Scotland coach Steve McCormack could not hide his disappointment after his side were crushed 74-6 by New Zealand in their latest World Cup match.

The Bravehearts, featuring Saints prop Luke Douglas, conceded 14 tries to the rampant Kiwis in Christchurch and have now leaked 124 points in their first two games, but will still reach the quarter-finals if they beat Samoa in their final group game in Cairns next weekend.

The Scots, hammered 50-4 by Tonga in Cairns, trailed 28-0 at half-time and were 64-0 down when half-back Oscar Thomas scored their only try.

"It was a tough night," McCormack said. "It was always a danger that, if we didn't turn up and be at our best, something like that could happen.

"I'm really disappointed in that performance, although I thought New Zealand were really good. In the first half they had 21 or 22 offloads and they played a good brand of football.

"We had no ball and New Zealand were fresh and technically they were very good.

"I've said all along we've got a young squad and we'll learn lessons from that. The key is to make sure we turn up with a better attitude against Samoa."

McCormack singled out Bradford centre Brandon Wilkinson for praise after he made his Test debut in difficult circumstances.

"There are positives," he said. "I'd pick out Brandon Wilkinson, a lad who's never played Super League.

"He really showed up for a young player who was playing academy football 12 months ago.

"There were some others, too; Alex Walker at full-back never gave up."

The victory was sweet revenge for New Zealand after they were held by Scotland to an embarrassing 18-18 draw in their last meeting in Workington 12 months earlier.

"We wanted to concentrate on ourselves but we knew where their threat was going to come, from their fast wingers," said Kiwis coach David Kidwell.

"Their outside backs cause trouble when they get quick play-the-balls so we knew, if could nullify that, it would give us the best options to play our game."

Scrum-half Shaun Johnson scored a try and kicked nine goals for a personal haul of 22 points that took him past Matthew Ridge's all-time New Zealand record of 168, while winger Peta Hiku and stand-off Te Maire Martin both grabbed hat-tricks.

Full-back Roger Tuivasa-Sheck was named man of the match and Kidwell was also pleased with the impact made by powerful forwards Nelson Asofa-Solomona and Addin Fonua-Blake from the bench.

"I'm really pleased with the effort, especially in the second half," he said. "I wanted to improve on a few things from the first half and I thought buys responded well.

"It was a case of finding the right balance of when to offload and when to do the tough stuff, and I thought they did that really well. The forwards really stood up and the guys gave us great energy off the bench."

New Zealand: Tuivasa-Sheck, Nightingale, Whare, Takairangi,
Hiku, Martin, Johnson, Taupau, Taylor, Waerea-Hargreaves,
Bromwich, Tapine, Blair.
Replacements: Asofa-Solomona, Packer, Fonua-Blake, Levi.
Scotland: A. Walker, Tierney, Hellewell, Stein, Russell, Brough,
Thomas, Douglas, Addy, Kavanagh, Anderson, Ferguson, Bell.
Replacements: K. Bentley, Brooks, Wilkinson, J. Walker.