Talk of the Toony: The Autobiography of Gregor Townsend by Gregor Townsend

Author:Gregor Townsend [Townsend, Gregor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2015-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 10

Le beau jeu

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

Albert Einstein

‘Claire, do you think we should wake up Grimesy?’

‘No, let him sleep off last night.’

‘But look they’re still in with a chance. They could do it.’

‘I don’t think he’ll thank you for it.’

‘Grimesy!’

‘Leave. Me. Alone.’

‘Grimesy!’

‘This had better be good.’

Oh this was good all right. The euphoria of the previous day and night may have been leaving the body at the same time as the alcohol, but watching Wales battle it out with England was starting to get the juices flowing once again. As Stuart Grimes wandered through from the bedroom, still wrapped in his duvet, he dropped heavily onto the couch beside me, and turned one bleary, baleful eye my direction.

‘What?’

‘Wales are holding on. England haven’t killed them off yet. They could do it. And then we’d be champions!’

‘Aye right. Dream on.’

After two years of professional rugby, the Celtic nations were struggling to keep pace with France, England and the three southern hemisphere giants. The Springbok coach Nick Mallet summed up what many rugby people thought about the Five Nations: ‘There are only two serious sides in it now – France and England. In fact I would say that there are seven or eight Super 12 sides who could beat Wales, Scotland and Ireland easily.’ A harsh judgement, but the evidence was damning – the French and English had shared the title between them over the previous four years. It was undeniable that, both in terms of results and style of play, the Celtic nations were playing at a vastly inferior level.

My own optimism had been badly bruised both by our performances over the previous two seasons at Test level and the mess that was being made to introduce a professional domestic structure to Scotland. I was interviewed by the writer Donald McRae in the summer of 1998 for his book Winter Colours and I told him that it was a struggle to see how any of the Celtic nations could be competitive in the near future: ‘We know we’re some way behind the top five countries. We can’t just ignore the fact that Scotland and Ireland lost to Italy this year. I sometimes worry that the gap between us and the French and English might widen rather than narrow in the next few years.’

In Scotland things looked very bleak indeed. Since our tremendous run in the 1996 Five Nations we had lost thirteen out of sixteen Test matches. As a result, our coaching team of Richie Dixon and David Johnston had been sacked. In fact, our stock had fallen so dramatically that bookmakers gave us odds of 100-1 to win the 1999 Five Nations Championship.

But who could blame the bookies? Scottish rugby wasn’t just in disarray; it had descended into full-blown civil war. As the SRU and the leading (amateur) clubs faced-off across the domestic battlefield, both made rallying calls to the famous faces of the game. And in that goal, the clubs were winning. The last four Scotland

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