SCOTLAND can take many positives from yesterday's game against New Zealand, but they still missed an opportunity to make history by beating the All Blacks.

As always, the simple lesson was that to beat the best, you have to take every sniff of a chance. The Scots were brave and spirited, but they were not quite clinical enough.

That means the performance was encouraging, but it still ended in a defeat. I have to admit I was among those who thought Scotland could win this match and it looked as though the players agreed. At this level, though, tiny margins make the difference between winning and losing.

Their best chance of seizing victory came at the end when Greig Laidlaw had that kick. If it had gone over, would Scotland have been in the position to get that try at the end? Possibly not, you can't see them trying to run out of defence if they were defending a lead.

That was only a moment, though. The biggest issue we had was that we did not have the ball for long periods. We played too much of the game without it which sapped the side's strength in many regards.

Despite that, to a man, the effort was outstanding. Scotland upset New Zealand's rhythm. Their line-out wasn't functioning because of the pressure it was under.

There were a few technical issues, though. The attacking kicking game was not as accurate as it needs to be against the best of the best. Scotland also tried to play a bit too much at times and got themselves into trouble as a result - most notably at the end when the final try was the last nail in Scotland's coffin. These were not huge errors, but enough to cause problems.

There were a couple of charge- downs as a result of decision-making being a bit slow - players caught in two minds - and a few other occasions when players did not seem to know when to clear their lines and when to go for it. But these are niggles. Across the game, there were few negatives.

The All Blacks were not great, mainly because of the pressure Scotland were putting them under, but they were just good enough, and they still seem to get away with more than any other team when it comes to getting the rub of the refereeing decisions.

The Scotland performance was a massive step forward from where we have been recently. Vern Cotter, seems to have got the passion and the spirit up to the levels they need to be at and that is a huge development. Individually, Rob Harley was outstanding, as were the Gray brothers. Alex Dunbar is fronting up.

Everywhere I looked on the pitch yesterday I was seeing boys I had in the Under-20s a couple of years ago producing performances to remember. That is probably the most encouraging aspect of all. These young players can only get better.