THE only thing missing from Scotland’s performance against New Zealand on Saturday was the ability to accrue the points their play deserved. Had they got those points they would have made history.

However, Gregor Townsend and his players know that that particular failing was a very big thing.

Since, in the end, all that matters is results, there is now a danger that Scotland will look back on 2017 as a year of missed opportunities, if they cannot now produce a winning performance against Australia on Saturday. And that challenge is all the greater because while this team have shown a renewed capacity to put in high-class performances, they have also let themselves down on occasion.

After opening the Six Nations Championship with a fine victory over an Ireland team that had beaten the All Blacks a few months earlier, the Scots then lost in Paris to a mediocre France team, a result that ultimately cost them a rare finish in the top half of the table.

They then claimed a first victory over Wales in a decade only to suffer a humiliating record thrashing at Twickenham which proved decisive in terms of the British & Irish Lions aspirations of most of the squad. After that came the summer tour and a fine belated response to Warren Gatland’s justification for leaving out so many Scots from that Lions squad on the basis of their inability to perform away from BT Murrayfield. However, a superb win over the Wallabies in Australia was followed by Scotland making a hash of things in Fiji the following week.

During this autumn series, the Scots have again proven erratic, albeit this time they got the right result when misfiring in many areas against Samoa, before just failing, literally, to get over the line against the All Blacks.

Saturday, though, was evocative of Scottish rugby’s greatest days, of teams led, inspired and guided by men such as Gary Armstrong, David Sole, John Jeffrey, the Hastings brothers, the Calder twins, John Rutherford, Roy Laidlaw and David Leslie. Even those Grand Slam winners could not quite find a way to beat the All Blacks, coming closest in a drawn match in 1983 and in a controversial defeat in 1990.

However, they would probably all be willing to admit that they never showed the elan of Saturday’s Stuart Hogg-inspired performance as a dynamic Scotland side relentlessly attacked their visitors.

From the outset they were on the front foot, Hogg creating an opportunity that was wasted when Cornell Du Preez was unable to hold on to a pass. In the end, too many chances were spurned in an opening half the All Blacks looked glad to emerge from having avoided conceding a try while rarely having looked like scoring one of their own, the scores level at three apiece courtesy of penalty strikes from Finn Russell and Beauden Barrett. Both teams did better in that regard after the break, Sonny Bill Williams providing the All Blacks with their impetus as he set up a brace of tries for Codie Taylor, with a well judged pass and Damian McKenzie, with an equally perfectly weighted grubber kick.

After Jonny Gray showed that he and his Scotland team-mates had been undaunted by those two rapid blows by wrestling his way to the line, Williams’ last significant act before leaving the field was to help set up his side’s third try for Barrett with a brilliant ofload to McKenzie. This restored the All Blacks’ two-score cushion and, down to 14 men at the time, they badly needed that advantage in the end.

The extent to which they were pushed was demonstrated by the fact that they ultimately played the entire final quarter undermanned. Wyatt Crockett headed to the sin bin just as Sam Cane was emerging from it, for similarly committing a professional foul as Scotland drove at the All Blacks goal-line. Those should probably have been their second and third yellow cards too. Wasaile Naholo was extremely lucky not to have been sent from the field for illegally making contact with Hogg as he caught a high ball.

The logic behind that decision felt perverse as the television replay official apparently over-ruled match referee Matthew Carley, seeming to argue that an obstruction by Ali Price had forced the All Blacks winger into the collision. If so, the penalty for the first offence should surely have gone New Zealand’s way, but it was awarded to the home side.

Scotland handled any disappointment felt at that decision well, though, along with the setbacks of a string of injuries which ultimately forced the front-to rowers work harder than expected.

Hooker Stuart McInally had to switch to his old slot in the back row around the time he would have expected to be coming off due to the injuries suffered in the first half by Hamish Watson (back) and in the second by his replacement Luke Hamilton (ankle), while Simon Berghan was due to play the closing 20 or 30 minutes rather than the entire second half until Zander Fagerson suffered concussion.

The scale of Scotland’s front-row injury problems must now be a major concern ahead of the Wallabies’ visit, but Saturday’s evidence suggested there is a growing belief within this squad that they can cope with whatever adversity and find solutions.

When Hogg and Tommy Seymour combined to put Huw Jones in for his late try, and the full-back broke clear in the game’s last action, it looked like that mindset was about to bring the greatest reward of all.

How they respond to the failure to claim it will, then, tell us much about the prospects for this squad going forward as they look to back up one quality performance with another.