The two sides have met at a World Cup before, when Gavin Hastings missed a penalty sitter as England prevailed 9-6
England and Scotland are hardly strangers to each other on the rugby field, their rivalry going back further than all others, to 1871, and it comes as a bit of a surprise that their meeting at the end of the Pool B schedule at Eden Park, Auckland, is the first time they will have ever met on neutral territory.
They have met once before at the World Cup, at Murrayfield in 1991, at the rarified height of the semi-final. England were called the host nation in 1991, but the second World Cup was spread all over five nations, and Scotland held the first semi-final, which turned out to be the largely forgettable one, compared with the second, between Australia and New Zealand in Dublin the next day. Australia won 16-6 and thus initiated New Zealand's years of World Cup woe. But that is a different story.
Scotland had beaten England at Murrayfield in the grand slam decider of 1990, on the day when David Sole led his team at a deliberate slow march on to the field. It was a day when the fixture, never without its fire, had the fuel of poll tax riots splashed over it. That occasion lingers in the memory ? to this day, the hackles of Brian Moore, admittedly never difficult to raise, go vertical at the merest mention of that defeat ? and was set as the backdrop to the one and only World Cup encounter of the following year.
But England had already set the record straight by the end of October, 1991, beating Scotland 21-12 at Twickenham on their way to a grand slam of their own. If there was a sense of menace in the air it surrounded the games between France and England. They had met in Paris ? England had lost to New Zealand in the opening pool game at Twickenham and, as a runner-up, had to go on their travels in the last eight.
To Paris, for a monstrous confrontation with the French. Serge Blanco was tumble-dryered out of a ruck and retaliated by clouting the England wing, Nigel Heslop. Blanco was clubbed back and it all kicked off, as they say. Eric Champ and Mickey Skinner joined in. They all joined in. Certainly Moore did. Of course, he did. But that is a different story.
Scotland had won their pool, by beating Japan, Zimbabwe and Ireland, who, incidentally, as runners-up still enjoyed a quarter-final at home against Australia. This turned into one of the outstanding games in World Cup history: the try by Gordon Hamilton to win the game in the dying minutes, surely; the winning try, instead, by Michael Lynagh moments later. What a game. But a different story.
Scotland reached the semi-final by beating Western Samoa, as Manu Samoa, now Samoa, was then known. None of the Samoas had been invited to the first World Cup in 1987 and rather made a point about exclusion and rough treatment at the hands of the rugby rulers ? still valid to this day ? by beating Wales in Cardiff. What a day that was, the arrival of Island rugby. But a different story.
So, Scotland met England at Murrayfield in the semi-final of 1991. It was almost respectful in its unfolding, with certainly none of the lunacy that covered the France-England matches of that time. It was still hostile enough, with the rucks still a place for studs and speed and none of this stooping and scraping by hand of the modern age.
Of course, there were no tries, which sort of contradicts any notion that rucking by boot opened the door to open rugby. It did and it didn't. The ball was recycled much more rapidly in the old days, but on such a day as a World Cup semi at Murrayfield it was never going to be used expansively. Might we ever see a return to breakdowns without hands? No. Too litigious.
The story ends with a pair of penalties apiece, a drop goal by Rob Andrew and a missed penalty, a sitter, by Gavin Hastings. 9-6 to England, not bad for a nerve-jangler, but not one to be cherished in the archive. England went on to lose to Australia in the final, Scotland to New Zealand in the bronze play-off.
Might Saturday, when England and Scotland meet at the World Cup for only the second time, be a repeat, all tension and try-less? You bet.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2011/sep/30/rugby-world-cup-2011-england-scotland1
Javarris James Rashad Jennings Chris Johnson Gartrell Johnson
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