2 Anton Oliver, 3 Carl Hoeft, 4 Robin Brooke, 5 Norm Maxwell, 6 Josh Kronfeld, 7 Reuben Thorne, 8 Taine Randell (c), 9 Justin Marshall, 10 Andrew Mehrtens, 11 Jonah Lomu, 12 Christian Cullen, 13 Alama Ieremia, 14 Tana Umaga, 15 Jeff Wilson
Reserves:  Tony Brown, Daryl Gibson, Mark Hammett, Ian Jones, Kees Meeuws
Unused:  Andrew Blowers, Byron Kelleher

Attendance:  59757
Referee:  Morrison e

Points Scorers:

Scotland
Tries:  Pountney A.C. 1, Murray C.A. 1
Conv:  Logan K.McK. 1
Pen K.:  Logan K.McK. 1
Drop G.:  Townsend G.P.J. 1

New Zealand
Tries:  Lomu J.T. 1, Umaga T.J.F. 2, Wilson J.W. 1
Conv:  Mehrtens A.P. 2
Pen K.:  Mehrtens A.P. 2