Scotland

Friday 18th May 2001

Colours: Blue
Major Honours: Five Nations Grand Slam (1925, 1984 & 1990), Four Nations (1886, 1887, 1889, 1891, 1895, 1901, 1903, 1904, 1907), Five Nations (1925, 1926, 1927, 1929, 1933, 1938, 1964 - shared - 1973, 1999).

Coach: Home-grown Frank Hadden was handed the Scotland role in 2005 after taking the Scots to impressive wins as interim boss following Matt Williams's sacking. Hadden was promoted from his job at Edinburgh, where he was credited with the revival of the team, and since his inception has also been credited with the revival of Scottish rugby at provincial level.

Captain: Sale Sharks flank Jason White was named Hadden's first captain in October 2005, having led scotland at U19 and U21 level, as well as leading his club side Sale Sharks in Jason Robinson's absence. He is a physical player, who said that his aptitude to 'get stuck in', was probably what earned him the honour in the first place.

Players to watch: Northampton Saints wing Sean Lamont is an exciting winger with a huge stride, and seems virtually impossible to knock over. Having moved from Glasgow to Northampton during the close season of 2004, he was one of the Saints' finest players, and consistently shines for Scotland even in adversity.

Profile: Scotland has one of the great rugby traditions - hosts of the first international match, inventors of Sevens, dedicatedly amateur and sporting. But the expanding world of rugby power has not been kind to them.

There is not a big player-base and so players have been recruited from abroad, but despite lacking the massive resources of their larger neighbour to the south, Scotland have manfully carved out a unique place amongst the world rugby elite.

Indeed Scotland enjoys the distinction of being the first country to host, and win, the first ever-recognised rugby international in the world when they beat England in Edinburgh way back in 1871.

They enjoyed periodic success in the early days vying with Wales in the first decade of the 20th century. However, their Triple Crown win in 1907 would be the last for eighteen years as war and England intervened to deny them glory.

However, they won their first ever Five Nations Grand Slam in 1925 - the first year playing in their new Murrayfield home which is the home of Scottish rugby to this day.
The period after World War Two was not a successful one for Scotland, although they shared the Five Nations title in 1964 with Wales. They had to wait to until 1984 for glory when a win over France secured the Grand Slam.

However, their greatest year in the modern era was 1990 when, captained by David Sole, their season came down to one game, a Grand Slam decider at Murrayfield against the old enemy, and hot favourites, England.

Scotland also won the last-ever Five Nations Championship in 1999 with some dashing displays of 15-man rugby but endured a torrid 2000 Six Nations, losing their first four straight games. But then at the last hurdle, they pulled off a magnificent win over unbeaten England at a rain-soaked Murrayfield.

Since then things have been pretty bleak.

Scottish rugby has been thrown into turmoil by a row over the running of the sport, and the retirement of a number of key players has meant that standards on the pitch have dropped markedly.

In fact, Scotland drew a complete blank during the 2004 Six Nations competition, cobbling together a meagre 53 points during their five losses. Since then, there has been an upturn in performance, even if results are still going against the Scots.

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