Grand Slam '84

30 years ago, rugby in Scotland was a barren land,

starved of glorious victories and the trappings of success.

But in 1984, a new seed of hope was beginning to grow.

He's away.

There's an overlap here.

A brilliant Scottish try.

They've done it again.

There's a chance on the overlap. Kennedy goes through.

That's a brilliant try.

The flags wave.

Scottish hearts are lifted once again.

Well taken by Robertson. Robertson feeding on to Campbell.

Oh, he's stuck it.

There's scenes of exultation here.

There's the happiest man in Scotland at the moment.

1984 was one of my rugby highlights of my life.

The Five Nations, it was just...

It's brought me here today, it's given me a love for rugby.

Jim Aitken, I remember him, what a star player.

Blood and guts and just fiery and just led out like a warrior.

It was just magic. Loved it.

The atmosphere in the old stadium was crazy.

I'm very lucky to have been part of the 1984 crowd.

If you'd asked the fans to predict the result of the Five Nations ahead

of the '84 series, you might not have had such a positive response.

Scotland hadn't won the Triple Crown since 1938,

and hadn't achieved a Grand Slam since 1925.

There always has been, and there still remains,

something really magical about winning a Grand Slam.

And obviously, it's been won quite a lot in recent years,

but there was a long period, going through the '60s, '70s, '80s,

where it was very, very unusual.

It was the first season ever played at Murrayfield, and 80,000 people

watched on as the Scottish team beat England to win the Grand Slam.

At the end of the game,

at least half their team or more lay down on the ground.

I'd never seen that on a rugger pitch before.

They just lay out on the ground and packed up. It was extraordinary.

It was a very clean game, I think, except...

..one player was kicked in the head once,

and his father, with an umbrella, hit the man who did it as he left

the ground afterwards, which was quite funny!

In typical Scottish fashion, it was a game that went right down to the

wire, being decided by a drop goal in the dying seconds.

We didn't think very much of the Grand Slam or

the Triple Crown, I must say.

The only thing that worried us was beating England.

The importance of a Grand Slam or Triple Crown didn't seem to

matter in these days.

Although winning a Grand Slam wasn't on anyone's mind going into the

'84 Five Nations, we had a lot of experienced players.

Eight of us had been on the Lions tour of New Zealand in 1983.

The tour had been far from a success,

and when our coach Jim Telfer was asked what he'd do next,

he famously replied, "Is there life after death?"

I came home very disillusioned, and I came home from New Zealand

having been beaten 4-0 in the Test series

and feeling like a failure.

He's one of the most passionate guys I've ever met.

He took it, rightly so, so personally,

like you'd take playing for Scotland, coaching Scotland.

It's a tough job, coaching.

It's a great job when you win, but I promise you,

it's not great when you don't.

After that tour, Jim was a bit down

and probably felt that he'd had enough of rugby.

But we... I think

we managed to talk him around on the flight home.

And it was the right decision for Jim,

and it was the best decision for the team.

As a squad, we drew from the experiences on that Lions tour with

a battle plan to work on,

with Jim Telfer very much in the driving seat.

He was much more like an Alex Ferguson than people really

give him credit.

He was a bright guy, as well as being a very hard guy to play for.

Before the '84 Five Nations could get under way, there was

a small hurdle to get over.

The old lads were coming to Murrayfield.

It was a tough match to play in, but in the dying minutes of the game,

Jim Pollock scored to level the match at 25-25.

Peter Dods had a kick to win the match right at the end,

which would have been Scotland's only ever victory over the All Blacks.

And it missed.

So even allowing for the fact that they'd have been disappointed,

they were on the up, there was clear momentum

heading into the '84 championship,

and so I think clever people would have seen that and thought,

"Actually, Scotland aren't a bad bet for the title this year."

A quite inspiring scene here

at this great new-look stadium,

as Hywel Davies,

the new Welsh full-back, kicks it dead.

John Rutherford will take the first drop-out of the match.

Lifting it back. Iain Paxton got hands to it...

The first half against Wales did kind of fly past

without anything really major happening.

I know I scored and it was going towards half-time.

So Scotland going for the short one as Colin Deans takes it.

Now it's fed out to Rutherford.

Rutherford checking back inside on the Welsh 22.

A great try here for Iain Paxton.

David Leslie gave the scoring pass.

And Scotland have gone into the lead with a really brilliant try.

It was the first try I'd scored for Scotland, so it did feel good.

Probably a six out of six tuck that I got when I dived over!

The pass from David Leslie to me was probably like a baton pass.

It was just right on the line.

Almost certainly a forward pass,

but we got away with that.

That's the kind of luck that you need to win these matches.

Dods then. Stroked it well.

Laidlaw goes on one of his sniping runs, and he's away.

Douglas half through. Back inside... A brilliant try.

Dods then.

It's certainly high enough. Has it got the legs? Yes, it has.

And the Scots here are delirious.

Held up there by the wing.

And it's Jim Aitken who scored.

The Scots are in the lead and the Scottish captain has put them ahead!

His try was exactly his distance.

I think it was one metre from a line-out,

but it was a very important try.

Probably the most important try he's ever scored.

He was a very good captain.

He said the right things, and that's a tough thing for a captain to do.

Jim's good at motivating the troops and after that try,

he pulled us together

and told us

in no uncertain terms that we have

to keep focused and concentrate

to make sure we win this game.

Peter Dods with this vital conversion kick now.

Because it'll put Scotland six points clear.

He stroked it with, as they say in Scotland, "nae bother a taw".

Everybody biting their fingers down, right to the ends,

here in the stadium, Welsh and Scots alike.

Jim Calder guarding that blind side as Butler goes to Douglas.

He lost possession.

The referee's whistle has gone,

and Scotland have won a remarkable victory.

If you have an away victory,

then there's a tremendous amount of confidence comes from that

because you expect to do well at home,

but away victories in test matches are like hen's teeth.

-You don't get them very often.

-To win in Wales is a great feeling.

I do remember Eddie Butler, who is known to many as a BBC commentator,

but he was playing number eight and I think captain of Wales.

I remember him wandering into the gents late in the evening.

I think the dinner was on the go

and here was Eddie sort of crying in the toilets.

I remember feeling... Well, it was just quite a nice feeling,

being Scottish in Wales

and being witness to Eddie's state of mind at the time.

Now we concentrate on the big event here at Murrayfield this afternoon.

Let's have a look around outside with the ground filling up all the time

for this 100th meeting of the Scotland and England rugby union teams.

And as when the first match was played in this city of Edinburgh,

the rain is pouring down.

As a squad of players,

we felt very honoured to be playing in the 100th match against England.

But we never needed any additional motivation

for a game against the Auld Enemy.

Well, listen to the roar all round the ground.

I think the crowd realised that there may not be too many scores in this match and every one's vital.

Deans throws long to Leslie. The palm meant for Calder.

Paxton kicks on. Johnston was a football player.

Dusty Hare in trouble. The referee has given the try.

Scotland in the lead, 4-0.

David Johnston was a professional footballer when he left school.

He had a couple seasons with Hearts, and he kicked the ball through.

David was on to it. He dribbled the ball

and I think he actually beat Clive Woodward to the touchdown.

It wasn't an easy try by any means.

He made it look easy, but it certainly wasn't.

Teams get sort of pigeonholed sometimes on how you play

and certainly there's obviously the history of rugby up in Scotland -

it's raining and they like to kick ahead, some would argue anyone's head!

But they kind of kick and rush and they're quite good at it.

Certainly in David Johnston, I think he was an ex-professional football player.

It's almost like in slow motion when this happens when you're playing because players are kicking

and you think, "He's not going to kick it properly," and then he kicks it again and again

and suddenly you're thinking, "He's going to score here."

Dods then, the relaxed little chip. It's a beauty. 6-0.

I've probably seen two great kickers in my lifetime in England.

One's Dusty Hare and two's Jonny Wilkinson.

He was a phenomenal goal-kicker.

When he starts missing goals, does it affect your team? Absolutely.

You know, you try and say it doesn't, but deep down it does.

There is the saying, "It's just not going to be our day."

Because of Dusty's misses,

we actually were well in control of the game.

Up goes Beattie, first touch of the ball.

Jim Calder gathers in.

He's caught there by Steve Bainbridge. Now it's Roy Laidlaw.

Robertson after it. Dusty Hare comes in.

A bit of indecision.

Robertson went for it and Hare took it second time.

Calder gives it to Tomes. Tomes drives on.

A lovely lay-back there for Laidlaw. There's a chance now.

Kennedy goes through. That's a brilliant try.

Euan Kennedy, the scorer.

And you can see how delighted he is.

It's as good an example of getting a quick ball as I've seen

from a Scottish pack, where Jim Calder, David Leslie and the rest of the forwards

just whipped the ball off him, and drove and drove.

And then the ball came back to Roy who passed to John.

It was a poor pass. John took it off his toes.

And then Euan Kennedy was at his elbow

and took it and it went under the posts.

Maybe we're being a bit revisionist in this,

but you can see a lot of Telfer in the way they play,

that absolute dog about, "We are not going to lose this game, come what may."

We developed a rucking game because it suited our purposes.

We're never going to be the biggest group of forwards in the world,

but we can be dynamic.

I think all our pack hit that ruck as hard as they could.

Euan Kennedy hit a great line.

And Euan was a big bloke.

And that close to the line, he was just about unstoppable.

Peter Dods, straight and through.

Scotland made it awkward. Scott did well.

Youngs does well along the line to Woodward. Now it's out Clement.

Inside to Hare. Kicked on by Rutherford.

Rutherford still. Kicked on by Pollock.

Inside England's 22, a penalty.

And that was a typical old-fashioned hack and chase.

Peter Dods has this kick to seal it for Scotland. The little hitch there.

The wee twitter.

Dods then. Oh!

The tartan hordes are delighted.

The referee's whistle has gone for the end of the match.

And, well, it's pretty straightforward.

When you're playing in the 100th game against your biggest rival,

then it's a great moment. But to win, it's even better.

Would Dusty Hare have missed those kicks with the modern ball? Probably not.

But in those days it was so wet and heavy and difficult to pass.

I'm just trying to think of as many excuses as I can now why we lost the game!

But it probably wasn't the ball.

Having beaten England, it meant a trip to Dublin

with a chance of winning the first Triple Crown for Scotland since 1938.

To be quite honest, I had no idea,

I had no benchmark to go on how you prepare

a team for a Triple Crown match

because it hadn't happened in my time.

This might not be the most rugged of landscape in Scotland,

but, over the years, the Borders have produced by far the roughest

and toughest of Scottish rugby players.

And, without a doubt, the Border forward has been renowned

over the years because whereas

a city forward might step beyond you,

a Border forward would walk over the top of you.

And there is a slight difference.

Bill McLaren's appreciation is reflected afterwards

in the Selkirk clubroom.

Everyone from the tea ladies to the team coach

have their sights set on Ireland

and the hope of a Triple Crown victory

which would reverberate through these valleys

and quickly become part of Border folklore.

Peter Dods gets the game under way.

And both Moss Finn and Tony Ward

just let it drift over the dead ball line.

Deans throws long and Campbell charges on.

Laidlaw goes. Laidlaw cuts back,

going for the line, it's a try!

Scots' arms raised aloft as Roy Laidlaw puts them

in the lead by four points to nil with four minutes gone.

Peter Dods with the conversion.

Straight in through. Scotland are six points in the lead.

Well, they couldn't have hoped for a better start

to their Triple Crown attempt.

The Irish back just marginally heavier.

And getting a very good strike indeed there from Harbison,

but it's a penalty for taking it down.

And the onus falls again on Peter Dods.

Done some great scoring this season.

Remember his five penalty goals against the All Blacks,

three against Wales and four against England.

When people miss a goal kick in modern rugby, it's kind of,

"What happened there?"

Some international rugby kickers

barely had a percentage rate of 50%.

So if you look at the contribution

that Peter Dods made to that championship,

it was absolutely immense.

You know, all those goal kicks against Ireland, against Wales

and against England, you can't underestimate the value of that.

Peter Dods then. Lovely follow-through.

Nine points to nil, Scotland in the lead, eight minutes gone.

What a start they have made!

So there is obviously a ploy on.

Now, are they are going to turn it to the left?

And probably Leslie will try and pick up and drive over.

Now, referee, Fred Howard, he's given a penalty try for Scotland

for a bit of misconduct or foul play that prevented a try being scored.

And the crowd is stunned by that decision.

And Peter Dods not stunned at all

and Scotland are way, way ahead.

Laidlaw... Laidlaw going again

and he's done it again!

He was a dangerous runner, Roy, and had scored on two tries

and we had kicked the goals as well.

We were well over 20 points, at half-time, up.

It was just a dream come true.

Think about any...

any rugby international that, you know, you've ever been to,

almost of any level.

To have that kind of domination at the half-time point is very unusual.

I remember speaking to Willie John after the game

and he said that they had talked about defending

the blindside against Roy, but it just didn't work and Roy

scored two tries in the first half and then he got himself concussed.

Of course, he went off at half-time.

Just as well for the Irish, eh?

If I'd stayed on, I'd have had four maybe!

Tony Ward, then, gets the second half under way.

As Campbell deflects.

Hunter takes.

Hunter going. Hunter, Rutherford.

Rutherford through. He gives it to Robertson!

That's the clinching try!

A brilliant try and Scotland surely have clinched it!

So it's just the final little touches now.

He could almost have kicked it with his eyes closed.

Paxton feeds Rutherford and Robertson comes.

It's out to Johnston and over it goes!

Gives it to Dods and another brilliant Scottish try!

They've done it again!

The referee's whistle has gone

and Scotland have won an astounding victory.

32 points to 9.

Their biggest win here in Dublin.

# And the Irish sing of the Emerald Isle

# Where the four-leaf shamrock grows... #

I thought winning the Triple Crown was the best thing ever

because I had never won anything playing for or coaching Scotland.

To win a Triple Crown for Scotland, it's really special.

There was a massive Scottish support

and when we got back to the hotel, there were literally

hundreds of Scottish supporters there to cheer us in

and they were in the foyer,

they were standing up the stairs as we were going up to our rooms,

clapping the team and patting our backs. It was...

It was just fantastic for Scottish rugby.

I missed out on the celebrations because I was in the hospital

and, you know, suffering from footballers' migraine.

And I was probably feeling a lot better than the players

were in the morning because I had spent the night in the hospital

and they had spent the night in the pub.

# I don't want to go I don't want to go

# I am in love with a beautiful Love with the beautiful

# Love with a beautiful girl. #

On the eve of a crucial weekend of international rugby,

we're off to Scotland, because tomorrow they are trying to

win their first Grand Slam since 1925 and they have already beaten

Wales, England and Ireland and now they take on France at Murrayfield.

Now, appropriately,

commentary on the match on Grandstand tomorrow

will come from a Scot, Bill McLaren,

a commentator now for more than 20 years.

And Guy Michelmore has been the border country to meet him.

To the young rugby players of Hawick in the Scottish Borders region,

Bill McLaren is the coach.

But to millions of followers of the game

throughout Great Britain, his is the voice of rugby.

Boys, probably the most important factor in Scotland's success

in the Triple Crown this season has been the rucking of the forwards

because so often the ball has been laid back

beautifully for Roy Laidlaw, the scrum-half,

whilst the forwards drove most of the enemy off it

and often knocked them flat on their backs.

I worked with Bill for a couple of decades.

He went into every single match ready for any eventuality.

If, suddenly, a meteorite had struck the pitch

and a four-foot crater appeared, he would've had, at his fingertips,

the last time that had happened somewhere in the world.

There was nothing left to chance.

So he would have gone into that match as prepared as

he would've been for any game ever, excited

and with one or two little phrases up his sleeve

in the event of Scotland winning it

and winning their first Grand Slam for, you know, nearly six decades.

I... I remember clearly Jim getting over to the team

that the first three games were tough,

but this was going to be a different level altogether.

They were absolutely outstanding.

Of course, Codorniou and Sella in the centre

were absolute world-class.

Particularly Sella.

Sella would have been the best centre in the world.

France, at that time,

were beating the teams we had played against convincingly.

Peter Wheeler, the English captain,

is quoted as saying that they were unbeatable, the French.

We were definitely the underdogs.

We liked being that when I was the coach anyway,

but we knew it was...

It was not an Everest to climb,

but we had a huge mountain to climb to beat the French.

Scotland against France, that Grand Slam finale to the season

and I am not going to back away from my original suggestion,

with which I started this international season

that this is going to be France's year.

A Grand Slam, I think, for France on the cards

and a fairy-tale finale for John-Pierre Rives.

So the French came to Murrayfield with the same record as us,

played three, won three.

What a finale!

Serge Blanco kicks short

and immediately the French are up to their tricks right away.

Good tackle by David Johnston.

But what a clever start to an international match.

Philippe Dintrans throws.

Free kick for closing the spaces.

So that's a warning right away to the Frenchman.

A great cheer for the Scots as they go for a shot and Laidlaw to Milne.

The dummy to Laidlaw and the feed on there to Leslie.

Leslie fought and put down there.

Yes, that tackle looked high.

The tackle by Jean-Charles Orso.

Study in concentration, the little twitter at the beginning

and then Dods goes high enough.

Dead straight.

Scotland leading 3-0.

Well-known, the French have cut to 2.

The key man, Gallion has it, out to Rives,

he feeds onto Dospital,

Dospital up to the Scottish 22.

Nicely out there out along to Dintrans.

Dintrans feeding back into Gallion,

Lescarboura brilliant handling here.

Oh! That was a try in the making.

They had a particularly good player at scrum-half called Jerome Gallion

who'd been recalled to the French team,

having not been played for three years.

Jerome Gallion said about the coach, Jacques Fouroux, that the

only time he had spoken to him,

beforehand was because he was a dentist, was to have

a look at his teeth rather than speak to him about the rugby.

Jerome Gallion scored a very good try.

Certainly that was very nicely done. Gallion drives.

The try is given. And France surely deserved that one.

They've gone up ahead by four points to three, 24 minutes gone.

Lescarboura. Referee's whistle goes for half-time.

France have arrived there deservedly in the lead by six points to three.

We were outplayed.

Completely outplayed by the French in the first half.

The second half was different.

We came out realising that we had been lucky just to be

not too far behind in the score.

We'd a bit of luck in the second half where the French had

a move in the line-out where they shortened the line-out, threw the

ball over the line-out, for Gallion their scrum-half to run onto.

Now, we knew they would do that.

France again down to two.

That time meant for Gallion but taken by Leslie.

Paxton was the man who got over.

That's Jerome Gallion, I think,

the French scrum-half who got such

a dunt there as David Leslie and he went for the ball.

That's the game. Going for the ball,

and David Leslie catching him with his elbow.

Purely accidental when going for the ball.

It's very sad indeed to see Gallion leaving the field

because he has been one of the outstanding

players of the Five Nations Championship this season.

There was this collision, it was

David Leslie taking out Gallion, Gallion was taken off.

Replaced. I think the French confidence took a real dip.

Our confidence took a real lift.

That changed the game completely.

Jean-Pierre Rives started mouthing to the referee.

He got the wrong side of the referee.

In all games of rugby, you should try to keep on the right

side of the referee because he can be your friend.

And so the French were being penalised a lot.

Dintans throws.

Through goes Leslie. Leslie charges on. The pass is taken by Joinel.

Penalty. Can Dods bring Scotland back into the game?

Dods then, straight enough, long enough. It's there.

Scottish hearts are lifted once again. Well taken by Robertson.

Robertson feeding onto Campbell. On halfway.

Penalty against the French for being on the wrong side.

Dintans annoyed at the treatment of Rives.

French indiscipline has lost them 10 metres again.

That time Philippe Dintans the culprit. Dods then to make it 9-9.

Looks good. He's done it again.

Gathered in by Dubroca. He's been the line-out sweeper for the French.

Berbizier. Lescarboura with a drop goal. That's a massive kick.

What a superb kick and it's over.

A big throw in for Scotland. Robertson on to Rutherford.

They feed onto Leslie. That caught the French napping.

And it's a penalty for killing it.

Peter Dods then to make it 12-12.

CHEERING

All the way.

Four penalty goals for Peter Dods.

We've about three minutes to go. It's 12 points all.

The Grand Slam hanging on those last three minutes or so.

It's a try there for Scotland!

And the scorer is Jim Calder.

And they've gone into the lead, 16 points to 12.

I suddenly had the ball in my hands. I was over the line.

I did think I was offside.

I looked up and the referee, Winston Jones, was signalling a try.

I just thought, "Well, magic. We seem to have got away with it."

Oh, he struck it as if he was playing for Gala without any strain at all.

Trying for the sixth.

And succeeding. 21-12.

Back from Paxton. Laidlaw to Baird. Baird sprints.

The kick to Blanco. Blanco showing unaccustomed frailty there.

Dods has it.

The referee's whistle goes for the end of the match.

And Scotland have done it. The scenes of exultation here.

There is the happiest man in Scotland at the moment, Jim Aitken,

captain of the Grand Slam.

We haven't had scenes like this at Murrayfield since 1925.

And the whole of Scotland rejoices.

Jim Telfer was waiting in the changing room for us to come

up the tunnel and he hugged everyone of his players.

He was emotionally very moved by it all.

The scenes of undiluted joy, jumping up and down and holding each other.

I can remember that.

It was like reaching the South Pole, if you like,

it'd never been done before by almost any living Scotsman.

I think they just couldn't believe it.

It was a moment in history they'll never forget.

These players should

and will remember it for the rest of their lives.