Scotland welcome New Zealand to Murrayfield on Saturday afternoon for the first of their three home matches in November’s Nations Championship itinerary.

In their previous competition outing, the Scots mustered an impressive second-half display to earn an important win against Fiji, while the All Blacks got the better of Ireland in the latest heavyweight clash at Eden Park.

Match preview

Having endured a slightly disappointing end to their 2026 Six Nations campaign, losing 43-21 against Ireland on the final weekend to crush any lingering hopes of claiming a maiden competition title, Scotland will be fairly content with their start to the inaugural Nations Championship edition.

Following an emphatic 47-38 win away to Argentina on the opening weekend, Gregor Townsend’s side suffered a setback as they fell to defeat against South Africa in Pretoria, but having immediately bounced back with victory over Fiji, the Scots are sat in a promising position heading into the home fixtures.

Halfway through this year’s competition, Scotland sit second in the Northern Hemisphere standings and are currently just one point below table toppers France, though with difficult upcoming matches against the likes of New Zealand and Australia, Saturday’s hosts will have to be on top form this month if they want to maintain that position.

While they have been beaten in each of their previous six encounters with New Zealand at Murrayfield, Scotland will take encouragement from how they have made the fixture much more competitive in recent years, having not lost by more than eight points in any of their last four meetings with the All Blacks.

After falling narrowly short of winning back the Rugby Championship crown from South Africa last autumn, only finishing below the Springboks due to their inferior score difference, New Zealand will be delighted with how they rebounded in the summer’s Nations Championship matches.

Despite facing arguably the two strongest Northern Hemisphere sides in France and Ireland, the All Blacks emerged unscathed from their home fixtures and alongside South Africa are the only nation in the competition to have collected maximum points from their three matches so far.

Winning seven of their 10 friendly matches, Dave Rennie’s men also enjoyed a positive summer schedule, and although they suffered three consecutive defeats to South Africa, the All Blacks were highly competitive in each of those encounters.

Travelling to Edinburgh on Saturday afternoon to face Scotland, who they have won 31 of their prior 33 meetings with and are yet to lose against, New Zealand will certainly be confident of continuing that hot streak and maintaining their push towards top spot of the Southern Hemisphere table.

Scotland Nations Championship form:

Scotland form (all competitions):  

New Zealand Nations Championship form:

New Zealand form (all competitions):  

Team News

Scotland have made an abundance of changes to their scrum this weekend as Zander Fagerson, Rory Darge and Jack Dempsey come in, while Rory Sutherland and Gregor Brown retain their places, the latter of whom moves from number eight to the second row.

Amongst the starting backs, there is no one that has kept their spot from July’s meeting with Fiji at Murrayfield, with Ben White, Finn Russell, Sione Tuipulotu and Kyle Steyn all returning to feature from the start.

Off the bench, the hosts have the services of Pierre Schoeman, Josh Bayliss and Blair Kinghorn to call upon too.

Rennie has made several changes to the pack that started against Ireland at Eden Park as Ethan de Groot, Codie Taylor and Tupou Vaa’i are the only forwards to keep their place, while Peter Lakai and Scott Barrett are amongst those to come into the side.

However, across the backline there are just a couple of differences for the All Blacks, with Damian McKenzie moving from full-back to replace Ruben Love at fly-half and Beauden Barrett returning to fill the void at 15, making it a trio of Barrett brothers in the starting lineup.

Rieko Ioane starts as a replacement and will be ready to make an impact off the New Zealand bench, but Ardie Savea misses out and will be unavailable for the entirety of this month’s matches with a shoulder injury.

Scotland starting lineup:

15 Kyle Rowe, 14 Kyle Steyn, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Sione Tuipulotu, 11 Jamie Dobie, 10 Finn Russell, 9 Ben White; 1 Rory Sutherland, 2 Ewan Ashman, 3 Zander Fagerson, 4 Gregor Brown, 5 Scott Cummings, 6 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge, 8 Jack Dempsey

Replacements:

16 Gregor Hiddleston, 17 Pierre Schoeman, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Max Williamson, 20 Josh Bayliss, 21 George Horne, 22 Tom Jordan, 23 Blair Kinghorn

New Zealand starting lineup:

15 Beauden Barrett, 14 Will Jordan, 13 Quinn Tupaea, 12 Jordie Barrett, 11 Josh Moorby, 10 Damian McKenzie, 9 Cam Roigard; 1 Ethan de Groot, 2 Codie Taylor, 3 Fletcher Newell, 4 Scott Barrett, 5 Fabian Holland, 6 Tupou Vaa’i, 7 Peter Lakai, 8 Wallace Sititi

Replacements:

16 Asafo Aumua, 17 George Bower, 18 Pasilio Tosi, 19 Christian Lio-Willie, 20 Anton Segner, 21 Cortez Ratima, 22 Timoci Tavatavanawai, 23 Rieko Ioane

We say: Scotland 23-32 New Zealand

Having gradually improved over the previous few years, Scotland will be hopeful that, following a solid Six Nations campaign and a promising start to the Nations Championship, they can finally get the monkey off their back and claim victory over the All Blacks this weekend.

However, with New Zealand boasting an unbeaten home record in July's fixtures against some of the world's best sides, it will certainly be no easy feat for Townsend's men and we are backing the visitors to maintain their unbeaten run by securing a crucial victory at Murrayfield.