Scottish Flashback: Murrayfield in the snow, 1963

WITH the RBS Six Nations tournament nearly upon us and the country gripped by snowy weather, we thought we’d combine the two for our Scottish Flashback.

Murrayfield Stadium in the snow, February 1963. Picture: TSPL

The original Murrayfield was opened in March 1925. Before then, rugby internationals had been played at Inverleith.

The first visitors to Murrayfield were England, who Scotland defeated to win their maiden Five Nations grand slam.

During World War II, the stadium was handed over to the Royal Army Service Corps, and used as a supply depot.

Thus, Scotland returned to playing at Inverleith, with the forces managing two Scotland v England internationals each year on a home-and-away basis.

After Murrayfield’s derequisition, the team returned to the stadium.

The original stadium’s record attendance was set in March 1975 - just shy of its 50th anniversary - during a Five Nations match between Scotland and Wales.

The home side won 12-10, with 104,000 cramming into Murrayfield to set the record.

However, the record was broken in 1999 after 107,042 attended the Bledisloe Cup match between Australia and New Zealand.

Just a year later, the record was broken again at the same match, with 109,874 in the crowd.

Murrayfield’s attendance in 1975 still stands as the European record however, and is unlikely to be bettered as third highest of all time as the current largest stadium is the 94,736-seater FNB Stadium in South Africa.

Murrayfield Stadium underwent a total revamp in 1994, at the cost of £50 million, and floodlights were installed for the first time.

Our picture shows the original stadium covered by snow in February 1963.