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The All black people ended an emotional week Edinburgh with the win, and dedicated it to their late head of security, Logan Cadwallader, who died last Sunday following a medical incident at the team hotel.
The game began with Cadwallader’s son and brother joining the team as flag bearers during the anthems, before the reserves joined the Game 23 in performing the sideline haka.
It was a messy test, but New Zealand cleaned up the indiscipline in the second half and came away with a comfortable win, scoring seven tries to Scotland’s three.
After the test, Cadwallader came first for the players.
“We wanted to win for him,” captain Codie Taylor told reporters. “As I said before, this week has been much bigger than rugby. It’s about recognizing one of our brothers who has fallen: a husband, a father, a son, who was very respected in our group.
“To be able to go out there tonight and get a result – I know there was a lot of emotion in the anthem, and looking at the board, how much they felt it too. So it was definitely a little more motivation to be up front and represent the jersey and represent him.”
Tupou Vaa’i called Cadwallader, who served as the team’s head of security for 10 years, the team’s “unsung hero” and was proud to win the win in his honor.
“For all of us to do this for Caddy shows how important he was to us as a group. We love Caddy so much, it was great to do this for him.”
Beauden Barrett said it “took days to even think about wanting to play rugby” but they were encouraged to ride the waves of emotion so they could get to the end of the week and lock in the Test. The full-back, who equaled Richie McCaw for the second-most Test appearances in All Blacks history and scored two tries in the match, also said he took inspiration from Cadwallader’s military background, treating the game as a mission to be completed regardless of the emotions involved.
The 13 members of the squad who were not selected to take the field at Murrayfield were also keen to pay their respects to Cadwallader, and decided to perform Ka Mate on the touchline as the selected players did in centre-field.
“I wasn’t really aware at the time, but I spoke to Richie, and what I do know is that they all wanted to wear the jersey tonight. Obviously that couldn’t happen, so from what I heard they were thinking ‘we want to be part of the haka because that way we can actually pay our respects.’
“It just shows the bond of the group and how much Loges meant to us.”