It was an eventful evening for Boric against the Scots at Murrayfield © Getty Images

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Match Pack: All Blacks win scrappy match

Players/Officials: Anthony Boric

Teams: New Zealand

New Zealand lock Anthony Boric praised Scotland's forward pack following the All Blacks' comfortable 32-6 victory at Murrayfield.

Boric, one of the visitors' top performers against Scotland, believes it is exacting challenges such as the one faced in Edinburgh which makes this All Black tour of the British Isles such a valuable one. Tries from Anthony Tuitavake, Piri Weepu, Richard Kahui and Boric secured victory for a second-string New Zealand side against Scotland's strongest XV.

It gave further evidence of the strength in depth of New Zealand rugby and suggested a repeat of their successful Grand Slam tour of 2006 is entirely possible. Boric believes difficult away games against the Six Nations sides is perfect for the development of the All Blacks squad.

He told PA Sport: "Scotland were a very tough pack. They had lots of ball carriers round the fringes and having to tackle them sapped our energy. They were very tough opponents and it was very good to show the character that we had to do to overcome them.

"This is a very important tour for myself and others in my position. There's no tougher tour than coming here and facing these teams in front of their home crowds. It's pretty special to be part of this tour for me and it's a great experience for everyone involved. It felt good to be out there on Saturday."

The North Harbour second-rower made his Test debut against England earlier this year and has established himself as New Zealand's third-choice lock behind Ali Williams and Brad Thorn. He is relishing gaining further experience on this tour and was glad his sin-binning - the only blot on an otherwise fine performance - did not cost his side any tries.

He said: "It takes a little bit of time to get used to being in an All Black jersey so the more experience you can get the more comfortable you feel. I was pretty happy with how I played. I went okay round the park and the line-out went well so I was generally pleased with how it went for me. I'm just glad they didn't score when I was in the sin bin, I was biting my finger nails on the sidelines.

"We made a lot of tackles and it was great to see so many tired guys afterwards following such a good defensive effort. I had a little bit of a brain explosion for the sin binning. We have talked about it in terms of not deviating from our structures and chasing lost causes and I'll learn from that."

The Auckland forward was delighted to score his first try after some midweek ribbing from team-mate Adam Thomson about his tryless return in Tests but has no idea whether he will feature in Ireland this weekend. He said: "Adam Thomson had been given me a bit of stick about playing in my eighth Test and not scoring a try so it was good to break the duck in terms of try scoring.

"I had a vision of his face in my head as I was running for the tryline and making sure I wasn't going to fall short! I hope I'm putting pressure on Ali and Brad. I just need to keep working hard and keep them on their toes if I can. It's week by week for us. I'd love to be able to tell you more but I don't and we just have to work hard in training and wait to see which team is selected."