Rugby union to try out alternative anthem

The union will try out new words to the tune Highland Cathedral at the Scotland-France match in March.

But the new song will be tried out alongside the old favourite, so fans can decide which is better.

The Scotsman reported last week that the poet and storyteller Donald Smith saw Highland Cathedral, an increasingly popular tune, as the natural candidate for a new national song in Scotland.

He is not the first to portray Flower of Scotland, which was written by the Corries legend Roy Williamson, as a melancholy dirge, anti-English and backward-looking.

Now Mr Smith has written a new set of words to Highland Cathedral - partly, he says, to encourage others to come forward with lyrics. The song was written by the German musicians Ulrich Roever and Michael Korb as a pipe tune in 1982 and has won rising popularity world-wide.

Phil Anderton, the commercial and marketing director for the SRU, said the tune of Highland Cathedral had already been introduced as a key part of match days. "We’ve also used it in our advertising of events," he said.

"I was very interested in The Scotsman’s piece on Highland Cathedral. This is something we have been looking at for the last wee while."

The SRU had already considered commissioning someone to write new words, he said. Now it will contact Mr Smith with a view to using either his lyrics or an alternative.

"Our plan is to introduce it at one of the games alongside Flower of Scotland, then to gauge the feedback over whether there was a preference for one over the other, or not. We are intending to do that at the Scotland-France game."

He added: "It wouldn’t be replacing Flower of Scotland, but we would introduce Highland Cathedral to be sung with words, and led by a prominent singer, with the words in the programme.

"What we wouldn’t do is unilaterally decide that Flower of Scotland wasn’t appropriate."

The SRU gave Highland Cathedral heavy play before the Scotland v England game in 2000, when Scotland won and cost England the Grand Slam. It was an instant hit.

After the match, the SRU website was littered with messages asking: "What was that tune?"

Mr Anderton said there seemed to be a 50-50 split between those who believe Flower of Scotland is a stirring call to arms or - at least as sung on the playing field - a dirge.

He said: "The words would be there in the programme, and if they like it, we’ll see where it goes from there."

There are several sets of lyrics to Highland Cathedral in circulation.

One published version is by Ben Kelly, a tenor from Inverness, while Terry Mechan, a composer, has put his words on the internet.

A petition to the Scottish Parliament last year calling for a new national anthem fell flat. MSPs said it was a matter reserved for Westminster.

But the suitability of Flower of Scotland - whose chorus tells of the valiant Scots sending the English homeward "tae think again" - has again become topical.

Mr Smith, who runs the Netherbow Storytelling Centre in the Royal Mile, Edinburgh, said yesterday: "I think it’s very admirable that the Scottish Rugby Union should take a lead in helping us forward on this.

"It seems that the SRU is more willing to act than the parliament."