Mackintosh (right) poses with fellow new caps Liam Messam (left) and Kieran Read © Getty Images

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Match Pack: All Blacks win scrappy match

Teams: New Zealand

Jamie Mackintosh entered the test rugby arena in the dark and afterwards was unable to shed much light on an All Blacks scrummaging performance that polarised opinion at Murrayfield tonight.

New Zealand duly won the first leg of their Grand Slam attempt 32-6 though a resolute Scotland forward pack certainly caused plenty of problems, particularly at the set piece where debutant Mackintosh was frequently a focal point. The Southland loosehead was regularly admonished by English referee Wayne Barnes, a critique that started when the first scrum packed down in the 12 minute.

Mackintosh conceded a free kick for an early engagement, repeated the infringement a second time and was penalised for collapsing in the 21st minute -- an indiscretion that enabled Chris Paterson to goal his second penalty, and Scotland's last points. Post match the Scottish captain and management felt New Zealand should have been penalised more frequently, especially in the 10 minutes before halftime when the depleted All Blacks had to defend while lock Anthony Boric languished in the sinbin.

Desperate to drive home their numerical advantage, Scotland opted for a scrum from the Boric-inspired penalty -- the first of a sequence of set pieces that failed to gain traction on a greasy surface. Scotland eventually spent almost eight minutes pounding away at the All Blacks goaline, to no avail.

Captain Mike Blair felt Barnes was too lenient on the All Blacks, claiming they deliberately slowed the game by collapsing scrums.

"There was reset after reset," complained Blair. "I don't know it was a particular ploy they had when they have a guy sinbinned but it was frustrating," he said. "That kind of took the sting out of the game a wee bit. We were trying to push the momentum and capitalise on the sinbinning."

Scotland coach Frank Hadden was also critical of the All Blacks' performance in the shadow of halftime. "Everybody's aware as as soon as we got the pressure on the scrummage was being brought down. We certainly felt that when we got the hit on they were struggling to cope with that pressure," he said.

His All Blacks counterpart Graham Henry launched a spirited defence of his front row, and particularly the 23-year-old rookie. "I thought he did exceptionally well, particularly when we had seven men and they had 150 scrums on our line," Henry said. "They held up well and showed a lot of character there."

Mackintosh was not as effusive about his own performance. "It wasn't too bad. I was sort of nervous about the scrums, there weren't many on the first 20 minutes. I was trying to find one, and then we found about 50 of them."

Mackintosh described his tussle with Scottish tighthead Euan Murray as an educational experience until they were both subbed off in the 55th minute. "It was a learning curve -- the big guy (Murray) scrummed pretty well. I went all right in some and they got us in some. I thought we did pretty well on the line when we were down to seven, they obviously wanted to have a crack at a pushover."

Told the Scots were accusing the All Blacks of negative tactics, Mackintosh would not rise to the bait. "They've been blaming it on us? They can say what they want," he said. "We'll just have to go back and look at the video and see if it was my fault. If it is I'll take it on the chin

"We don't try to collapse scrums, we try and promote scrums staying up."

Meanwhile, despite the debate marring surrounding the All Blacks' scrummaging, Mackintosh said his first test would always be an experience to savour. "It's all what I thought it'd be. It was a pretty awesome build-up with the lights off at the start," he said.

An expertly choreographed pre-match entertainment had the stadium plunged into darkness before the entrance of a pipe band and the observance of a minute's silence ahead of Remembrance Day on Tuesday.

A Royal Air Force helicopter then hovered above the ground before a crowd of more than 50,000 provided a emotionally charged rendition of the national anthem, Flower of Scotland.