Defeating old enemy is all that matters for our fans and players says Townsend
SCOTLAND coach Gregor Townsend thought back yesterday to his first sight of an England jersey across the pitch from him and recalled the tartan rage that enveloped him.
He was playing for his country’s Under-18s and the poll tax had been imposed on Scotland as a test run by Margaret Thatcher, leading to furious protests north of the border.
The sporting backdrop was the 1990 Grand Slam shootout at Murrayfield, David Sole’s slow walk, Tony Stanger’s try,Will Carling’s face...
For a Borders teenager it was all too much. He smiled ruefully at the recollection.
“It was Scotland v England – I was brought up watching the 1990 match and I wanted to be like those guys. I was slapping myself in the face in the changing room. I was far too pumped up,” said Townsend, above.
“We didn’t win – I never won a single age group game for Scotland – but that was how it was in those days. I played one schools game at Murrayfield,
kicked the changing room door and put a hole right through it. When I made my debut there for Scotland three years later it was still there. “That carried on a little bit throughout my career. I remember going to Twickenham and being far too motivated for the game. I don’t think I did it very well because I lost nine times out of 10 against England.” Here’s the rub though. The one win – in 2000 – made it all worthwhile. For a Scotland international winning the Calcutta Cup resonates in a way it never can for an England international. “We had lost four games in a row in the 2000 Six Nations. When we won the last game against England you almost felt the supporters believed we had won four games in a row because the joy they get seeing their team win against England stays with them for weeks,” he said. And Townsend certainly enjoyed his victory, below.
“This is the most important fixture we play every year. We play for a trophy, it’s the oldest game in Test rugby, it’s our biggest rival. Whether it is population numbers or more success historically, we know that it is the rival we have to play our best against in order to have a chance, and it is a game which means so much to our people.”
At Scotland’s Heriot Watt University training base just outside Edinburgh the mood was light as Townsend unveiled his team. In the city it was business as usual with English accents welcome. It will be interesting to experience the atmosphere at Murrayfield tomorrow. Thankfully some of the enmity of the 1990s has gone from this fixture but the postBrexit political wallpaper is divisive once more and the rhetoric this week – out of England, not Scotland, it has to be said – has been incendiary. Perhaps Townsend senses a pungent Murrayfield might play into his side’s hands. The hate speech and warnings of war from England’s anthem king Lewis Ludlam are fine by the Scotland coach. “It’s nice that there’s a bit of spice about the build-up,” he said. “Rugby is a contact sport so you have to get yourself fired up