Scotland skipper John Barclay says it's as hard as ever trying to beat the All Blacks.

Scottish captain John Barclay has marvelled at the All Blacks production line and believes it is "comical" to suggest they are vulnerable on their current European tour.

Scotland host the All Balcks at Murrayfield in Edinburgh on Sunday (NZT) and Barclay, who made his debut against the All Blacks at the 2007 World Cup, says New Zealand have done well to maintain their momentum at the top of the game since claiming the 2011 and 2015 global titles amidst a string of significant retirements.

"That is just the way of New Zealand isn't it?" Barclay said about the All Blacks kicking on in the absence of the legendary Richie McCaw and other superstars.

CRAIG BROUGH/REUTERS Scotland have never beaten the All Blacks before, but take hope from seeing NZ slip up against the Lions, Wallabies and Ireland recently.

"They had a lot of people retiring at the same time, Conrad Smith, Nonu, Dan Carter and these guys, so maybe they were worried about what would happen next. I saw a few things after the Lions saying the All Blacks were vulnerable on this tour. That is a bit comical really when you look at their record.

READ MORE:

* ABs happy with their next generation

* Injury worries for AB skipper

* Hansen blasts video operators

* ABs score gutsy win in Lyon

"They have to have a strong mentality otherwise they would not produce these teams year in year out. They don't have an inherent right to do so but they do. I am sure they are confident. Their record has not been matched. I don't know how, or why it is the case but it hasn't. That's one for the experts."

There's also Scotland's unwanted record of never having beaten the All Blacks. It didn't take long to be raised with Barclay.

"We've certainly not mentioned it. I knew coming up here [to the press conference] it would be mentioned but no, iIt doesn't bother me. It is what it is, it's a stat. It will still be the stat come one minute before kick-off on the weekend. We'll then have 80 minutes of rugby to play. We'll go out, it's a huge challenge but an exciting one to try and change that record. We've got to do a bit of homework on the All Blacks but if we sit back and talk about them and how fantastic they are there's no chance."

Barclay felt their reconnaissance of New Zealand, who have lost to the Lions, Ireland and Australia in the last 12 months, gave Scotland hope.

"What they do is very good but we have looked at how to beat them, how teams have done it," Barclay said.

"We don't have time to sit and watch 80 minutes, 80 minutes and 80 minutes. We tend to look at patterns, areas of focus. We've looked at a few clips from then but more recently we've looked at the Australia game but also games the All Blacks have won as well but where other teams have given them problems, like France, for example, at the weekend."

Barclay admitted the All Blacks brought an extra edge to preparations.

"For me it's always a big week when you come in and get to play for Scotland but I think when the All Blacks are in town everyone gets excited, the media get excited, the fans get excited. It's a big challenge for us, the best team in the world coming to our back garden," he said.

"It's really exciting to be playing at Murrayfield again. For me it's about the challenge of playing the best team in the world and trying to beat them (but) we've got a few things we need to fix ourselves, get our own house in order a little bit first.

"We always do our homework, try and find weaknesses to exploit. We'll have a look at them and devise and gameplan and strategy we think could be effective against them."