SO close – yet so far.
Just as Scotland dared to dream, New Zealand did what New Zealand do.
With 14 minutes left, Gregor Townsend’s men held the lead.
That first, elusive victory against the All Blacks was so close you could almost reach out and touch it.
Yet in a heart-breaking closing quarter, it was cruelly ripped from their grasp with the visitors flexing their muscles in the nick of time.