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Scotland national rugby union team

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A wee bit o' history

File:SRU symbol.jpg

The first ever international rugby union game was played at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh in 1871 between England and Scotland. It was won by the latter, though England got revenge at the Kennington Oval, London in the following year. See the library of the Scottish Rugby Union for details.

Scotland were also the first of the British Isles Unions to run a truly nation-wide club league. This was introduced in 1973 and still flourishes today with several of the country's original clubs still very much in evidence, such as West of Scotland, Watsonians and the famous 'border' clubs such as Gala, Hawick, Jed-Forest, Kelso and Melrose. However the advent of professionalism saw Scotland's District championship abandoned and two (later three) 'Super Districts' formed, which have resulted in the top players generally being unavailable for their clubs.

They enjoyed periodic success in the early days vying with Wales in the first decade of the 20th century. However, their Triple Crown win in 1907 would be the last for eighteen years as the First World War and England intervened to deny them glory.

Scotland won their first ever Five Nations Grand Slam in 1925 - the first year playing in their new Murrayfield home which is the headquarters of Scottish rugby to this day.

The period after World War Two was not a successful one for Scotland, although they shared the Five Nations title in 1964 with Wales. They had to wait to until 1984 for glory when a win over France secured the Grand Slam.

Grand Slam winners on three occasions so far, the Scots have also won the Triple Crown a further seven times. However, their greatest year in the modern era was 1990 when, captained by prop David Sole, their season came down to one game, a Grand Slam decider at Murrayfield against the old enemy, and hot favourites, England. Sole famously walked his men onto the field with quiet but steely determination, to the delight of the partisan home crowd. Scotland won 13-7, and with it their third Grand Slam.

Scotland also won the last-ever Five Nations Championship in 1999 with some dashing displays of 15-man rugby but endured a torrid Six Nations in 2000, losing their first four straight games. Nevertheless at the last hurdle, they pulled off a magnificent 19-13 win under captain Andy Nicol over an unbeaten England at a rain-soaked Murrayfield to prove that there is still plenty of life and passion in Scottish rugby.

Scotland's best records and results to date

Best Rugby Union World Cup placing so far: fourth in the RWC1991. On October 26, 1991 Scotland lost 6-9 to England in a semi-final at Murrayfield after the normally reliable Gavin Hastings missed an easy penalty almost in front of and a short distance from the posts. On October 30th Scotland lost the Third-place play-off to New Zealand in Cardiff, 13-6.

Rugby Union Five Nations Championship Grand Slams: 1925, 1984, 1990.

Scotland was also the last Five Nations Champion in 1998-99. (The following year Italy joined the competition to make it the Six Nations.)

Scotland achieved 100 points for the first time in defeating a young and inexperienced Japan side 100-8 on November 13, 2004. The previous record had been 89-0 against Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) in the first round of Rugby World Cup 1995. The game versus Japan was played at the home of St. Johnstone Football Club, McDiarmid Park, Perth. It was the first time that Scotland had ever played North of the Forth (Firth of Forth) in the Caledonian region. In the same game Chris Paterson moved ahead of Andy Irvine in the list of Scotland's all-time points scorers, though he still has some way to go to catch Gavin Hastings.

The Flower of Scotland (Famous past players)

Some of the most famous former Scottish international players since 1945:

For more information see the SRU's list of Scotland's international players, 1871-2004.

See also the category of "Scottish rugby union footballers".

Noteworthy Scottish coaches

Noteworthy coaches (also players): Ian McGeechan, Jim Telfer

Recent national coaches have been foreigners. The present head coach is Australian Matt Williams. The forwards coach is Ulsterman Willie Anderson. He succeeded New Zealander and former All Black captain Todd Blackadder who is still playing for and coaching the Edinburgh Rugby professional team.

Iain Paxton and Peter Wright agreed to take over coaching the national U-21 and U-19 sides respectively at the end of 2004. See here for details.

Eloquent Scottish commentators

The undisputed King of TV commentators was Bill McLaren, a Scotsman from Hawick and one of world rugby's best-loved personalities. He retired in 2002.

Ian Robertson is also a Scottish TV commentator and former Cambridge Blue, with eight Scottish caps to his name. He is famous for commentating in the Rugby World Cup Final between England and Australia at Sydney in 2003.

Bill Johnstone leads the BBC Radio Scotland rugby commentary team on the Sportsound programme.

Current national team players

Current Scottish national team players (2004) include:

Last season & the future

After a poor start in the Six Nations 2003-04 in which Scotland did not win a single match and so qualified for rugby's version of the wooden spoon, things are believed to be steadily improving once again under the Australian coach Matt Williams, the first foreigner to coach the national team. Despite setbacks, many new and talented young players are coming through to the top level.

Williams has also been attempting to introduce a controversial "Fortress Scotland" policy, whereby only those currently playing in Scotland are eligible to play in the national team. Meanwhile the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) is under new management and Chief Executive Phil Anderton is leading the way back to financial solvency and implementing major reforms to reverse the decline of the game in Scotland.

Scottish professional rugby teams

There are currently three: Edinburgh Rugby, Glasgow Rugby, and The Borders. There has been talk of establishing a fourth team based in London, so far unrealised, and of bringing back the Caledonian region. They are of course the main feeder teams for the national team.

In the amateur days London Scottish provided many Scottish internationals from the London area. Now London Scottish is clawing its way back up the English divisions to the top flight after being demoted as part of the drive to professionalism in the 1990s.

See also

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