TOMMY SEYMOUR says Scotland will only become a global threat if they stop being pleased just to avoid a hammering against the game's big guns.

Scotland put on a mightily brave display to hold New Zealand off for big chunks of Saturday's autumn Test at Murrayfield before losing 24-16.

They had a chance to put themselves on the brink of victory but skipper Greig Laidlaw pulled his penalty wide before the all-conquering Southern Hemisphere side stormed downfield for the try which put the game out of sight.

The defeat means Scotland's 109-year search for their first win against the world champions goes on. There were clear signs of progress in Vern Cotter's young side as they came within 10 points of the All Blacks for the first time in 23 years.

But Seymour, who scored his second intercept try in as many weeks to put the hosts 7-5 up on 12 minutes, insists that if Scotland are ­happy to come close, they will never find that elusive win.

The Glasgow wing - who scored in the 41-31 win over Argentina last week - said: "We have got to stop being a side that allows itself to take positives when you lose to the best team in the world, because if you do that you start drawing lines that you can't cross.

"We can't keep saying we are pleased with 'this much', because if you come up against a side and your only aim is to come up close, then it will never be good enough.

"We have to go out to win games and in a backwards kind of way, it is pleasing to be disappointed after Saturday's result, because if it is a 30-point runaway, your disappointment only has one shade of grey. But the reason why we are disappointed after Saturday is because we were in a position to do more.

"We want to become a consistent threat and allow ourselves to be disappointed by the narrow margins, because once you do that you can really push on."

The Scots were 16-17 down with 13 minutes left when Laidlaw got his chance to kick his country within touching distance of a famous win.

The All Blacks seized on his lapse and stormed into Scottish territory. Jeremy Thrush found a chink in the defence for the match-winning try.

"It was an opportunity for us to make history and an opportunity that doesn't come along very often," said Seymour, who cancelled out tourist Victor Vito's opening score.

"We spoke a lot about that before the game but didn't let the occasion take over us. But by the same token, we didn't let what a win could mean slip by. We wanted to go out and fight for a win that had never been done before.

"Unfortunately we came up just shy."

Seymour may not want to reflect too long on the positives of another defeat but the signs of encouragement are starting to pile up for Cotter ahead of next year's World Cup.

Five tries against Argentina illustrated that perfectly, while Seymour again leapt on an opposition mistake, this time by New Zealand captain Richie McCaw, to turn defence into lethal attack on Saturday.