Steve Hansen has plenty to ponder.

The All Blacks coach had wanted to see how the back-up singers to rugby's rock stars performed on their own as he looked to gauge his depth ahead of next year's World Cup. He won't be happy. New Zealand were badly out of tune at Murrayfield.

Sure they won, 24-16, but it took a try by lock Jeremy Thrush in the 73rd minute to provide any sort of comfort. This was their worst display of the year.

There were simply too many mistakes, especially of the unforced kind, the line-out was a shambles (admittedly against the tall timber of Scotland's Gray brothers, Richie and Jonny) and the attack failed to fire.

That lack of fluidity was due in part to the All Blacks' own inaccuracies, but Scotland's passionate defence was a factor, too. And this time they hung in there, harrying the All Blacks into mistakes, not wilting in the final quarter, but sticking at it, remaining in the game.

Even when Hansen went to the bench and brought on big guns Sonny Bill Williams and Julian Savea, Scotland made their tackles, hanging on at times almost literally by the bootlaces.

The reality for Scotland is that this was their best chance in a long time to beat the All Blacks. They had their collective tails up after last week's cracking 41-31 win against Argentina and were playing a side bereft of its usual starters. Of the 15 that stayed after the haka, only skipper Richie McCaw and full-back Ben Smith are regular starters, though centre Malakai Fekitoa has filled in admirably for the injured Ma'a Nonu during the Rugby Championship.

As a measure of how Hansen was using his players, fly-half Colin Slade was on the wing - at least until Dan Carter was replaced by winger Savea in the 55th minute allowing Slade to slip back into pivot. Carter was playing his 102nd test, but it was his first start in a year and it showed. He missed his first two kicks (starting with the conversion of No 8 Victor Vito's fine try); lost the ball the first time he took it into contact; and then dropped it behind him another time, regathering in time to kick it out under pressure. Carter has as much to work on as Hansen has to consider.

Scotland will have left BT Murrayfield knowing they had let a golden chance slip. They had plenty of ball but failed to do enough with it. For a team that scored five tries last week their attack was too stilted - though perhaps that says more about the All Blacks defence than it does about Scotland's attack.

But if you are to beat the All Blacks you need more than an intercepted try to get past the post.