Scotland coach Frank Hadden has backed his decision to play an under-strength side against the All Blacks following its 40-0 defeat to the RWC favourites in Edinburgh.

"Personally I don't think this was a gamble. What it did was provide an excellent opportunity for some guys to put their hands up for selection. I'm delighted that I've got a team that can practise tomorrow," he told a news conference.

"The New Zealand performance was pretty impressive and they fully deserved to win."

Hadden also re-iterated his opinion about Scotland’s tough schedule, citing the busy draw as the reason he selected a second-string side.

"When I looked at the format I could hardly believe it. I'm not in a position to influence the format. We have to do what we have to do go as far as we can in this tournament," said the Scotland coach.

"It was a gutsy performance. I would perhaps have like a bit more accuracy. We have to have a look at what happened in the scrum. Considering what happened in the first 15 to 20 minutes we recovered pretty well.

"I thought that new boys Ally Dickinson and John Barclay did very well considering they were up against the best players in the world in their positions. It was a great learning experience for them."

Scotland captain Scott Murray said: "It was good to get a full 80 minutes of rugby under the belt. The game was a great experience for the new boys. This New Zealand side is right up there with the best I've played against. We let ourselves down by making some silly errors.