Scotland national rugby union team
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| Scotland | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Union | Scottish Rugby Union | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Murrayfield Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coach |  Frank Hadden |
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| Captain | Jason White | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most caps | Scott Murray (83) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top scorer | Gavin Hastings (667) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| First international | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (also the world's first) Scotland 4 - 1 England (27 March 1871) |
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| Largest win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scotland 100 - Japan 8 (13 November 2004) |
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| Worst defeat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Scotland 10 - South Africa 68 (6 December 1997) |
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| World Cup | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Appearances | 5 (First in 1987) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best result | 4th 1991 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked 9th in the world and makes up one quarter of the British and Irish Lions rugby team. They annually take part in the Six Nations and participate in the Rugby World Cup, which takes place every four years.
Scottish rugby dates back to 1871, where they beat England in the first international rugby union match at Raeburn Place. Since it started in 1883, Scotland competed in the Five Nations winning it 14 times outright and sharing it another 8. In 2000 the competition accepted a sixth competitor, Italy, thus forming the Six Nations. Since this change, Scotland have yet to win the competition. The Rugby World Cup was introduced in 1987 and Scotland have competed in all five competitions, the last being in 2003. Scotland's best finish came in 1991, where they lost to the All Blacks in the third place play-off.
Scotland have a strong rivalry with the English national team. They both annually compete for the Calcutta Cup. Each year, this fixture is played out as part of the Six Nations. It was last held by Scotland after a famous victory in 2006, beating England 18-12, but England regained it in the opener of the 2007 Six Nations. In recent years Scotland have recorded few victories over the Auld Enemy beating them just three times since 1990. Furthermore, the last victory outside of Scotland was in 1983.
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[edit] The thistle and the anthem
The thistle is the national flower, and also the symbol of the Scotland national rugby union team. According to legend the "guardian thistle" has played its part in the defence of Scotland against a night attack by the Danes, one of whom let out a yell of pain when he stepped barefoot on a thistle, alerting the Scottish defenders. The Latin Nemo me impune lacessit ("No-one provokes me with impunity!" in English) is an ancient Scottish motto, "me" in this case being the prickly thistle itself.
The Flower of Scotland is used since 1990 as Scotland's national anthem before international matches. Before it was always the national anthem. In the first year of using The Flower of Scotland as an anthem, Scotland walked onto the pitch at the beginning of the Five Nations Championship deciding match against England. This combination was explosive and Scotland went on to beat England 13-7 and win the Five Nations Championship with a Grand Slam.
[edit] Strip
Scotland have traditionally worn navy blue jerseys, white shorts and navy blue socks. However, the recent team uniform made by Canterbury of New Zealand has Scotland wearing navy blue shorts. The team sponsor is The Famous Grouse, a brand of Scotch whisky whose logo is shown on the team jersey and shorts. In France, where alcohol sponsorship is banned by law, the regular logo is replaced with "TFG". On the occasion that Scotland is the home side and the opposing team normally wears dark colours, Scotland will use its change strip. Traditionally this is a white jersey with navy blue shorts and socks. For a brief period, when Cotton Oxford were the shirt sponsors, the white shirt was replaced by a bright orange one with orange and blue hoops on the sleeves. This was first used against the New Zealand Māori November 14, 1998. This change strip was replaced by the traditional white one just two years later. Also during this sponsorship deal, purple was introduced to the traditional blue jersey. This was a significant departure from the traditional colours of blue and white, although purple is inspired from the thistle flower.
[edit] History
- See also: History of rugby union
[edit] 1871-1924
Merchiston Castle School and the old boys of Edinburgh Academy first played the world's oldest continual rugby fixture in 1858.
In December 1870, following a series of England v. Scotland eleven-a-side football matches played in London (all of which were won by England), a group of Scots players issued a letter of challenge in The Scotsman and in Bell's Life in London, to play an England XX at the carrying game. The first ever international rugby union game was played on the cricket field of The Edinburgh Academy at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh on March 27, 1871 between England and Scotland. The Scots won the encounter by a goal and a try to a solitary try scored by England, though England got revenge at the Kennington Oval, London in the following year. (See the library of the Scottish Rugby Union for details.)
The Scots 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 (1914-18) and England intervened to deny them glory.
In 1897 land was purchased, by the SFU, at Inverleith, Edinburgh. Thus the SFU became the first of the Home Unions to own its own ground. The first visitors were Ireland, on 18 February 1899 (Scotland 3 Ireland 9). International rugby was played at Inverleith until 1925. The SFU bought some land and built the first Murrayfield Stadium which was opened on 21 March 1925.
[edit] 1925-1945
In 1925 Scotland already had victories over France at Inverleith (25-4), Wales in Swansea (24-14) and Ireland in Dublin (14-8). England, the Grand Slam champions of the two previous seasons were the first visitors to Murrayfield. 70,000 spectators saw the lead change hands three times before Scotland secured a 14-11 victory which gave them their first-ever Five Nations Grand Slam.
In 1926, Scotland became the first Home nation side to defeat England at Twickenham after England had won the Grand Slam five times in eight seasons.
The outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 brought rugby union in Scotland to a halt. The SRU cancelled all arranged trial and international matches and encouraged the member clubs to carry on as best they could. Some clubs closed down, others amalgamated and carried on playing other local clubs and, sometimes, teams from the armed forces stationed in their various areas.
[edit] 1946-1973
Official internationals resumed in the 1946-7 season. In the Spring of 1946, Scotland played and defeated a strong New Zealand and Forces team.
The period after World War Two was not a successful one for Scotland. In 1951, the touring Springboks massacred Scotland 44-0 scoring nine tries, a then record defeat. Scotland suffered 17 successive defeats between February 1951 and February 1955, scored only 54 points in these 17 games: 11 tries, six conversions, and four penalties.
The teams from 1955-63 were an improvement. There were no win over England, but three of the games were drawn and only twice was the margin of defeat more than a single. 1964 was a good year for Scotland New Zealand were held to a 0-0 draw, the last international match in which no points were scored. The Calcutta Cup was won 15-6, the first time since 1960 and they shared the Five Nations title in 1964 with Wales.
Scotland were the first of the Home Unions to run a truly nationwide 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 Heriots, 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.
The SRU appointed their first national coach, Bill Dickinson though he was officially designated as an "adviser to the captain".
[edit] 1974-2000
Jim Telfer became national coach in 1980.
Scotland toured Australia and won the first test, which to date is Scotland's only away victory against any of the big three Southern Hemispehere sides. After this, the 1983 season was a disappointment, with only one victory at Twickenham in the last match.
The 1983-84 season brought a draw with the All Blacks 25-25 in the late autumn and their second Grand Slam captained by Jim Aitken. Jim Telfer stood down after the Grand Slam to concentrate on his professional career as a school master. He was succeeded by his assistant, the former Hawick fly-half, Colin Telfer.
Scotland went to the first World Cup, played in New Zealand and Australia in the summer of 1987. Rutherford, the team’s general and controlling influence, badly injured his knee on an unauthorised tour of Bermuda. He broke down after less than a quarter of an hour of the first World Cup match against France and never played for Scotland again. Scotland had been in the lead but the match finished level and Scotland had to face New Zealand in the quarter-final. They lost.
Their greatest year in the modern era, however, was 1990 when, captained by prop David Sole, their season came down to one game, a Grand Slam decider at Murrayfield against the "auld enemy" (Lowland Scots: for "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.
The second World Cup took place in 1991 with matches shared between the Five Nations. Scotland won their pool, though the game against Ireland was close, and then beat Western Samoa in the quarter-final. They went out to England in the semi-final held at Murrayfield to a Rob Andrew drop goal. In the third place play-off they were again beaten by New Zealand.
The third World Cup, held in South Africa, came around in 1995. The tournament followed a familiar pattern: a narrow defeat by France, thanks to an injury-time try, meant that, as second in the pool, they faced a quarter-final against New Zealand and were eliminated.
Scotland also won the last-ever Five Nations Championship in 1999 with some dashing displays of 15-man rugby, but that year’s World Cup ended the usual way, with a quarter-final defeat by New Zealand.
They 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 pride and passion in Scottish rugby.
[edit] The 2003 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 were 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. Yet the record for 2004 was disappointing: Played 12, Won 2, Lost 10. Williams also attempted to introduce a controversial "Fortress Scotland" policy, whereby only those currently playing in Scotland were eligible to play in the national team. Meanwhile the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) is under new management, Chief Executive Phil Anderton (known as 'Firework Phil' for his pre-match entertainment spectacles) was leading the way back to financial solvency and implementing major reforms to reverse the decline of the game in Scotland, but he resigned in January 2005 after his boss David Mackay was forced to resign by the SRU's general committee. Since then, much effort and thought has gone into restructuring the way the game is governed in Scotland.
[edit] Scotland under Frank Hadden
Frank Hadden, the head coach of Edinburgh Gunners (previously a PE teacher at Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh), was appointed interim coach for the 2005 summer internationals against the Barbarians and Romania, winning two from two and instilling confidence in the national side again. On the 15 September 2005, he was appointed national coach of the Scotland team up to and including the 2007 World Cup and has so far done an excellent job with limited resources compared to most of his opponents.
In the first match of the 2006 Six Nations campaign, against France, Scotland won 20-16, and this was the first time since 1999 that they had beaten France. Scotland also beat England at home at Murrayfield on February 25, 2006 to reclaim the Calcutta Cup, the score being 18-12 in Scotland's favour.
In the 2006 Autumn internationals Scotland won two of three fixtures. They convincingly beat Romania and put up a solid first half performance against the Pacific Islanders. In the final match against Australia, Scotland failed to impress. A sound first half performance was squandered with an uncharacteristicly poor defence in the second. Australia went on to win the game 44-15. With positives coming from the series, Scotland also lost several key players through injury. In particular, captain Jason White was dealt a knee injury and missed the entire 2007 Six Nations Championship.
Scotland suffered a humiliating defeat on February 24, 2007 when they became the first Six Nations team to lose at home to Italy, 17-37. This was Italy's biggest ever victory over Scotland, home or away. After only six minutes of the match Scotland were already trailing 0-21, due to a clearing kick being charged down and two interceptions by the Italians (caused by poor choice of game plan and sloppy passing in the 9/10 channel). Man of the match was awarded to Italian Alessandro Troncon, who scored a late try to put the match out of reach.
[edit] Scotland's best results so far
Best Rugby Union World Cup placing so far: fourth in the second Rugby World Cup, 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 30 Scotland lost the Third-place play-off to New Zealand in Cardiff, 13-6.
Rugby Union Five Nations Championship Grand Slams (including Triple Crown): 1925, 1984, 1990.
Triple Crown: seven times winners.
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" (i.e. the River 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.
Their Test match record against leading nations (listed in order of total matches; updated to 13 March 2006) is as follows:
| Against | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 123 | 41 | 65 | 17 |
| Ireland | 119 | 61 | 52 | 5 |
| Wales | 111 | 47 | 61 | 3 |
| France | 79 | 34 | 42 | 3 |
| New Zealand | 24 | 0 | 22 | 2 |
| Australia | 21 | 6 | 15 | 0 |
| South Africa | 15 | 4 | 11 | 0 |
| Italy | 10 | 7 | 3 | 0 |
| Romania | 9 | 7 | 2 | 0 |
| Argentina | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Samoa | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Fiji | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Tonga | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Canada | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
One match was abandoned against Ireland.
- Scotland's international results, 1871-2004 from the SRU Library
[edit] Notable Scottish victories
Although more recently considered underdogs of the Five Nations and Six Nations Championship, Scotland have managed a good many notable upset or "banana skin" victories, for example:
Home
Scotland 18 England 12 (Six Nations Championship, February 25, 2006)
Scotland 20 France 16 (Six Nations Championship, February 5, 2006)
Scotland 19 England 13 (Six Nations Championship, 2000)
Scotland 13 England 7 (Five Nations Championship, 1990)
Scotland 14 England 11 (Five Nations Championship, 1925)
Away
France 21 Scotland 23 (Five Nations Championship, Paris, 1995)
France 22 Scotland 36 (Five Nations Championship, Paris, 1999)
Another notable victory outside the six nations was the 21-6 victory over South Africa in 2002 at Murrayfield.
[edit] Current Squad
[edit] Squad for the 2007 Six Nations
Additions made since the start of the competition:
[edit] Notable past players
Some of the most notable former Scottish international players (The Flower of Scotland)
[edit] Since 1945
- Jim Aitken, prop, captain of the 1984 Grand Slam side
- Gary Armstrong, scrum half, captain of Scotland and British Lion in 1989
- Roger Baird, wing
- John Beattie, forward
- Mike Biggar
- Craig Douglas, of Kirkcaldy Rugby Football Club
- Gordon Brown ('Broon frae Troon')
- Peter Brown, brother of Gordon & captain of Scotland, no. 8
- Logie Bruce Lockhart, scrum half, brother of Rab Bruce Lockhart
- Paul Burnell, prop
- Finlay Calder, flanker
- Jim Calder, twin brother of Finlay
- Mike Campbell-Lamerton, captain of the British Lions [1]
- Sandy Carmichael, prop
- Craig Chalmers, fly half and British Lion in 1989
- Damian Cronin, lock
- Colin Deans, hooker
- Lewis Dick, wing
- Peter Dods, full back and British Lion in 1989
- Matt Duncan, wing
- Douglas Elliott, flanker [2]
- Bill Gammell, now Scotland's first oil baron
- Chris Gray, lock
- Gavin Hastings, captain of the British Lions, full back
- Scott Hastings, younger brother of Gavin, centre and British Lion
- Bruce Hay, wing and full back
- Ben Hinshelwood, centre and full back
- Andy Irvine, full back, Scottish captain and British Lion
- Ian Jardine
- John Jeffrey, ('The Great White Shark')
- David Johnston, centre
- Roy Laidlaw, scrum half
- Alan Lawson, scrum half
- David Leslie, back row
- John Leslie, centre
- Martin Leslie, younger brother of John
- Sean Lineen, the original kilted Kiwi
- Kenny Logan, wing
- Nairn McEwan, back row
- Ian McGeechan "Geech"
- Ian McLauchlan prop, ('Mighty Mouse'), British Lion in New Zealand (1971) and South Africa (1974)
- Alastair McHarg, lock
- Dave McIvor, forward, Edinburgh Academicals (6 caps)
- Glenn Metcalfe, full back
- Iain Milne ('The Bear')
- Iain Morrison, flanker
- Andy Nicol, scrum half
- Iain Paxton, forward
- Eric Peters, No. 8
- Budge Pountney, back row
- Bryan Redpath, ('Basil']scrum half
- Stuart Reid, forward, Boroughmuir, Leeds & Narbonne (8 caps)
- Jim Renwick, centre
- Keith Robertson, centre
- John Rutherford, fly half
- Ken Scotland - a superb passer of the ball
- Rowen Shepherd - 20 caps
- Gordon Simpson, no. 8
- Arthur Smith captain of the British Lions
- Tom Smith, prop
- David Sole, prop, captain of the 1990 Grand Slam side and British Lion
- Tony Stanger, wing
- Derek Stark, wing
- Alan Tait, centre & Rugby League player
- Colin Telfer, fly half
- Jim Telfer, no. 8
- Alan Tomes, lock
- Gregor Townsend (1973 - ), fly half, British Lion
- Iwan Tukalo, wing
- Derek Turnbull, member of 1990 Grand Slam side
- Rob Wainwright, no. 8, captain of Scotland; British Lions
- Peter Walton, backrow
- Doddie Weir, lock, 61 Scottish caps and a British Lion
- Derek White, London Scottish and British Lion in 1989
- Peter Wright, prop
[edit] Before 1945
- Eric Liddell
- Walter Sutherland
- John Wallace Captained Scotland, originally coming from the Australian club Drummoyne Rugby
For more information see the SRU's list of Scotland's international players, 1871-2004.
- Scottish internationalists on Sporting Heroes
- Irvine and others on video - vintage Scottish rugby (BBC)
See also the category of "Scottish rugby union footballers".
[edit] Scottish coaches
Noteworthy coaches (also players): Ian McGeechan, Jim Telfer
Recent national coaches have been foreigners. Frank Hadden a Scot, succeeded the Australian Matt Williams who was sacked with his staff early in 2005. Frank Hadden, the former coach of the highly successful Merchiston Castle School rugby team, and the coach of the most successful rugby team in Scotland, Edinburgh Gunners, was named interim coach for two internationals in 2005, winning them both. He was confirmed as head coach in autumn 2005. His assistants include Sean Lineen and Shade Munro.
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. They both have ambitions to coach the senior squad eventually.
[edit] Scotland's greatest XV
This has been selected by popular vote on the SRU's website and, subject to further voting, is as follows. Naturally it tends to exclude pre-1945 players, some of whom might make an all-time great Scottish XV but whose play would only have been seen by a few fans voting in the internet age.
15 Gavin Hastings
14 Andy Irvine
13 Alan Tait
12 Jim Renwick
11 Roger Baird
10 John Rutherford
9 Gary Armstrong
8 Simon Taylor
7 Finlay Calder
6 John Jeffrey
5 Scott Murray
4 Gordon Brown
3 Iain Milne
2 Colin Deans
1 David Sole, captain
[edit] See also
- Six Nations Championship
- Rugby World Cup
- Rugby union in Scotland
- Calcutta Cup
- Scotland national rugby union team (sevens)
- British and Irish Lions
[edit] Sources
- HISTORY OF RUGBY IN OTHER COUNTRIES
- History of Scottish Rugby on the SRU website
- Allan Massie on the Scottish rugby team from about 1940 to 1990
- The age of Telfer by Allan Massie
[edit] External links
- Favourites find Scotland grit hard to swallow: Scotland 18 England 12, The Times, February 27, 2006
- Scottish Rugby Union - the official site of Scottish Rugby
- Channel XV - video reports
- Scottish Rugby Radio
- Guide to Scottish Rugby (The Scotsman)
- A song for Scotland - an article on the ongoing discussions about which song should represent Scotland before international rugby and soccer (football) games. (Sunday Times, November 21, 2004)
- Scottish rugby union news from Planet Rugby
- Scottish rugby union fans forum
First tier
Argentina • Australia • England • France • Ireland • Italy • New Zealand • Scotland • South Africa • Wales
Second tier
Canada • Fiji • Japan • Romania • Samoa • Tonga • United States
Third tier
American Samoa • Andorra • Arabian Gulf • Armenia • Austria • Azerbaijan • Bahamas • Barbados • Belgium • Bermuda • Bosnia and Herzegovina • Botswana • Brazil • British Virgin Islands • Brunei •Bulgaria • Burundi • Cambodia • Cameroon • Cayman Islands • Chile • China • Chinese Taipei • Colombia • Cook Islands • Costa Rica • Côte d' Ivoire • Croatia • Czech Republic • Denmark • Finland • Georgia • Greece • Germany • Ghana • Guam • Guyana • Hong Kong • Hungary • India • Israel • Jamaica • Kazakhstan • Kenya • Korea • Kyrgyzstan • Laos • Latvia • Lithuania • Luxembourg • Madagascar • Malaysia • Mali • Malta • Mauritania • Mauritius • Mexico • Moldova • Monaco • Mongolia • Morocco • Namibia • Netherlands • Nigeria • Niue • Norway • Pakistan • Papua New Guinea • Paraguay • Peru • Philippines • Poland • Portugal • Russia • Rwanda • Senegal • Serbia • Singapore • Slovakia • Slovenia • Solomon Islands • Spain • Sri Lanka • St Lucia • St Vincent & Grenadines • Swaziland • Sweden • Switzerland • Tahiti • Tanzania • Thailand • Togo • Tunisia • Trinidad & Tobago • Uganda • Ukraine • Uruguay • Uzbekistan • Vanuatu • Venezuela • Zambia • Zimbabwe
