ROUGH JUSTICE

There was a a fair bit of animosity between the Scots and English throughout the 1980s and early 1990s. Tension jumped to new levels when England came to Edinburgh for the Grand Slam decider in 1990 and revealed they already had T- shirts made up congratulating themselves on their victory. On the day of the game, the players walked around Murrayfield with their partners in tow... a bad look indeed.

When the Scots famously won against the odds, they didn’t hold back in celebrating and the English players suddenly realised how much they were genuinely disliked north of the border. A culture of anything goes developed with both sides prepared to do whatever it took to win – which was England’s philosophy in 1994.

Scotland led 14- 12 with one minute remaining. England were scrambling to retrieve tackled ball in Scottish territory to set up one last attack. Suddenly the ball flew out of the ruck and Kiwi referee Lindsay McLachlan penalised the Scots for handling. England fullback Jon Callard slotted the kick to win the game 15- 14. McLachlan had reacted to seeing a blue jersey handling the ball, but TV footage later showed the blue to quite clearly be the cuff of Rob Andrew’s England jersey.

Such was the pain for the Scots and the sense of outrage that captain Gavin Hastings actually cried when he was interviewed after the game. More than 10 years later, former England captain Will Carling was interviewed about that incident. “Was it Rob Andrew? Nah. Really? I can’t believe that,” he said with a giant grin. “But what I do know is that the Scots had been cheating throughout the game. Well, I certainly hope it was an England hand – because if it was Rob, then it was an even better day than I remember.”