Mismatch and mishaps at Murrayfield
September 25th 2007 16:53
On Saturday morning, we packed into the alarmingly crowded 9. 30 GNER train at King’s Cross, London, and headed off to Edinburgh. Fortunately for us, a certain Pauline X, who had reserved seats 40 to 50, Carriage M to Newcastle, failed to show, so we seized her places and sat spotting ex-pupils, former team members, erstwhile colleagues as well as scores of what’s-a-names and hokum-flookums amongst the milling black throngs in the aisles. Who, if anybody, is left in NZ at the moment? I wondered. I found myself wondering, too, about the absent Pauline; Why ten seats? What was on in Newcastle this weekend? What went wrong? Why didn’t she make the train? The Mills and Boonist in me assigned the ten seats to a bevy of bridesmaids traveling up to Pauline’s Newcastle wedding (a match engineered by her domineering step-mother, to a filthy rich, unattractive, unscrupulous, global exploiter) which was cancelled at the11th hour when Pauline eloped instead with a handsome, long-lost, Latin lover and incognito Count who appeared, out of the blue, as a waiter at her rehearsal dinner. Meanwhile, my inner Tara-Overton-Naughty-Girl had Pauline’s party arriving ripped to the eyeballs, dressed in leather chaps and bustiers for Percy Bottomley-Biggs’ trannies and trollopes lunch in Newers, then thrown off the train after spraying carriages G through L with champagne in a riotous, staggering search for their seats. Such speculations filled a claustrophobic journey prolonged by inevitable “works on the line”
Speculations fuelled conversations and filled newspapers, too, in the lead up to Sunday’s Scotland/ All Blacks’ World Cup Rugby match. Coach Frank Hadden’s decision to save his best side for the Italian game later in the week was an unpopular one with Scots and Kiwis alike “Depleted Scots face black day” declared a dour headline in the Sunday (morning) Times. “Scotland’s second-string side could be destroyed by New Zealand today ….” the article continued. Meanwhile, on the same page, Sean Fitzpatrick warned that the Scots could “be beaten by eighty points or more …” and “that if New Zealand gets away with having such a weak lineout against Scotland, they might make the mistake of thinking they can do the same against France or South Africa” Quelle horreur!
My fears of freezing Scottish weather proved completely unfounded. Sunday afternoon was mild and warm with a gentle breeze and moments of glorious sunshine. In spite of those forecasts of certain doom for the Scots, spirits seemed high in the crowd that took the legendary walk from Edinburgh town down to Murrayfield, through streets of solid stone houses with bright green lawns and colourful gardens. Shoulder to shoulder in blue and white or black Rugby jerseys and kilts of every tartan, familiar slow Kiwi voices mingled with Scottish accents, strange, fast and unfathomable, against the background skirl of the bagpipes and the muffled beat of a drum. High up in the Stadium, you could see out through the open roof , over a patchwork of houses, steeples, streets and parks and into a blue sky dotted with low, steel-coloured clouds.
In the light of the diminished strength of the Scottish side, the All Blacks heavy-duty, throat-gouging Haka seemed a little like over-kill, but perhaps it was merely a nod of respect to a worthy adversary, which is always, in the words of Jonah Lomu, “up for a battle” Whatever it was, it was greeted with roars of approval, blasts of the bagpipes and a chorus of ochs ayes from the crowd.
Overall, the game lived up to expectations; New Zealand won, Scotland lost. Scotland failed to score, while New Zealand chalked up 40 points and won by its largest ever Murrayfield margin. Yet, as chief Murrayfield Rugby writer Kevin Ferrie asked, (undoubtedly giving voice to the thoughts of thousands) with a full-strength side, against a Scottish second string, with some breathtaking speed of thought and action and with almost twice as much possession as Scotland, why didn’t the All Blacks score twice as many points? Fitzy, too must be asking why they didn’t make his predicted margin of 80. The answer lies in countless silly passes (described by Byron Kelleher as “a bit like school boy Rugby”) in fumbled and dropped balls, in missed kicks and botched tries – in short, in poor finishing. It was a game that had old Kiwi sideline “experts” shaking their heads and spitting words like “ordinary”, “wasted chances”, “lost opportunities” and most damning of all, “lack of ruthlessness” out of the sides of their mouths at the end. In the Scottish camp, bitter dissatisfaction with Hadden’s choice was coupled with generous praise and admiration for the brave wee laddies who once again, in David Leslie’s words, made “the self-sacrifice of the body”. And perhaps the Kiwi critics might also consider that these brave Scotties, doing their battling best, contributed a wee bit to holding the All Blacks score down that day.
But a win is a win we all finally agreed as we raised our whiskies to the victors with a clink, an eye-to-eye and a “here’s lookin’ up your kilt” Moreover, a game is a game as the crowds’ antics with the oval ball on the slow meander back from Murrayfield reminded us. And in conclusion, an impromptu, all-in match on the lawn in front of the School for the Blind settled all debate about how Rugby is really played and who the real winners are.
Speculations fuelled conversations and filled newspapers, too, in the lead up to Sunday’s Scotland/ All Blacks’ World Cup Rugby match. Coach Frank Hadden’s decision to save his best side for the Italian game later in the week was an unpopular one with Scots and Kiwis alike “Depleted Scots face black day” declared a dour headline in the Sunday (morning) Times. “Scotland’s second-string side could be destroyed by New Zealand today ….” the article continued. Meanwhile, on the same page, Sean Fitzpatrick warned that the Scots could “be beaten by eighty points or more …” and “that if New Zealand gets away with having such a weak lineout against Scotland, they might make the mistake of thinking they can do the same against France or South Africa” Quelle horreur!
The walk down to Murrayfield
My fears of freezing Scottish weather proved completely unfounded. Sunday afternoon was mild and warm with a gentle breeze and moments of glorious sunshine. In spite of those forecasts of certain doom for the Scots, spirits seemed high in the crowd that took the legendary walk from Edinburgh town down to Murrayfield, through streets of solid stone houses with bright green lawns and colourful gardens. Shoulder to shoulder in blue and white or black Rugby jerseys and kilts of every tartan, familiar slow Kiwi voices mingled with Scottish accents, strange, fast and unfathomable, against the background skirl of the bagpipes and the muffled beat of a drum. High up in the Stadium, you could see out through the open roof , over a patchwork of houses, steeples, streets and parks and into a blue sky dotted with low, steel-coloured clouds.
In the light of the diminished strength of the Scottish side, the All Blacks heavy-duty, throat-gouging Haka seemed a little like over-kill, but perhaps it was merely a nod of respect to a worthy adversary, which is always, in the words of Jonah Lomu, “up for a battle” Whatever it was, it was greeted with roars of approval, blasts of the bagpipes and a chorus of ochs ayes from the crowd.
The Haka
Overall, the game lived up to expectations; New Zealand won, Scotland lost. Scotland failed to score, while New Zealand chalked up 40 points and won by its largest ever Murrayfield margin. Yet, as chief Murrayfield Rugby writer Kevin Ferrie asked, (undoubtedly giving voice to the thoughts of thousands) with a full-strength side, against a Scottish second string, with some breathtaking speed of thought and action and with almost twice as much possession as Scotland, why didn’t the All Blacks score twice as many points? Fitzy, too must be asking why they didn’t make his predicted margin of 80. The answer lies in countless silly passes (described by Byron Kelleher as “a bit like school boy Rugby”) in fumbled and dropped balls, in missed kicks and botched tries – in short, in poor finishing. It was a game that had old Kiwi sideline “experts” shaking their heads and spitting words like “ordinary”, “wasted chances”, “lost opportunities” and most damning of all, “lack of ruthlessness” out of the sides of their mouths at the end. In the Scottish camp, bitter dissatisfaction with Hadden’s choice was coupled with generous praise and admiration for the brave wee laddies who once again, in David Leslie’s words, made “the self-sacrifice of the body”. And perhaps the Kiwi critics might also consider that these brave Scotties, doing their battling best, contributed a wee bit to holding the All Blacks score down that day.
A game after the game at Murrayfield
But a win is a win we all finally agreed as we raised our whiskies to the victors with a clink, an eye-to-eye and a “here’s lookin’ up your kilt” Moreover, a game is a game as the crowds’ antics with the oval ball on the slow meander back from Murrayfield reminded us. And in conclusion, an impromptu, all-in match on the lawn in front of the School for the Blind settled all debate about how Rugby is really played and who the real winners are.
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