Scotland Rugby News
From the brilliance of Bielle-Biarrey to Carré’s jaw-dropping try, our highs and lows from a sensational championship
Player of the tournament Impossible to look past Louis Bielle-Biarrey who, among assorted records, has become the first player to score a try in every Six Nations game in successive seasons. But Italy’s Tommaso Menoncello and Ireland’s Stuart McCloskey also deserve a podium place.
Continue reading...France’s dramatic triumph was proof that Test rugby played at full throttle ranks among the most compelling spectacles
L’Équipe’s front page headline summed it up perfectly. “So Crazy” did not just reflect Saturday night’s dizzying blur of a game in the Stade de France but pretty much the entire 2026 men’s Six Nations championship. Wales beat Italy who defeated Scotland who beat France who beat Ireland who beat England who, you’ve guessed it, beat Wales. Rugby, eh?
And maybe that is the single biggest takeaway from the most extraordinary Six Nations of them all. Never mind the players and the coaches, spare a thought for all those distractedly pouring orange juice on their cereal as they vainly try to rationalise six weeks of madness. The world’s oldest championship still manages to refresh parts others cannot reach.
Continue reading...Scotland take on Ireland in mix for championship
‘It would be great to finish with a win and on a high’
Gregor Townsend refused to indulge in talk of a first Six Nations title for Scotland as he outlined the scale of the task still facing his side in their quest to make history.
The Scots go into Super Saturday as one of three teams in the mix for the championship, alongside table-topping France and opponents Ireland. In short, Scotland must collect more match points in Dublin in the first game of the day than Les Bleus manage against England in the late kick-off in Paris. If both lose, Ireland could also win the title.
Continue reading...Gregor Townsend knows how quickly hope can turn to despair but their performance against France could spur them on to greater heights
The feeling that Scotland might just have the hang of this winning thing continues to build. Playing dazzling rugby every now and then has never been a problem. Meaningful wins? Harder to come by.
Perhaps the most entertaining part of the extraordinary win over France – and there were, how to put this, quite a few of those – was watching the resolutely unmoved disposition of Gregor Townsend. As if there were nothing much to see here. Seven tries and 50 points against the red-hot favourites for the title. All in a day’s work.
Continue reading...‘It was all about making sure we fired the first shot’
Gregor Townsend hails ‘brilliant day for our supporters’
Kyle Steyn said the key to his side’s stunning 50-40 Six Nations victory over France on Saturday was striking first. The 32-year-old was named man of the match after he and his fellow wing Darcy Graham scored two tries each in a match they actually led 47-14 at one point.
That would have been a record Scottish victory over France but instead Steyn and his teammates had to settle for a highest ever score after outscoring France by seven tries to six.
Continue reading...A stunning victory for Scotland in a thirteen try classic at Murrayfield.
4 mins. It’s advantage Scotland as Ramos fumbles a Russell kick forward off his chest. He was under no pressure at all, but the sun is fierce on that side of the pitch and hindered him. Scotland scrum coming in the France half.
2 mins. Some textbook take, recycle, kick periods from both sides; each probing for an opening via the boot and kick chasers. So far nothing doing for either.
Continue reading...The hosts must conjure the spirit of their last title triumph, 27 years ago, when the sides meet at Murrayfield
Even now, 27 years on, Kenny Logan still remembers how good it felt. Back in 1999, as this year, Scotland were title outsiders before a crunch fixture against the defending champions, France. Beneath a bright blue Parisian sky they gloriously ripped up the script with five first-half tries and, thanks to England’s late implosion against Wales at Wembley a day later, hoisted the trophy at Murrayfield in front of 15,000 fans on the Monday.
For Logan, who landed five successful kicks on that famous afternoon, the timeless lessons of the story are twofold. The first is that Scotland have failed to win the tournament since; and the second is that, at times like this, fortune favours the brave: “When we went to France that year we took the game to them. That’s what Scotland will do this weekend – and probably do it better than we could.”
Continue reading...Scotland pinch victory over spirited Wales five minutes from time in thrilling Six Nations contest in Cardiff.
Yes, we know the team is struggling, but the Principality Stadium looks incredible!
If you are a rugby fan and you’ve not visited this cathedral, get your accountant on the line and book yourself a trip.
I am not a confident Welsh fan. There are so many issues at the moment, it’s hard to know where to start. The WRU is spectacularly badly run. We were fortunate to have a couple of generations of genuinely World Class players between the mid 00’s and 2020ish, and considering the resources available, population, player base etc, that was always likely to drop off at some point. But I don’t think anyone expected the drop-off to be quite so drastic. We kept being told that it was a young side who would gained experience and improve. But that’s been a stuck record for 4 years or so. There’s no identity to the team. When you watch them, you often cant see what they’re trying to achieve. The basics, the flipping basics(!), are repeatedly falling apart. The first quarter against England was as bad a spell of international rugby as you’re ever likely to see. I don’t know where to go from here. It’s hideous.
Continue reading...A humbling Six Nations defeat at Murrayfield has left the England coach with significant questions to answer
Some of life’s certainties are impossible to sidestep. And to the trinity of death, taxes and rail delays can now be added a fourth familiar staple. When Scotland play England at Murrayfield it is now all but guaranteed the hosts will raise their game to Ben Nevis‑type heights and the visitors will be taken down a peg or three.
Thus it was again at the weekend as Scotland reignited the bonfire of English vanities and once more sent the auld enemy homewards tae think again. A chastened England were exposed repeatedly in thought and deed by opponents unrecognisable from the sodden losers in Rome the previous week and, as a result, the visitors were brutally consigned to a fifth Calcutta Cup defeat in the past six editions.
Continue reading...Kyle Steyn and Finn Russell were irrepressible for the hosts while Ollie Chessum shone for England but George Ford was among those in white who had days to forget
Tom Jordan Solid under high ball, did his bit in a cohesive attacking display from Gregor Townsend’s fluent backline. 7
Continue reading...Scotland score four tries as England’s 12-match unbeaten run ends with a thumping in Edinburgh
If we could distill the feeling when the music cuts out in Flower of Scotland, and the fans take over, we’d be millionaires.
Hook that right into my vein and call me in a week!
Continue reading...Scotland boast strong recent Calcutta Cup record
England have not won at Murrayfield since 2020
Maro Itoje has called on his England side to be “bulletproof” as they seek to clinch a first win at Murrayfield in six years on Saturday. England can keep their grand slam pursuit alive by successfully defending the Calcutta Cup and Itoje has urged his side to create their own history despite their recent wretched form in Edinburgh.
With England on a 12-match winning streak and Scotland suffering a shock defeat by Italy last week, Steve Borthwick’s side are clear favourites for victory. Their only victory at Murrayfield since Eddie Jones’ first game in charge came in miserable weather in 2020, however, with Scotland securing victories in 2022 and last time out in 2024.
Continue reading...‘People should spend more time supporting him’
Itoje restored as England captain for Six Nations match
Steve Borthwick has called on Scotland supporters to lay off Gregor Townsend before the Calcutta Cup on Saturday, pointing out that his opposite number is his nation’s most successful coach of the professional era.
Townsend is under huge pressure after the defeat against Italy in Rome last weekend came after he bizarrely claimed a report he had agreed to take over at Newcastle Red Bulls after the 2027 World Cup was a ruse designed to distract his side before they welcome England to Murrayfield.
Continue reading...As pressure builds before Calcutta Cup, Scotland’s coach may well have reached the point of diminishing returns
The witty Anglo-American author Ashleigh Brilliant passed away last September at the age of 91, but his best lines are timeless. Beleaguered sports coaches worldwide will all recognise one of his characteristically pithy observations: “I try to take one day at a time – but sometimes several days attack me at once.” To be responsible for an under-pressure national side must induce a similar feeling.
So what do you do when coaching life starts serving you lemons? After a while there are only two options: try to ride it out, or accept it might be wiser for someone else to have a go. It can be a delicate judgment, often shaped by non-sporting considerations. Unless it becomes apparent, as seemingly happened with the recently ousted All Blacks coach Scott Robertson, that your dressing room has already made the call for you.
Continue reading...Italy 18-15 Scotland
Azzurri score early tries and resist fightback
They say the Six Nations is all about momentum and Scotland, again, find themselves sliding rapidly downhill. Passion and effort are guaranteed from any Italy team but they were clinical here too and defended magnificently. They ruthlessly capitalised on Scotland’s often rank inaccuracy and a richly deserved win – their second in three years against Scotland – sets them up beautifully for the tournament.
The fly-half Paolo Garbisi played the appallingly wet conditions superbly to celebrate his 50th Test cap, testing the visitors’ defence with regular, spiralling contestable kicks and mostly striking the ball well off the tee. The centres Tommaso Menoncello and Juan Ignacio Brex, also marking his 50th cap, were sensational again while the energy and skill of the wing Louis Lynagh significantly softened the blow of Ange Capuozzo’s injury absence. Collectively, in difficult conditions, Italy’s handling and ball movement were far superior to Scotland’s and arguably, for Gregor Townsend and his players, there is no excuse for that.
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