With the latest installment of the Calcutta Cup set to take place at Twickenham on Saturday, Scotland will look to continue their recent dominance over England by making it a record five wins in a row.
However, when the Six Nations first came into existence 25 years ago, it was a very different story for the Scots in rugby’s oldest rivalry.
They were on a 10-year barren run against the Auld Enemy which included losing the 1991 World Cup semi-final on home soil, and were enduring a miserable championship.
No one could have foreseen a memorable upset as Scotland won 19-13 in monsoon conditions to deny England the Grand Slam, Duncan Hodge scoring all the home side’s points with four penalties, a try and a conversion.
There was controversy, too, with the England players accused of snubbing the trophy presentation – conducted by Princess Anne – afterwards in a fit of high dudgeon.
Mail Sport columnist Andy Nicol was Scotland captain that famous day, and here recalls the inside story of one of the greatest days of his career and Scottish rugby history.
A bleeding Andy Nicol salutes the crowd after a hard-fought victory in monsoon-like conditions against England
Nicol raises the Calcutta Cup, to the delight of Murrayfield, after denying England a Grand Slam
THE BUILD-UP
It had been a fairly brutal tournament for us. We lost to newcomers Italy in the opening game. We had played four and lost four, while England had played four and won four.
We hadn’t beaten England in 10 years home or away, since winning the Grand Slam in 1990. So the expectation in the press and among fans was that we would lose — and probably lose quite heavily.
Ian McGeechan called me down to his flat in Roseburn the week before and laid out the plan very clearly. He said very calmly and matter-of-factly: ‘Right, Andy, I’m making you captain — and this is how we’re going to beat England.’
I went home that night and told my wife. I wasn’t sure she really believed any of it! But I felt it was possible. Any time Geech spoke to you one-to-one like that, you listened.
We spent the rest of the week in training just making sure guys bought into the plan. Some of them took a lot of convincing — and understandably so, given we’d lost all four games.
A lot of people just expected it to be a procession and that England would win the Grand Slam. I think some Scotland fans even gave away their tickets because they couldn’t face the prospect of watching England win.
But we felt we had improved throughout the championship and were probably better than our results suggested. Especially away in Cardiff, we played well at times against Wales despite the defeat.
It was a game I was really looking forward to. I knew quite a few of the English boys. Mike Catt, for instance, had been an usher at my wedding a couple of years earlier.
I had a good relationship with quite a few of them having played against them when I was down at Bath. Although I knew it would be difficult, I was looking forward to having a chance to get stuck into them.
Scotland had been embarrassed by newcomers Italy in their first ever Six Nations game
The English had had the wood on Scotland, going 10 years without defeat including the hard-fought 9-6 win in the 1991 World Cup semi-final at Murrayfield
Nicol releases the ball from a scrum despite the best intentions of England rival Matt Dawson
THE MATCH
We knew the weather forecast wasn’t good and there was supposed to be some kind of hailstorm coming in mid-afternoon.
The first half was actually OK. We were 10-9 down at half-time, so we felt like we were still well in the game. Geech had a plan and, by and large, it was working.
We knew Matt Dawson generated a lot of speed into England’s game, so we always made sure we had someone more than 10 yards back from where he was taking a quick penalty or free-kick.
It was a fairly simple tactic, but it worked. When Dawson went quick, we basically just ignored him and dropped back 10 yards. It allowed us to close him down in a different way.
But I remember coming down the tunnel to run out for the second half and the wind and rain were blowing into your face immediately. It was actually sleet that had come in.
In the second half, it was actually easier to play without the ball than with the ball. Any time we got it we just kicked it down into England’s half.
It was so much easier to defend than attack. I don’t remember passing the ball even once in those last 20 minutes or so.
Jonny Wilkinson had a fairly quiet game because it was nigh-on impossible to get anything going in attack. We felt Dawson was the main man we needed to shut down, which we did.
Every tackle we made in those last 20 minutes, the crowd roared us on like we’d scored a try. It felt like 60,000 people were making the tackles with us.
Geech got it spot on tactically. It was probably the most brutal conditions I ever played in, but he ensured we played the game in England’s half as much as possible. It was a simple game plan and we executed it well.
Austin Healy is stopped in his tracks by the combined efforts of Chris Paterson and John Leslie
THE AFTERMATH
We went on a sort of impromptu lap of honour straight after the full-time whistle, while a lot of the England players headed straight back down the tunnel and into the dressing room.
That caused some controversy. They had still won the Six Nations championship but there were suggestions they had effectively snubbed the trophy presentation. I didn’t see it like it. It never struck me as sour grapes.
It was a horrible dichotomy for them. They were annoyed they had lost the game, angry they’d missed the chance of winning the Grand Slam, but they still had to put a face on and go up and collect a trophy.
Emotionally, the whole experience must have been totally incongruous for them. But it was so bloody cold. Honestly, you wouldn’t have taken the dog out in those conditions.
So I don’t actually blame most of the England players for going back inside and trying to heat up. Phil Greening, their hooker, caught some sort of mild form of hypothermia!
Four guys I’ll give credit to in the England team were their captain Dawson, Catt, Lawrence Dallaglio, and Jason Leonard.
Even though we were off doing a lap of honour, they still waited for us and applauded us off the pitch, which was the tradition.
They could easily just have gone back into the dressing room with the rest of the team, but they waited for us. Fair play to them for doing that.
A delirious Murrayfield celebrates as England are defeated for the first time in 10 years
Nicol and his victorious team-mates react at the final whistle but it’s dejection for Matt Dawson
I still have a good relationship with those four guys. As I said, Catty had been an usher at my wedding, and he told me later that night it had been him who punched me at the bottom of a ruck and caused me to need six stitches in my chin!
If I’m honest, I don’t really remember what Princess Anne said to me when I went up to collect the trophy.
I’ve seen the video and I know I had a conversation with her. I think she said something about the atmosphere and how awful the conditions had been, but I can’t remember exactly. It went in one ear and out the other.
I remember walking down the steps holding the trophy after the presentation and there was Dougie Donnelly and the BBC waiting on me.
I did an interview with Dougie and my bottom lip was quivering away.
One thing I’m really proud of is the fact I was the first Scotsman to lift the Calcutta Cup at Murrayfield. Previously, when we won it in 1990, the trophy was presented at a dinner after the game.
I would differentiate between the biggest highlight of my career and biggest achievement of my career.
Captaining Bath to the Heineken Cup in 1998, and becoming the first British player to lift that trophy, was my greatest achievement. But that day, lifting the Calcutta Cup as captain and spoiling England’s party, was my greatest highlight.
