Gregor Townsend admits Scotland had been the creators of their own downfall as they slumped to a 43-21 defeat to New Zealand at Murrayfield.

The home side trailed by just three points at half-time but failed to fire a shot in a dismal second-half display to extend their winless run in this fixture to 34 matches. New Zealand, in contrast, took complete control after the interval and ran in three unopposed tries to win at a relative canter.

It was a brutal setback for Scotland who had come into the match with hopes of a victory after running the All Blacks close just a year ago. But Townsend conceded they hadn’t played anywhere near well enough and could have no complaints about the eventual outcome.

The head coach said: ‘I’m clearly disappointed that we didn’t put one of our best performances out there. You obviously prepare to try to win games but it’s more about can we deliver a performance we can be proud of and our supporters can be proud of. And it wasn’t there today. So that’s frustrating.

‘We were in a good place coming into the game with how the players had trained. But we need more time under pressure and that’s what we’ve got today. This will be a big learning for us. We can do better in the first half. We could have been much better on the discipline side of the game.

‘The disappointment in the first half was how we enabled New Zealand to get into the game by not having to do that much. The first 10 minutes of the second half is probably where the momentum changed back.

‘It’s a real credit to the players that the way we play, we have a lot of possession, but we don’t turn over the ball much. Today we did. That wasn’t good enough and our discipline in giving away 13 penalties isn’t good enough.’

Scotland traditionally play a Tier 2 nation in their first match of the autumn but the creation of the Nations Championship has changed that, pitching them instead into this challenging opener. But Townsend didn’t want to blame that for the substandard performance.

He added: ‘It’s not an excuse for the way we played. We’ve got to get back onside. We’ve got to roll away quicker from the breakdown. I know those were the areas in the first half that gave New Zealand field position.

‘It’s clear that the Northern Hemisphere teams get better as the season goes on. They get better during the Six Nations, get better through November and they should be really cohesive by the July Tests. It’s the opposite for the Southern Hemisphere teams, but we’ve got the advantage of playing at home.

‘It was another great support the team got today, so it balances itself out. I have high expectations of the team. They have high expectations of each other and we didn’t deliver them today.’

Captain Sione Tuipulotu was shown a second-half yellow card and admitted it was a contributing factor in the team’s collapse.

He said: ‘I think we’re just really disappointed. It’s not so much the loss. It’s more our inaccuracies in the first half and failing to capitalise on possession and territory when we were down in their 22 into points that’s frustrating.

“And then in the second half, and probably the whole game to be fair, our discipline wasn’t good enough. We just allowed them easy entries into our 22. So, it’s not so much the loss that disappoints me right now, it’s more just a couple of things that we spoke about before the game and said we were going to deliver on, we probably just didn’t today.

‘Me getting yellow-carded probably didn’t help the team a lot. A captain gets yellow-carded it’s not good for anyone. So I take full responsibility for that. I should have been on the field there during that period to help the team. We just probably weren’t as aligned and on the same page moving as a unit in that second half to put anything together.’

Scotland will now have to wait another year for their next chance to defeat New Zealand, much to Tuipulotu’s frustration.

He added: ‘It’s not a conversation I wanted to be having after the game. I’d rather be having the conversation now that we created history. But I suppose the pursuit continues and we’ve got to regroup and go again.

‘The more we can play teams like the All Blacks, the Springboks, those Southern Hemisphere teams, the better I think for Scottish rugby. Usually they’re three and four years apart. The more exposure we can have to playing the All Blacks, the better for Scottish rugby in general.’

New Zealand head coach Dave Rennie felt his team’s performance had served as the perfect tribute to the All Blacks’ head of security, Logan Cadwallader who passed away earlier in the week.

He said: ‘We wanted to win for him. This week’s been a lot bigger than rugby. It’s about acknowledging one of our brothers that had fallen and a husband, father and son, who was highly respected in our group.

‘There was a lot of emotion in the anthem and, looking across to the management, how much they were feeling it as well. So, there was definitely a bit more of a motivation there to front up in the jersey and represent home.’