Scotland 16-24 New Zealand
Laidlaw proud of Scots' fighting spirit
ESPN Staff
November 15, 2014
Greig Laidlaw and Alex Dunbar attempts to bring down All Black lock Jeremy Thrush © Getty Images
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Captain Greig Laidlaw was left disappointed after Scotland missed the chance to record a shock victory over New Zealand, but felt there was plenty for his side to be proud of nevertheless.

Laidlaw had the opportunity to put Scotland ahead with less than 10 minutes to go at Murrayfield but missed a gettable penalty, and the All Blacks made the most of that let-off by claiming a converted try through Jeremy Thrush that earned them a 24-16 win.

It left Scotland with 28 defeats in 30 Tests against New Zealand, but Laidlaw hopes the Dark Blues fans can take pride from the team's performance against the world champions, albeit one that included 13 changes from their win over England.

"It's tough to take when you come so close to a good team, but all credit to the All Blacks, they play for 80 minutes every time they take the field and they got a late try to take the game away from us," Laidlaw told the BBC. "But the boys stuck to it today. I thought we played some fantastic rugby at times, but all said and done we're clearly disappointed.

"We've got to look at the positives and take them away from this game. We had a good win over Argentina last week and we put up a solid performance tonight, we just came up short.

"Hopefully the fans are proud of us, the boys gave 100%, put their bodies on the line, and as I said we're just disappointed we came up a little bit short."

All Blacks lock Thrush, who as well as notching the decisive try was named man of the match for his performance, said his side knew Scotland would be no pushovers.

"It was tough, they're a passionate bunch and we knew they were going to come out real strong and we just held in there, which is good," he said. "They had a good win last week and we knew they were going to come out and do the same thing. They played some great rugby but we held on in there and held our nerve."

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