'They were big animals. Buck Shelford, you didn't see men like him. Michael Jones, the Whetton brothers, they were f***ing ferocious'
For Alan Tait, amid all the pride and all the exhilaration stoked by embarking on a great rugby adventure came anxiety. In 1987, as the inaugural World Cup loomed, the sport was still clinging stubbornly to the last vestiges of its amateur status. Rugby would not pay the bills and players, even the titans of their day, had jobs to maintain.
Roy Laidlaw, arguably Scotland’s finest-ever scrum-half, worked as an electrician. The captain, Colin Deans, sold windows, John Rutherford taught PE, and John Jeffrey was – and still is – a farmer.
Tait was one of the young bucks of the touring party, a 22-year-old member of a fearsome Kelso team yearning for his first cap. He was a devastating rapier at outside centre and he loved bludgeoning his foes in the tackle every bit as much as he relished fizzing past them with the ball.
There was no way Tait was going to pass up the trip of a lifetime to New Zealand and this unprecedented carnival of rugby, but the roofer by trade still had to break the news rather gingerly to his boss.
“You were panicking,” he laughed, recalling for RugbyPass that awkward moment from 32 years ago. “You were basically s****ing yourself to tell the boss you’d be away for six weeks. I think he knew we weren’t going to win it, so we wouldn’t be away for too long!”
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The notion of one of Scotland’s greatest backs of all-time begging his gaffer for permission to travel seems ridiculous now, but this is how it worked back then. Cryo chambers, barbells, residential camps in searing continental heat? Forget it. The pre-tournament training camp, if you can call it that, consisted of a short stay in St Andrews and a good old-fashioned flogging on the paddock.
“No gym, no weights, no power, it was just run, run, run,” explained Tait. “The old 100-metre bleep test was the one, it was a killer. You had 17 seconds and then it went again. That was the fitness test.
“There was still a fair bit of drinking going on, there was no strict diet. You trained maybe once or twice a day when you were out there and they weren’t big sessions. It was quite easy going and you had a fair bit of downtime. It was quite relaxed.”
The capers that predated professionalism and, more importantly, smartphones, are the stuff of legend. What they also did, for a group of men miles from home with little contact with their loved ones, was brought the team and their people closer together.
“Steinlager were sponsoring the World Cup, and you got back to your team room in the hotel and had two fridges absolutely jam-packed with Steinlager. Lads just piled into it. We were up there with the top groups for drinking the Steinlager and having to refill the fridge when we left.
“You didn’t go on the town in those days; you kind of stuck in the hotel and had a few beers. There were Scottish people and Scottish fans there and they would come in and mingle. Nobody minded. The boys would welcome them in, it was part of it, and we’d have a bit of a sing-song and a lot of beer. We built real strong bonds.”
WATCH | The Scotland squad are back out training as the preparation continues for the upcoming Summer Tests and beyond #AsOne pic.twitter.com/c2hcsRiMit
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) July 30, 2019
What happened in Scotland’s first pool match was both thrilling and bonkers, a 20-20 draw with France secured by Matt Duncan’s thunderous late try. Rutherford, the ageing hero, blew his knee seven minutes in and was carted off.
The story goes that coach Derrick Grant had planned to shuffle his backline and leave Tait on the bench in this eventuality, but the youngster had other ideas. “They were going to move Gavin Hastings forward and push somebody else to full-back, but I ran down and jumped on to the pitch and I don’t think anybody could catch me.
“I just went on, quick as a flash, and got stuck in. The stands were a fair bit away from the pitch and the coaches were sat a fair bit up in the stand. I was just charging on there – I maybe capped myself! It was a great game and I don’t think I let myself down. France were some outfit with Serge Blanco, Pierre Berbizier, Philippe Sella – I was opposite Sella at 13, he was probably the best centre in the world at that time.
20-16 down v France. Crucial pool points on the line at Rugby World Cup 1987.@Scotlandteam's Mathew Duncan goes over in the corner.
Flanker John Jeffrey can't contain his emotion ? pic.twitter.com/pUXDnjCsgR
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) August 7, 2019
“I tackled Sella, and I remember Eric Champ came through on a short ball. I dipped down, dropped my shoulder and drove into him. He was one of their big forwards and I just remember lifting him quite easily and dumping him back. That wasn’t bad.
“My physicality was a little bit of a back-up to me that, yeah, I can handle this level. The game was a blur but the tackles are the little bits I can remember. I couldn’t for the life of me tell you if I actually touched the ball.”
Scotland went on to hammer Romania and Zimbabwe in their remaining pool matches, Tait scoring a brace in each and cementing his place in the starting line-up. Then came a quarter-final date with the All Blacks, a juggernaut of a unit that had scored 194 points in their three pool matches. And remember, this at a time when a try was still worth only four points.
3??0?? DAYS TO GO!
For our latest memorable moment, we take it back to the inaugural Rugby World Cup, where the @AllBlacks conquered the world for the very first time ? #RWC1987 pic.twitter.com/cGwzMo5o7z
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) August 21, 2019
To Scotland, these men were monsters from another planet, a race of superhuman rugby beasts clad in their haunting white away strips rather than the usual black that heralded impending doom. “I’d never set eyes on them before. They were big animals. Buck Shelford, you didn’t see men like him. Michael Jones, the Whetton brothers, they were f***ing ferocious,” Tait remembered.
“I can remember John Kirwan standing opposite Iwan Tukalo, looking over and winking and saying, ‘Enjoy your flight home’. They had the banter as well. They had that fear factor, nothing daunted them. I was up against Smokin’ Joe Stanley, one of their all-time greats. He was a big lump. John Gallagher was cutting loose from the back.
“I remember going into a ruck and I must have been rolled back five yards from the ruck by their studs. ‘Oh my back, oh my arm, oh my shoulder’ – six or seven pairs of boots jumping on me to get me out of the way.”
Social media didn't exist at Rugby World Cup 1987.
But if it did…. pic.twitter.com/nZDaMDlj4Q
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) August 1, 2019
Fear gnawed at Scotland. Anxiety feasted on them. They duly copped a 30-3 drubbing. New Zealand went on to win the whole thing, their final points tally 301 for, 52 against. “I know for a fact we were scared of them. I can openly say that. There will be a few players might doubt me, but we held them in too high a regard and we didn’t take them on.
“They were very clever. Any hotel, any pub you went into, anywhere you went where there were people around, they had All Blacks tries on the TV screens playing it and playing it and playing it.
“You were looking up from your beer, looking up in the hotel lobby, and there was the TV with try after try. We hadn’t seen them much but when you saw them doing it against Australia and South Africa regularly, you were like, phwoar, they are some machine, this lot.
“They had everybody beaten before they played them. We held them in too high a regard but it was a different era. We gave them too much respect. I don’t think we believed ourselves we were going to win that game.”
The days of 1987 are long gone, the boozing and the feasting a fraction of what they once were. Tait carved out a phenomenal career with a bucket-load of honours. Britain caps and Wembley outings in rugby league; a victorious Lions tour, an English Premiership title and a Five Nations win in union.
He coached Newcastle Falcons, his former club, and in the Scotland set-up. Now, at the age of 55, he scours the north of England on behalf of Scottish Rugby, searching for eligible talent south of the border.
BE THERE | Come along to Linlithgow Palace in a week's time to see Gregor Townsend announce his #RWC19 squad! ???????
Sign-up for the free event ? https://t.co/2bUhrMNVCg#AsOne pic.twitter.com/buKmaVSfGz
— Scottish Rugby (@Scotlandteam) August 27, 2019
The Steinlager and the fisticuffs and the ruck shoeings are in the past, but Tait sees alarming signs in rugby’s present. In his coaching days, he bore witness to what he says were some grotesque training methods and he worries about the brutality of the modern contact area.
“The injuries are going to get crazy if we keep allowing what’s going on at the breakdown,” he claimed. “I saw a professional coach once coaching the neck roll, actually saying to players, ‘Get your hand locked round his chin, so if you pull him, and he doesn’t let go, you’ll break his neck’. I’m going, ‘Hang on a minute, you can’t coach that!’
“Even the jackal on the ball, some coaches were saying to hit down on to his neck so he springs back up. I’ve seen it coached that way. I used to cringe and shake my head and think, oh my god – somebody weighing 19st coming down on a guy’s neck, you wonder why the hamstrings tear off the bone, knees are going bang.
“There are not many more than two or three players go into the breakdown anymore. You could almost look at the numbers and say, you’re allowed two in the tackle and two opponents to contest. Restrict the numbers. It’s a difficult one but it’s something that maybe should be looked at.
“If you’re a defender standing at the side of the breakdown, there seems to be license to just wipe you out. If you’re an attacker coming in to protect the ball, you seem to get blitzed as well. Union wants a contest at the breakdown and I’ve not got a problem with that, I’m not saying make it dead, we’ve just got to be careful we’re not having people get seriously hurt in that area.”
WATCH: Part one of Operation Jaypan, the two-part RugbyPass documentary on what the fans can expect at the World Cup in Japan
Comments on RugbyPass
Christie is not Sottish, like the majority of the Scotland team.
2 Go to commentsHold the phone, decline over-rated. Is it a one game, dead cat bounce or the real thing? Has the Penney dropped? Stay tuned.
44 Go to commentsTotally deserved win for the Crusaders Far smarter than the Chiefs who seem to be avoiding the basics when it matters Hotham showed them what was missing and Hannah seems a real find - a tad light but that can be fixed over time
8 Go to commentsGreat insight into the performance culture with Sarries and I predict Christie will be a fixture in the Scotland team now for some time to come. However, he is slightly missing his own point around Scotland “being soft” when he cites physicality examples in defence of that slight. The issue is much closer to the example he referenced around feeling off before a game but being told “it doesn’t matter, you can still play well” by Farrell. Until Scotland can get their psyche in that square, they will carry on folding under extreme pressure…
2 Go to comments> We are having to adapt, evolve and innovate more than when we were in Super Rugby where there was only really one style that everybody had to play to gain the most success. Have = able to? Interesting what that one style might be? I thought SA sides still had bad tours now, or at least bad schedule, months away? Those extra few hours flights have to be a killer though, no surprise to see their sides doing so badly at the start of the season each year. I wouldn’t enjoy that unfairness as a supporter.
5 Go to commentsThe problem for NZ, and Aus, is they ripped up the SR model and lost a massive chunk of revenue that hasn’t been replaced. Don’t forget SA clubs went North because they were left with no choice, Argy unceremoniously binned and Japan cast adrift. Now SR wasn’t perfect, far from it, but they’ve jumped into something without an effective plan, so far, to replace what they’ve lost. The biggest revenue potential now lies in Japan but it won’t be easy or quick to unlock, they are incredibly insular in culture as a nation. In the meantime, there is a serious time bomb sitting under SH rugby and if it happens then the current financial challenges will look like a picnic. IF the Boks follow their provincial teams and head north then it’s revenue meltdown. Not guaranteed to happen but the status quo is a very odd hybrid, with the Boks pointing one way and the clubs pointing the other way. And for as long as that remains then the threat is real.
44 Go to commentsI think Etene has had some good tuition, likely while at the Warriors to be a professional that helped his rugby jump, but he was certainly thrown in the deep end way too early. Should have arguably 20 less SR caps, and therefor a way better record that he does at his age, but his development would have been fast tracked by the need to satiate his signing away from league. Again, credit to him and others that he has done it so well. Easy to fall over under that pressure in the big leagues like that but he kept at it when I myself wasn’t sure he was good enough.
1 Go to commentsAwesome story. I wonder what a bigger American (SA) scene might have mean for Brex.
1 Go to comments“Johnny McNicholl and the Crusaders” save a Penney. Who has been in camp this week and showed them how to play?
8 Go to commentsSo, reports of the Crusaders’ demise / terminal decline are perhaps just - slightly - premature/exaggerated…? 🤔 Will we see a deep-dive into that by the estimable Rugbypass scribes, and maybe one or two mea culpas? Thought not.
8 Go to comments1. The Chiefs are rudderless without DMac, which enhances his AB chances 2. Chiefs pack are powderpuffs. The hard men arent there anymore 3. They had their golden title chance last yr and wont threaten this yr. Gone in second round of playoffs.
8 Go to commentsHonestly, why did you have to publish such a foolish article the day they play us? 😂
44 Go to comments> They are not standalone entities. They are linked to an amateur association which holds the FFR licence that allows the professional side to compete in the league. That’s a great rule. This looks like the chicken or egg professional scenario. How long is it going to be before the club can break even (if that is even a thing in French rugby)? If the locals aren’t into well it would be good to se them drop to amateur level (is it that far?). Hope they can reset from this level and be more practical, there will be a time when they can rebuild (if France has there setup right).
1 Go to commentsWhat about changing the ball? To something heavier and more pointed that bounces unpredictably. Not this almost round football used these days.
35 Go to commentsThis is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?
35 Go to commentsWow, didn’t realise there was such apathy to URC in SA, or by Champions Cup teams. Just read Nick’s article on Crusaders, are Sharks a similar circumstance? I think SA rugby has been far more balanced than NZs, no?
4 Go to commentsBut here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.
44 Go to commentsIt could be coincidental or prescient that the All Blacks most dominant period under Steve Hansen was when the Crusaders had their least successful period under Todd Blackadder and then the positions reversed when Razor took over the Crusaders.
44 Go to commentsDefinitely sound read everybodyexpects immediate results these days, I don't think any team would travel well at all having lost three of the most important game changers in the game,compiled with the massive injury list they are now carrying, good to see a different more in depth perspective of a coaches history.
3 Go to commentsSinckler is a really big loss for English rugby.
2 Go to comments