Scotland Rugby News
In rating the teams it is the defending champions that look a cut above as the other sides struggle to find consistency
There was a suspicion of vulnerability to Ireland coming into the Six Nations but they have answered those questions in style so far. Perhaps we’d just become a bit complacent about their standards but, as the only side unbeaten after two rounds, they look formidable.
Continue reading...Fly-half starred in England’s victory against France and is now set to face Scotland, the country of his father’s birth
As Gregor Townsend sweats on the availability of Finn Russell for next Saturday’s Calcutta Cup there may be a few wistful glances in the direction of England’s fly-halves. For Fin Smith, man of the match on his first Test start against France, has Scottish blood in his veins.
His grandfather, Tom Elliot, was from Galashiels – like Townsend – and represented Scotland and the British & Irish Lions as a loosehead prop. Smith’s father, Andrew, is from Dunfermline and met his wife, Judith, Tom’s daughter, at the London Scottish clubhouse. Smith Sr has eight England caps of his own but as a child would marvel at his grandfather’s collection, he and brother Angus regularly trying them on.
Continue reading...Pre match reading
It’s 25 years since the Six Nations was created, thus rendering Scotland Five Nations champions in perpetuity. Relive the 2000 tournament here with this brilliant collection of images and memories.
Continue reading...Twenty-five years on from the first Six Nations, Murrayfield hosts battle between two teams who have come a long way in a quarter of a century
And so we head back to where it all began. The Six Nations is a quarter of a century old. Wednesday will mark 25 years since its opening fixture on 5 February 2000, but of more visceral significance will be Saturday afternoon’s encounter at Murrayfield between Scotland and Italy, a rerun of that first match, bathed in sunshine, when Italy, the new arrivals, announced themselves to the old championship with a shattering 34-20 win over the champions.
Those not yet in middle age may balk at the phrase “champions Scotland”. But it is true. They were quite often champions back then. In 1999 they won the last Five Nations, outplaying the rest in what must still rank as the greatest championship of them all. England squeaked past them at Twickenham in round two, but Scotland had run rings round them all match, just as they would all-comers that year. When England fell to the most dramatic defeat of them all on the final Sunday, against Wales at Wembley, Scotland were crowned worthy champions, having thrashed France in Paris, no less, the day before.
Continue reading...The former national rugby union captain has been spared jail for the domestic abuse of his estranged wife, Gill, after courts painted a grim picture of his off-pitch behaviour
Scotland has not always been blessed with rugby players of genuine world class but prime-time Stuart Hogg was a rare exception. At the height of his powers he was the Six Nations Player of the Year in successive seasons in 2016 and 2017, mixing acceleration and attacking intent with a just-try-and-stop-me attitude that set him apart from the average workaday pro.
The talented lad from Hawick was a big fish in a series of smallish pools – the Borders, Scottish rugby, Exeter – and grew accustomed to being hailed as king of his local oval-ball castle. While, behind closed doors, not being entirely the man his many fans thought him to be.
Continue reading...The former Scotland rugby union captain Stuart Hogg will be supervised for a year as an alternative to jail after he admitted abusing his estranged wife over the course of five years.
He pleaded guilty to a single charge of domestic abuse of his ex-partner, Gillian Hogg, when he appeared at Selkirk Sheriff Court on 4 November. He admitted shouting and swearing, tracking her movements and sending her messages which were alarming and distressing in nature.
Continue reading...Excitement and optimism abounded after two statement wins but result shows Schmidt’s work is just starting out
It had been a fortnight of razzle-dazzle and eye-catching headlines. Offloads and sidesteps, pyrotechnics and sliding tries in the corner had filled highlights reels and provided content for podcasts and think-pieces. There wasn’t a spare seat on the bandwagon. The hype train was chugging along at full throttle. Everyone wanted to know: Were the Wallabies back?
This was the reality check that Australian rugby needed. Because for all their brilliance in their record wins in London and Cardiff, they were handed a lesson here in Edinburgh. This 27-13 defeat serves as a timely reminder that for all the positivity that has been accrued this autumn, there are still more pressing questions that need answering.
Continue reading...Sione Tuipulotu helped halt Australia’s autumn resurgence as the Scotland captain scored the opening try in an impressive 27-13 triumph
“Gervase Greene here in (very) early-morning Sydney, finding myself in the weird situation of hoping a rampant Wallabies can offset the national shame of our aged and hapless cricket team being trounced in the Perth Test. You’ll appreciate this is not a sentence we have had cause to utter in several decades…”
4 mins. A big clearing kick from Kinghorn forces Wright to find touch in his own half. The Scotland lineout is good, but as Russell looks to get the attack going the ball is spilled forward by Jones in midfield.
Continue reading...Australia are trusting in some backline wizardry, handing a debut to the winger Harry Potter and returning Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii to the starting lineup for the Scotland Test match.
Suaalii is set for his biggest examination yet in Wallabies gold with the cross-code superstar back as outside centre for the third leg of their British Isles grand slam bid at Murrayfield on Sunday.
Continue reading...Wing Darcy Graham equalled the record for the most tries for Scotland as they ran in a total of nine in a dominant 59-21 victory over Portugal in their Test at Murrayfield on Saturday.
Graham scored the third of Scotland’s five first-half tries to bring his total to 29 in 41 international appearances and equal Duhan van der Merwe’s record.
Continue reading...The former Scotland rugby international Stuart Hogg has admitted abusing his estranged wife over the course of five years.
Hogg, 32, had been due to stand trial at Selkirk Sheriff Court on Monday but pleaded guilty to a single charge when he appeared at the court.
Continue reading...Darcy Graham notched four times to briefly move joint top of Scotland’s all-time try-scoring list, only for his fellow Edinburgh wing Duhan van der Merwe to climb back ahead of him with a late touchdown of his own in a comfortable 57-17 victory over Fiji at Murrayfield.
Glasgow centre Sione Tuipulotu kicked off his captaincy of Gregor Townsend’s team, but it was talismanic wing Graham who stole the show in his first Test outing since the World Cup defeat by Ireland in Paris 13 months ago.
Continue reading...New Zealand sit third after Scott Robertson’s strong start and England have work to do after a 2-0 defeat
Ciarán Frawley’s last-gasp drop goal sealed a stunning win in Durban, ensuring South Africa had failed to win a series against Ireland for the first time. It was the latest thrilling instalment of the global game’s leading rivalry at present and Ireland have now won two of their last three against the Springboks. Add in the 2022 series win in New Zealand and Ireland’s ability to pick up away victories in the southern hemisphere sets them apart from their European rivals. That they went to South Africa and drew the series without Jamison Gibson-Park speaks volumes about the depth Farrell has unearthed, with full-back Jamie Osborne the latest to flourish. Farrell does not pick his British and Irish Lions squad for around 10 months but at this rate it will be dominated by his Irish charges.
Continue reading...The Scotland back couldn’t be happier after switch to French club who face Harlequins in a Champions Cup semi-final
It’s been five months since Blair Kinghorn decided to move from Edinburgh to Toulouse mid-season. He’s played 10 games and won every one of them. Toulouse are second in the Top 14, two points off Stade Français, and have a home semi-final against Harlequins in the Champions Cup on Sunday.
Kinghorn has scored six tries and eanred himself a spot in a freewheeling backline that includes Antoine Dupont, Romain Ntamack, and Thomas Ramos. He’s been playing in front of a 20,000 home crowd every other week. And he and his fiancee are settled into their new house, next door to his friend and teammate Jack Willis.
Continue reading...Even with Ireland once again top, a middle England, and Italy and Wales battling at the bottom, the tournament still thrills
At first glance not an awful lot changed during the men’s Six Nations championship this year. Ireland and France occupied the table’s top two positions, as they did in 2023, with Wales and Italy in the bottom two and England and Scotland once again the meat in the club sandwich. Ireland, for the third year in a row, had the meanest defence and only the winless Welsh, strangely, managed to score more tries than last year.
Yet if this was not a vintage Six Nations in absolutely all respects, the old tournament is enjoying a refreshing renaissance. The competition is now so tight that 10 of the 15 matches were decided by four points or fewer, including all three of the final-round games. If Netflix cannot stitch together an award winning series from the stunning “Super Saturday” footage alone it should abandon its fly‑on‑the‑wall cameras and walk away.
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