Scotland national rugby union team

Scotland

File:ScotlandRugbyLogo.png
Union	Scottish Rugby Union
Emblem(s)	the Thistle
Ground(s)	Murrayfield Stadium
Coach(es)	Andy Robinson
Captain(s)	Alastair Kellock
Most caps	Chris Paterson (109)
Top scorer	Chris Paterson (809)
Most tries	Ian Smith, Tony Stanger (24)
Team kit Change kit
First international
(also the world's first) Scotland 1 – 0 England (27 March 1871)
Largest win
Scotland 100 – 8 Japan (13 November 2004)
Largest defeat
Scotland 10 – 68 South Africa (6 December 1997)
World Cup
Appearances	7/7 (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 eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011. They annually take part in the Six Nations Championship 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. Scotland competed in the Five Nations from the inaugural tournament in 1883, winning it 14 times outright—including the last ever Five Nations in 1999—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 seven competitions, the most recent being in 2011. 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. England are the current holders after defeating Scotland 22–16 at Twickenham in the 2011 Six Nations.

History

Main article: History of rugby union in Scotland

1871–1924

Cartoon after the SA-Scotland match in 1906

The Scots issue a challenge

The newspaper notice advertising the very first rugby international match – inconspicuous by being slotted in between other items. (From The Scotsman, 27.3.1871) In December 1870 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 English could hardly ignore such a challenge and this led to the first-ever rugby international match being played at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh, on Monday 27 March 1871. The Scots won the encounter by a goal and a try to a solitary try scored by England (a points scoring system had not then been devised). 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.

The Calcutta Cup

Lineout in England-Scotland game, 2007

The Calcutta Cup was donated to the Rugby Football Union in 1878 by the members of the short-lived Calcutta Rugby Club. The members had decided to disband: the cup was crafted from melted-down silver rupees which became available when the Club's funds were withdrawn from the bank. The Cup is unique in that it is competed for annually only by England and Scotland. The first Calcutta Cup match was played in 1879 and, since that time, over 100 matches have taken place.

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.

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 wins 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 1950 and they shared the Five Nations title in 1964 with Wales.

In 1971 the SRU appointed Bill Dickinson as their head coach, after years of avoidance, as it was their belief that rugby should remain an amateur sport. He was officially designated as an "adviser to the captain".

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. These teams play in international club competitions such as the Heineken Cup and the Celtic League.

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 Hemisphere 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" 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 and to a last minute win by Wales over England, 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.

2003 season & the future

Scotland v Ireland 2007

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.

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 15 September 2005, he was appointed national coach of the Scotland team up to and including the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

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 18–12 at home at Murrayfield on 25 February 2006 to reclaim the Calcutta Cup.

11 November 2006 Scotland 44–6 Romania

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. The series provided a mixture of advances and setbacks. Scotland lost several key players through injury, notably captain Jason White suffered a knee injury and missed the entire 2007 Six Nations Championship.

Scotland suffered a humiliating defeat on 24 February 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 clearance 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.

Later that year, the side travelled to France for the Rugby World Cup. They fought their way through a difficult group and made it to the quarter finals where they were knocked out by Argentina.

Despite the promising World Cup, Scotland did not emerge into the Six Nations as the dark horses the media had predicted. Scotland opened their campaign at home but lost 27–6 to France. Pressure on Frank Hadden started to intensify after round 2 as Scotland lost 30–15 to a rejuvenated Wales side who could have scored more. Scotland finally managed to score a try, against Ireland, despite losing. They didn't need to score a try against England however as they regained the Calcutta Cup with a 15–9 victory in a dull contest. Scotland scored two tries against Italy but lost thanks to a drop goal in the last minute to go down 23–20. Scotland managed to avoid the wooden spoon on scoring difference but it was a disappointing campaign. They then toured Argentina to play two tests against Argentina. They lost the first test 21–15 and won the second 26–14.

In the 2009 Six Nations campaign, Scotland won just one match for a second consecutive year (against Italy) and thus, on 2 April 2009 Frank Hadden vacated the head coach position of the national side. On 4 June 2009, ex-England, Edinburgh and Bath coach Andy Robinson was named head coach.

The Robinson era

Former England coach Andy Robinson became Scotland coach in time for the 2009 Autumn Internationals. Scotland's form picked up with a 23–10 victory over Fiji and a memorable 9–8 win against Australia (the first win over the Wallabies for 27 years) at Murrayfield.

Scotland went into the 2010 Six Nations with a renewed confidence, hoping to build off the successes in the autumn. After losing their first match to a superior French side, Scotland looked to turn the corner against Wales in Cardiff. They scored two tries in the opening quarter of the match and held a 24–14 lead with seven minutes remaining. However, two players were sin-binned in that period, and Scotland strangely opted not to kick the ball into touch after Wales had tied the game just short of the 80 minute mark. The resulting passage of play saw Wales score the winning try and leave Scotland frustrated. The frustration continued in a loss to Italy and a draw with England. However, against Ireland, in the final rugby match at Croke Park, Scotland stole the occasion, dominating the set pieces and continually attacking. They won the match 23–20 on a last-minute penalty by Dan Parks, denying the Irish the Triple Crown and assuring they themselves would avoid the wooden spoon.

The championship was highlighted by Parks' influential return to the international foray, and the outstanding play of the 'Killer B' back row: Kelly Brown, John Barclay, and Johnnie Beattie.

In the 2010 Summer Internationals, Scotland toured Argentina and recorded their first ever away series victory, beating the Pumas in two tests, 24–16 (all points kicked by Dan Parks)and 13–9.

In the Autumn Internationals of 2010, Scotland lost an embarrassing 49–3 against the All Blacks, but then went on the next week to defeat then world champions South Africa 21–17. With their final Autumn Test drawing to a close, Scotland took victory over Samoa 19–16, with a last minute penalty kicked by Ruaridh Jackson.

The 2011 Six Nations saw the progress of the previous summer and autumn largely undone. While they had been predicted by many to win two games and challenge in one or two others, Scotland once again found themselves winless and in the running for the wooden spoon before the final round. With the exception of their first game against France and their last game against Italy, Scotland again struggled to find the try-line. They were able to salvage something with a 21–8 win over Italy, but Robinson was unimpressed by his side's overall performance in the championship and insisted they could and would do better. Richie Gray was a consistent performer in every game, and Chris Paterson justified his return at full-back with his goal kicking and try-saving tackles on Ben Foden of England and Italy's Luke McLean.

Thistle and the anthem

The Scotland team lines up for the national 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 Norwegian Vikings, 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 motto of the Kings of Scotland, and also of Scotland's premier chivalric order, the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, and of the Scots Guards (the latter both "belonging" to the monarch).

Flower of Scotland has been used since 1990 as Scotland's unofficial national anthem. It was written by Roy Williamson of The Corries in 1967, and adopted by the SRU to replace God Save the Queen. In the first year of using 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.

Strip

Scotland have traditionally worn navy blue jerseys, white shorts and blue socks. The team sponsor used to be 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 was 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 14 November 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.

On 3 September 2007 it was announced that Rangers F.C. chairman Sir David Murray's company would become the new shirt sponsor, investing £2.7 million over the next three years. This came as The Famous Grouse ended its 17 year relationship with the team the month prior to this. The Famous Grouse however, have maintained a low profile link to the Scottish Rugby Union by becoming the main spirit sponsor. This deal is thought to be worth a tenth of the original cost and forbids the Scottish Rugby Union from affiliating itself from any other whisky manufacturer.

Record

Six Nations

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.)

	England	France	Ireland	Italy	Scotland	Wales
Tournaments	128	95	130	25	130	130
Outright wins (shared wins)
Home Nations	5 (4)	—	4 (3)	—	9 (2)	7 (3)
Five Nations	17 (6)	12 (8)	6 (5)	—	5 (6)	15 (8)
Six Nations	7	6	6	0	0	6
Overall	29 (10)	18 (8)	16 (8)	0 (0)	14 (8)	28 (11)
Grand Slams
Home Nations	—	—	—	—	—	2
Five Nations	11	6	1	—	3	6
Six Nations	2	4	3	0	0	4
Overall	13	10	4	0	3	12
Triple Crowns
Home Nations	5	—	2	—	7	6
Five Nations	16	—	4	—	3	11
Six Nations	5	—	7	—	0	5
Overall	26	—	13	—	10	22
Wooden Spoons
Home Nations	7	—	10	—	5	6
Five Nations	10	12	15	—	15	10
Six Nations	0	1	0	18	4	2
Overall	17	13	25	18	24	18

World Cup

Main article: Scotland at the Rugby World Cup

Scotland has competed in every Rugby World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1987. Their best finish was fourth in 1991. In their semi-final on 26 October 1991 Scotland lost 6–9 to England at Murrayfield after Gavin Hastings missed a penalty almost in front of and a short distance from the posts. On 30 October Scotland lost the third-place play-off to New Zealand in Cardiff 13–6. Since then they have qualified for the quarter-finals in every tournament (except the most recent, 2011), but have not since qualified for the semi-finals.

Year	Stage	Team	Score	Team	Venue
1987	Pool 4	France	20–20	Scotland	Lancaster Park
1987	Pool 4	Scotland	60–21	Zimbabwe	Athletic Park
1987	Pool 4	Romania	28–55	Scotland	Carisbrook
1987	Quarter-final	New Zealand	30–3	Scotland	Lancaster Park
1991	Pool B	Scotland	47–9	Japan	Murrayfield
1991	Pool B	Scotland	51–12	Zimbabwe	Murrayfield
1991	Pool B	Scotland	24–15	Ireland	Murrayfield
1991	Quarter-final	Scotland	28–6	Western Samoa	Murrayfield
1991	Semi-final	Scotland	6–9	England	Murrayfield
1991	Third-place play-off	Scotland	6–13	New Zealand	Cardiff
1995	Pool D	Ivory Coast	0–89	Scotland	Rustenburg
1995	Pool D	Scotland	41–5	Tonga	Pretoria
1995	Pool D	France	22–19	Scotland	Pretoria
1995	Quarter-final	New Zealand	48–30	Scotland	Pretoria
1999	Pool 1	Scotland	29–46	South Africa	Murrayfield
1999	Pool 1	Scotland	43–12	Uruguay	Murrayfield
1999	Pool 1	Scotland	48–0	Spain	Murrayfield
1999	Quarter-final play-off	Scotland	35–20	Samoa	Murrayfield
1999	Quarter-final	Scotland	18–30	New Zealand	Murrayfield
2003	Pool B	Scotland	32–11	Japan	Townsville
2003	Pool B	Scotland	39–15	United States	Brisbane
2003	Pool B	France	51–9	Scotland	Sydney
2003	Pool B	Scotland	22–20	Fiji	Aussie Stadium
2003	Quarter-final	Australia	33–16	Scotland	Brisbane
2007	Pool C	Scotland	56–10	Portugal	Saint-Étienne
2007	Pool C	Scotland	42–0	Romania	Murrayfield
2007	Pool C	Scotland	0–40	New Zealand	Murrayfield
2007	Pool C	Scotland	18–16	Italy	Saint-Étienne
2007	Quarter-final	Argentina	19–13	Scotland	Stade de France
2011	Pool B	Scotland	34–24	Romania	Invercargill
2011	Pool B	Scotland	15-6	Georgia	Invercargill
2011	Pool B	Argentina	13–12	Scotland	Wellington
2011	Pool B	England	16–12	Scotland	Auckland

Overall

Scotland achieved 100 points for the first time in defeating a young and inexperienced Japan side 100–8 on 13 November 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 F.C., McDiarmid Park, Perth. It was the first time that Scotland had ever played "North of the Forth" (i.e. the 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.

Men's World Rugby Rankings

Top 30 as of 9 December 2024

Rank	Change	Team	Points
1		South Africa	092.78
2		Ireland	090.78
3		New Zealand	090.36
4		France	088.51
5		Argentina	084.97
6		Scotland	083.34
7		England	082.31
8		Australia	081.52
9		Fiji	080.07
10		Italy	078.64
11		Wales	074.01
12		Georgia	073.85
13		Japan	072.95
14		Samoa	072.68
15		United States	070.02
16		Portugal	068.82
17		Uruguay	067.06
18		Spain	065.98
19		Tonga	065.46
20		Romania	063.01
21		Chile	061.72
22		Hong Kong	059.49
23		Canada	059.18
24		Netherlands	058.56
25		Russia	058.06
26		Namibia	057.87
27		Zimbabwe	057.16
28		Brazil	056.53
29		Belgium	056.51
30		Switzerland	056.04

{{{2}}}'s historical rankings

See or edit source data.

Source: World Rugby
Graph updated to 9 December 2024

Their Test match record against all nations:

Against	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	% Won
Argentina	12	5	7	0	41.7
Australia	25	7	18	0	28
Barbarians	11	2	8	1	18.2
Canada	4	3	1	0	75
England	124	41	66	17	33.1
Fiji	5	4	1	0	80
France	81	34	44	3	42
Ireland	121	63	53	5	52.1
Italy	12	8	4	0	66.7
Ivory Coast	1	1	0	0	100
Japan	7	6	1	0	85.7
New Zealand	27	0	25	2	0
Pacific Islanders	1	1	0	0	100
Portugal	1	1	0	0	100
Romania	12	10	2	0	83.3
Samoa	7	6	0	1	85.7
South Africa	19	5	14	0	26.3
Spain	1	1	0	0	100
Tonga	2	2	0	0	100
United States	3	3	0	0	100
Uruguay	3	3	0	0	100
Wales	114	48	63	3	42.1
Zimbabwe	2	2	0	0	100
Total	595	256	307	32	43

Players

Current Squad

Scotland's 30-man squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

• Caps updated before test matches.

Head Coach: Andy Robinson

Note: Flags indicate national union for the club/province as defined by World Rugby.

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Ross Ford	Hooker	(1984-04-23) 23 April 1984	54	Edinburgh
Dougie Hall	Hooker	(1980-09-24) 24 September 1980	37	Glasgow Warriors
Scott Lawson	Hooker	(1981-09-28) 28 September 1981	29	Gloucester
Geoff Cross	Prop	(1982-12-11) 11 December 1982	8	Edinburgh
Alasdair Dickinson	Prop	(1983-09-11) 11 September 1983	24	Sale Sharks
Allan Jacobsen	Prop	(1978-09-22) 22 September 1978	60	Edinburgh
Moray Low	Prop	(1984-11-28) 28 November 1984	15	Glasgow Warriors
Euan Murray	Prop	(1980-08-07) 7 August 1980	41	Newcastle Falcons
Richie Gray	Lock	(1989-08-24) 24 August 1989	16	Glasgow Warriors
Jim Hamilton	Lock	(1982-11-17) 17 November 1982	34	Gloucester
Nathan Hines	Lock	(1976-11-29) 29 November 1976	77	Clermont
Alastair Kellock (c)	Lock	(1981-06-14) 14 June 1981	36	Glasgow Warriors
John Barclay	Flanker	(1986-09-24) 24 September 1986	32	Glasgow Warriors
Kelly Brown	Flanker	(1982-06-08) 8 June 1982	45	Saracens
Ross Rennie	Flanker	(1986-03-29) 29 March 1986	6	Edinburgh
Alasdair Strokosch	Flanker	(1983-02-21) 21 February 1983	19	Gloucester
Richie Vernon	Number 8	(1987-07-07) 7 July 1987	11	Sale Sharks
Mike Blair	Scrum-half	(1981-04-20) 20 April 1981	71	Edinburgh
Chris Cusiter	Scrum-half	(1982-06-13) 13 June 1982	52	Glasgow Warriors
Rory Lawson	Scrum-half	(1981-03-12) 12 March 1981	27	Gloucester
Ruaridh Jackson	Fly-half	(1988-02-12) 12 February 1988	6	Glasgow Warriors
Dan Parks	Fly-half	(1978-05-26) 26 May 1978	61	Cardiff Blues
Joe Ansbro	Centre	(1985-10-29) 29 October 1985	6	London Irish
Nick De Luca	Centre	(1984-02-01) 1 February 1984	24	Edinburgh
Graeme Morrison	Centre	(1982-10-17) 17 October 1982	28	Glasgow Warriors
Simon Danielli	Wing	(1979-09-08) 8 September 1979	29	Ulster
Max Evans	Wing	(1983-09-12) 12 September 1983	19	Castres
Sean Lamont	Wing	(1981-01-15) 15 January 1981	55	Scarlets
Rory Lamont	Fullback	(1982-10-10) 10 October 1982	24	Toulon
Chris Paterson	Fullback	(1978-03-30) 30 March 1978	104	Edinburgh

Notable players

Four former Scotland players have been inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame:

• Gordon Brown
• Gavin Hastings, captain of the British Lions, full back
• Andy Irvine, full back, Scottish captain and British Lion
• Ian McGeechan

McGeechan and 19th-century great Bill Maclagan are members of the IRB Hall of Fame.

Greatest XV

A Greatest Ever XV was selected by popular vote on the SRU's website.

• 15 Gavin Hastings
• 14 Andy Irvine
• 13 Alan Tait
• 12 Jim Renwick
• 11 Roger Baird
• 10 John Rutherford
• 9 Gary Armstrong
• 8 Derek White
• 7 Finlay Calder
• 6 John Jeffrey
• 5 Scott Murray
• 4 Gordon Brown
• 3 Iain Milne
• 2 Colin Deans
• 1 David Sole, captain

Coaches

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

Unlike countries of a similarly small size, Scotland very rarely appoint foreign coaches—although two of the three most recent coaches, including the current incumbent, have been from outside the country. The first of these is the Australian Matt Williams who was sacked with his staff early in 2005 and succeeded by Frank Hadden, a Scot. 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 named as head coach in autumn 2005 and left the post on on 2 April 2009 after a second consecutive disappointing six nations where they finished second bottom after winning just one match. On 4 June 2009, Englishman Andy Robinson was named head coach. Robinson was no stranger to Scottish rugby, however, as he had been the head coach of Edinburgh Rugby and joint coach of Scotland A before being promoted to his current position.

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.

Here is a list of all the national team coaches since the SRU first appointed Bill Dickinson to the position in 1971.

Name	Tenure	Tests	Won	Drew	Lost	Win %
Bill Dickinson	1971–1977	27	14	0	13	52
Nairn McEwan	1977–1980	14	1	2	11	7
Jim Telfer	1980–1985	33	13	2	18	39
Derrick Grant	1986–1988	13	8	1	4	62
Ian McGeechan	1988–1993	39	20	1	18	51
Jim Telfer	1994–1999	53	21	2	30	40
Ian McGeechan	2000–2003	43	18	1	24	42
Matt Williams	2003–2005	17	3	0	14	18
Frank Hadden	2005–2009	41	16	0	25	39
Andy Robinson	2009 –	20	10	1	9	50

See also

• History of matches between Scotland and:
  • Argentina
  • Australia
  • England
  • France
  • New Zealand
  • South Africa
  • Wales
• List of Scotland national rugby union team records

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

External links

• Scotland Rugby Team – the official site of the Scotland national team
• Favourites find Scotland grit hard to swallow: Scotland 18 England 12, The Times, 27 February 2006
• Scottish Rugby Union – the official site of Scottish Rugby
• 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 football games. (Sunday Times, 21 November 2004)