RBS Scottish Cup final: final stirs memories for Chris Paterson

THE importance of the RBS Scottish Cup Finals to rugby in Scotland should not be underestimated, an ability to provide a springboard from the amateur game to the professional and international ranks at the core of its appeal.

It is too easy and simplistic to reflect on the recent World Cup and RBS Six Nations and state that Scottish rugby is in freefall when Glasgow’s push to be among the top four sides in Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and Edinburgh’s date with Ulster as one of the top four teams in Europe, is clear evidence of progress.

But, where does their success, and that of the Scotland team, ultimately come from? The grass-roots, youth and club game, is the answer.

There will be a host of emotions encircling Murrayfield Stadium this afternoon as players from the lower ranks of the club’s game, Helensburgh and Dunbar, those holding real ambitions to join the elite, Dunfermline and Musselburgh, and two of the best sides in the land in Gala and Ayr come together to contest the silverware, while six women’s teams experience similar competitive thrills on the back pitches.

The cup has been criticised in recent years as being one competition too many for the club season, but since being introduced in 1995, attracting over 24,000 people to a club match and sending the town of Hawick wild with scenes of jubilation, unprecedented outside of a common riding, the cup has provided a vital stage for aspiring rugby players that is too valuable to put a figure on.

No-one knows that more than Chris Paterson. Now retired from Test rugby with a Scottish record of 109 caps, and in the final chapter of a 13-year professional career, it all began for the Borderer at the 1999 Scottish Cup Final. That was the first and, until today, the last occasion that his club Gala appeared in the final. This afternoon their aim is to deprive Ayr of an incredible three-in-a-row achievement.

Paterson will be in Cardiff this afternoon preparing for what could prove to be his last, or one of his last games as a professional with Edinburgh. However, his mind has been skipping back 13 years in recent weeks.

He said: “Every time the cup finals day is mentioned I tend to remember 1999 and I’m sure it’s similar for all of the guys who were involved.

“That was my first-ever game at Murrayfield. I had played for Scottish Schools and age-grade sides, but never at Murrayfield and I think Gary Parker [Gala’s player-coach] managed to wangle the national team’s home dressing- room for us that day so it was just a huge privilege to be in there.

“Most of the memories now are just of the last five minutes. It was a pretty disappointing game but I found a gap and got through for the only try with five minutes to go and then dropped a goal to seal it [8-3].

“I look at that period as a whole because in the course of about four weeks we pipped Kelso to the Division Two title, beat Melrose in the cup semi-final, won Melrose Sevens and then won the cup. It was an incredible month and it marked a real turning point in my career.

“I’d been offered professional terms around the same time, and while I believe I would have turned professional anyway that success certainly played a part in deciding it would be then. I’d been behind Gordon Ross a lot in the Scotland age-grade set-up and we were tit-for-tat in the under-21s, then I finished the season with that unbelievable month and suddenly I was off to South Africa with the Scotland squad for my first tour, then selected for the World Cup in the autumn and made my full Scotland debut.

“Goggsy had been playing well with Heriot’s and did turn professional but he had to wait to the next year, so that success with Gala gave me the nudge at that point.”

Gala suffered with the loss of Paterson, Nathan Hines and Steve Scott to the pro ranks, while veterans Parker, John Amos, Mike Dods, Richie Gray, Dave Boland and Craig Townsend stepped down or left the area in subsequent years and the team began to slide down the divisions.

Coach George Graham has brought them back twice, joining the pro coaching ranks himself in between with the Borders and then Scotland, and Paterson is not surprised by that.

Though he has helped out with the odd session at Netherdale, Paterson said: “I’ve not been in touch with the club as much as I would have liked because of the demands as a pro and international player, but it’s always my club and it has been brilliant to watch them climbing back and challenging this season.

“I know George well enough, more as a player and Scotland team-mate than a coach probably, but you always know with George that he is competitive and won’t let standards drop. Some boys might have been happy with getting to third in the league and thought they’d done their bit for this season, but George is a determined, hard-working motivator and absolutely spot-on for a young group of guys, because he will push and push.

“They have needed that this season. It has been a bit like 1999 in the sense that our battle with Kelso seemed to go on through the season, and Gala this year have had a real battle with Melrose.

“We had a great rivalry with Kelso, vying with them for the second division title to get Gala back up, beating them at home and then losing down at Poynder Park in a raucous night game watched by a couple of thousand or so because of a tie-in with Kelso Races.

“The current side have done really well beating Melrose at the Greenyards, winning the decisive pool match to get into the semi-finals and then winning away at Dundee, and this will be just as big a day for the club and this squad of players and coaches as it was when we first got to Murrayfield.”

Looking ahead to Cardiff, he added: “My focus right now is on helping a changed Edinburgh team take on Cardiff in what will almost be like a celebration game for them with so many players leaving the club, and trying to push my claims again to get into the Heineken Cup squad, and then it will quickly shift to the semi-final and Ulster. But I’ll definitely be looking for the result from Murrayfield on Saturday night. I have been very fortunate to experience a lot as a rugby player, playing in four World Cups, Six Nations, Calcutta Cup wins, great Heineken Cup matches and other great occasions, but winning the Scottish Cup with your club is pretty special.

“It will be the same this weekend for the boys from Gala, the Ayr guys, and the other players representing their clubs in all the finals, men and women. I wish them all very well and I’m sure there will be some who use it as a springboard like I did to go on to the professional game.” And that is merely one reason why the Scottish Cup, in whatever format, should remain part of Scotland’s rugby landscape.