Borders rugby legends John Rutherford and Roy Laidlaw offer reminder of days gone by ahead of Six Nations loss to France

Selkirk fly-half Rutherford, 68, and Jed-Forest scrum-half Laidlaw, 70, were given the job of handing over the match-ball for that 20-16 defeat at Edinburgh’s Murrayfield Stadium to mark the 40th anniversary of Scotland beating the French 21-12 there in March 1984 to claim only their second Five Nations grand slam ever and first since 1925.

That handover in front of a capacity crowd of 67,000-plus was a reminder not only of the long-gone days of Scotland winning grand slams as only one more was to follow, back in 1990, but also of the Borders being the national team’s top recruiting ground.

Rutherford and Laidlaw were among eight Borderers fielded by Melrose-born head coach Jim Telfer, the others being Gala full-back Peter Dods, Melrose centre Keith Robertson, Kelso winger Roger Baird, Hawick hooker Colin Deans and Hawick locks Alister Campbell and Alan Tomes.

Making up the rest of that day’s XV, captained by Midlothian-born Gala prop Jim Aitken, were Newcastle’s Jim Pollock, East Lothian’s Jim Calder, Dundee-born Gala flanker David Leslie, Fife-born Selkirk No 8 Iain Paxton and Edinburgh’s David Johnston and Iain Milne.

Calder, 66, scored the Scots’ only try against France and Dods, also 66, kicked one conversion and five penalties.

That win followed ones by 15-9 away to Wales that January, 18-6 at home to England the month after and 32-9 in Ireland, with 47-times-capped Laidlaw scoring two tries and Robertson and Dods also touching down, earlier in March for the triple crown.

1990’s grand slam-winning team wasn’t short of Borderers either, with Hawick’s Tony Stanger, Melrose’s Craig Chalmer, Jedburgh’s Gary Armstrong and Kelso’s John Jeffrey, later joined by Hawick’s Derek Turnbull from the substitutes’ bench, in the team that beat England 13-7 at home that March to claim the title.

Those days of Borders-based players accounting for all but four of the national team, no replacements being required that day, form a stark contrast to the line-up fielded by head coach Gregor Townsend at the weekend as it was the first time that no representatives of the region had been selected for two games on the bounce since 1921.

That latest unwanted milestone moment came just a week after the first Scotland teamsheet without any Borderers’ names on it for 99 years was announced, though one game in the interim, a 53-24 autumn test win at home to Australia at Murrayfield in November 2017, ended up featuring no representatives of the region as, though selected, Hawick’s Stuart Hogg injured his hip in the pre-match warm-up, forcing Townsend, named as head coach earlier that year, to call up Sean Maitland to replace him at full-back.

Just nine Scots featured in ex-Gala star Townsend’s starting XV versus France – co-captains Finn Russell and Rory Darge, along with Harry Paterson, Huw Jones, George Turner, Matt and Zander Fagerson, Grant Gilchrist and Scott Cummings – lining up alongside England’s Kyle Rowe and Ben White, Australia’s Sione Tuipulotu and Jack Dempsey and South Africa’s Pierre Schoeman and Duhan van der Merwe.

One more made the bench, George Horne, joining Ireland’s Ben Healy, Australia’s Alec Hepburn, Canada’s Ewan Ashman, France’s Cameron Redpath and England’s Andy Christie, Sam Skinner and Elliot Millar-Mills

Besides Rutherford and Laidlaw, Saturday’s guests of honour included their team-mates Calder, Milne, Deans, Leslie, Dods, Johnston, Robertson, Paxton and Pollock, plus fellow squad members John Beattie and Euan Kennedy.

Former British and Irish Lion Rutherford, capped 42 times by Scotland between 1979 and 1987, was chuffed to bits to meet up wiith his old team-mates again, telling us: “It was very nice of Scottish Rugby to invite Roy and I to take out the match-ball.

“There were several of the 1984 grand slam team invited and it was great seeing them all again.

“I’m just sorry that we couldn’t bring any luck for the Scottish team. I was gutted for them as it did look like a clear try at the end of the game.”

White scored Scotland’s only try at the weekend, though Skinner looked to have grounded another late on only to see it chalked off as having been held up, with Russell adding a conversion and three penalties.

France’s tries were scored by Gael Fickou and Louis Bielle-Biarrey, with Thomas Ramos converting both and also kicking two penalties.

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