Rugby: Rea recalls time Scots caused near riot in Paris

Published on Thursday 26 November 2009 08:37

BEATING Australia for the first time since 1982, the year the first CD was issued and ET hit cinemas, was driven by dogged determination and no fewer than 200 Scottish tackles, but it was nothing new.

The French have a phrase for it: "Plus a change, plus c'est la mme chose." Which means the more things apparently change, the more they stay the same.

And that is certainly the case when Scotland's heroic 9-8 victory over Australia is compared to arguably the greatest tartan rearguard action of all time, which produced an equally stunning 6-3 win over France in Paris back in 1969.

Chris Rea, now the International Rugby Board's broadcast controller, played at centre for Scotland that day and insists comparisons spanning the 40 years to last weekend are valid.

"We didn't have tackle counts that day but, in every other respect, things were pretty similar to Murrayfield last Saturday. For sure the Scottish grit that enabled the Wallabies to be beaten is nothing new."

Recalling the Paris smash-and-grab, he added: "The match was so one-sided that reports said our half-time team talk was more of a prayer meeting while, afterwards, the suggestion was that Scotland wouldn't be flying home but walking across the Channel.

"To say the French didn't take too kindly to spending virtually the whole game on the attack only to lose out to a try by Jim Telfer is an understatement because another memory is of the referee receiving a police escort from the pitch at Colombes Stadium to protect him from an angry crowd.

"Just as at Murrayfield last week, the opposition had the Scottish line at their mercy on two or three occasions and some pretty basic errors by France kept us in the game.

"It was a star-studded French team, too, with the likes of Jo Maso, Benoit Dauga, Walter Spanghero, Jean-Pierre Lux and Pierre Villepreux playing but, ultimately, they were beaten by a team who tackled themselves into the ground.

"Our Paris victory maybe lacked the dramatic ending of last Saturday but we did have Alastair McHarg, our second row, to thank for an absolutely incredible cover tackle in the dying moments.

"Alastair was doing what he always did best – popping up in the most unexpected places. In 13 internationals, I can't remember tackling as much as I did that day."

Meanwhile, Scotland's try-scorer and captain, Jim Telfer, compared the latest defensive showing to the 2006 Calcutta Cup victory over England. In his weekly STV rugby blog, Telfer said: "The last time we had such a valiant defensive effort was in the victory against England in 2006 but, unfortunately, but no real momentum came from it. Let's hope that doesn't happen this time.

"We started off with plenty of attacking intent, matching the Aussies with ball handling and counter attack but, after 20 minutes, this strategy seemed to change. Rory Lawson came on for Chris Cusiter and, although he put on a nuggety display, the attacking strength of Cusiter was lost. Before the change Cusiter looked the most likely Scottish back who would cause the Australian defence any trouble.

"Lawson kicked a lot, especially from driven lineouts, which suited the conditions but most of the time the chase was not good enough to put the Australians at the back under pressure. The result was that often Australia ran the ball back at us and ended up with over 70 percent possession and territory throughout the match.

"It actually appeared that Scotland were more at ease when they didn't have the ball – a dangerous tactic to adopt. And it nearly backfired. Australia, to their credit, kept playing attacking rugby, breached our line four times and must have thought they had won with a really well constructed try at the death. Only woeful goal kicking by Matt Giteau prevented an Australian victory.

"Andy Robinson has freshened up his team for the third game of the Autumn Series and I applaud his approach. Argentina are just a shadow of the team which reached third place in the 2007 World Cup and should be there for the taking.

"Players like Shane Williams, with their dancing feet, were in their element last week at the Millennium Stadium against them and the introduction of Thom Evans and Ben Cairns adds guile and speed to our back division which has looked wooden and one-paced in the last two games. Both players had excellent games on Friday night for the A team and should add badly needed energy in their positions

"Another player who must have impressed the coach was Alan McDonald who replaces John Barclay at open side. I must admit that I am perplexed by this decision as Barclay couldn't have done much more for his team's cause last weekend. However, McDonald is a good link player so his selection may indicate that Scotland are going to play a more open game than of late. Let's hope so!

"Like Fiji, a fortnight ago, Argentina hold a false position in the world rankings and Scotland should expect to win quite convincingly.