THE GALLANT SCOTS WHO HUMBLED THE MIGHTY ALL BLACKS “New Zealand is the hardest place to play. It was a huge moment to beat the All Blacks as Lions captain”
Elite group succeeded for Lions and Barbarians where country failed
THE Scotland national team have never beaten the All Blacks. The best results they have ever achieved against them were a 0-0 draw at Murrayfield on January 18, 1964, and a thrilling 25-25 draw, at the same venue, on November 12, 1983.
In that second game, full-back Peter Dods missed a conversion to win the match after Jim Pollock had scored a try.
There have been some close calls since then, such as the narrow 21-18 defeat at Eden Park, Auckland, just three months after Scotland had won the 1990 Grand Slam.
At Murrayfield in November 2017, Scotland full-back Stuart Hogg nearly sneaked in for a late try that would have tied the scores and left a last-minute conversion to win a pulsating encounter.
As it turned out, a brilliant last-ditch tackle by Beauden Barrett stopped Hogg just short of the line and allowed the All Blacks to escape with a 22-17 victory.
Scotland as a nation may not have enjoyed a win over New Zealand, but there is an elite group of individual Scottish players — just 12 in total — who have played and won against the All Blacks.
Sportsmail talks to some of those involved and looks back at the very special games.
NEW ZEALAND 6 LIONS 9 Sept 19, 1959 (Eden Park, Auckland)
Scots involved: Ken Scotland (wing) and Hugh McLeod (prop)
It was the year that Buddy Holly died in a plane crash, Cliff Richard reached No1 with Living Doll and
Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. These were the days of long Lions tours, with the travelling party leaving these shores on May 23 and not returning until September 19 after matches in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
In those four months, the Lions played 33 matches, winning 27 and losing six. They won two Tests in Australia but lost the series against the All Blacks by three games to one.
The one Test win over New Zealand featured Ken Scotland, who played 27 times for his country and five times for the Lions on the 1959 tour. The other Scot involved was Hugh McLeod, who played prop for Hawick and represented his country 40 times and played six times on the tour for the Lions.
Scotland (right) played in three of the four Tests against New Zealand. In the first in Dunedin, he was at full-back as the Lions lost 18-17. He missed the 11-8 defeat in Wellington but was back at full-back for the 22-8 defeat in Christchurch. He was moved to the centre for the fourth and final Test where a bit of pride was restored with a 9-6 win in Auckland.
Scotland, now 83, said : ‘It was a huge moment for me beating New Zealand and something I will never forget. It was our 31st game on tour and we were short of players due to injury. It was a big team effort for us to win. It was the best I had ever felt coming off a rugby field.
‘That’s because of the quality of the opposition, it was huge to beat New Zealand in their own country. It took a huge amount of will for us to win that match as we had lost the first three Tests against them but wanted to go home with at least one victory against them on their own patch.
‘It took us until that final game to do it and I was moved from full-back to centre. We may have lost the series but I think there were still around 63,000 people inside Eden Park in Auckland for the game, so there was still huge interest. It was the first Test won by the Lions in New Zealand since the first one there in 1930 and is one of the highlights of my career.’
NEW ZEALAND 3 LIONS 9 June 26, 1971 (Carisbrook, Dunedin)
Scots involved: Ian “Mighty Mouse” McLauchlan (winner in first and third Tests) and Gordon Brown (winner in third Test).
The first Test was a real personal triumph for Ian “Mighty Mouse” McLauchlan, who was the unlikely try-scoring hero in the win. Some argue he was part of the greatest-ever Lions side that included the likes of Willie John McBride and the worldclass Welsh half-back pairing of Gareth Edwards and Barry John.
Ironically, McLauchlan only made the side due to injuries to other props and went on to become one of the heroes of the tour. He opened the scoring in the first Test by charging down a clearance kick and running in to score his only try of the tour.
New Zealand won the second Test 22-12. But in the third, McLauchlan, now joined by fellow Scot Gordon Brown in the second row, who replaced Welshman Delme Thomas, had another great game as the Lions won 13-3.
In the fourth Test, the two Scots were involved again in the 14-14 draw in Auckland that secured a 2-1 series victory for the Lions.
McLauchlan said: ‘That first Test when I got my try was one of my favourite games. When I look at the All Blacks nowadays, I see the intensity with which they play. They played exactly the same way in 1971. I have never played in a game that moved so fast.
‘They were at us all the time. They attacked, attacked, attacked with speed but fortunately for us without much accuracy.’
BARBARIANS 23 NEW ZEALAND 11 Jan 27, 1973 (National Stadium, Cardiff)
Scot involved: Sandy Carmichael.
A game famous because it included what many believe is the greatest try ever scored. With only two minutes on the clock, Phil Bennett ran back to pick the ball up near his own goal line. He side-stepped and evaded three tackles with the ball going through five pairs of Barbarian hands before Gareth Edwards dived over in the corner. Bill McLaren was due to commentate on the game but he was recovering from flu, so Welshman Cliff Morgan was called in at the last minute to take over.
Sandy Carmichael, now 76, played
50 times at prop for Scotland. He played for the Lions on the 1971 tour to New Zealand but was forced off the tour through injury after multiple punches by an opposition player he refuses to name fractured his cheekbone.
He said: ‘What a try that was by Gareth (Edwards). You know something, I ran from near my own line to keep up with the move but no bugger passed the ball to me!
‘That was the fastest game I ever played in at any stage of my career. It never stopped. It was a privilege to be involved and be on the park when that great try was scored. Even if I didn’t get a pass on the way to it being scored!’
NEW ZEALAND 9 LIONS 13 July 9, 1977 (Lancaster Park, Christchurch)
Scots involved: Andy Irvine, Ian McGeechan, Gordon Brown.
The Lions had lost the first Test 16-12 to the All Blacks but things came together in the second when they won 13-9. Andy Irvine started at full-back, Ian McGeechan was in the centre and Gordon Brown in the second row. Two Scots — Dougie Morgan and Jim Hay — were on the bench but never got on.
Irvine said: ‘New Zealand were favourites to win the second Test after they won the first but that game could have easily gone our way. They got three second-half tries, two of which even they admitted came from lucky breaks. One came when Trevor Evans had a four-to-one overlap.
‘We looked certain to score but Trevor’s pass was picked up by Grant Batty who ran the length of the pitch to score. That turned the game.
‘Like the rest of the team, I still felt confident going into the second Test. Second-row Bill Beaumont had been superb on tour and prop Fran Cotton had been fantastic at loosehead.
‘We pulled ahead 13-3 in the first half and always felt we were in control of the game from then. They started to lose their discipline and we were worthy winners in the end. I started my international career in 1972 against the All Blacks when Scotland lost 14-9 at Murrayfield and, in total, played against them six times for my country and four times for the Lions. It was good to get a win over them under my belt and is an achievement I remain proud of.’
NEW ZEALAND 14 WORLD XV 28 April 18, 1992 (Lancaster Park, Christchurch)
Scots involved: David Sole, Gavin Hastings, Andy Nicol, Derek White.
The matches were held to celebrate the centenary of the New Zealand Rugby Union and the two nations played each other three times in a week.
The World XV, with all four Scots in their starting line-up and with Ian McGeechan as head coach, won the first match 28-14. That was as good as it got, with the All Blacks winning the midweek game 54-26 and also the third match 26-15.
Derek White said: ‘This was the first time I think after apartheid that South African players were allowed to represent a World XV and they made a big difference.
‘There were Springbok wingers Martin Knoetze, who got one try, and Pieter Hendriks, who got two. We also had the likes of Jeremy Guscott, Didier Camberabero and Olivier Roumat in what was a great team.
‘It was a huge deal for me as a Scotsman to be part of a team that defeated New Zealand as I knew we had never beaten them as a nation.’
NEW ZEALAND 7 LIONS 20 June 26, 1993 (Athletic Park, Wellington)
Scot involved: Gavin Hastings.
The All Blacks had won the first Test 20-18 but, with tour captain Gavin Hastings in great form, the Lions roared back to win the second 20-7. The third and deciding Test was pretty one-sided with New Zealand winning 30-13 in Auckland.
Former England hooker Brian Moore, who played in the winning second Test, described it as ‘one of the great one-off performances in Lions’ history’.
Hastings, who put over four penalties in the victory, said: ‘New Zealand is the hardest place to play rugby, so we did well to go into the third Test at one-each but we couldn’t raise our game to the level required to beat them again. It was a huge moment for me as Lions captain to beat the All Blacks.’