And the Leyland Brothers (Scotland - Australia v Scotland Rugby)

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When the ARU announced the Wallabies autumn tour dates of Europe, I was convinced I would make it to all three (later changed to four) matches, including France, Scotland & England.

Although I didn’t get my act together to make it to France, I managed to gather a group to go see the Aussies play Scotland. Surprisingly although our group consisted of seven people, only three were actually Aussies (and no Scots!).

The tour essentially started (for me) on the Thursday lunchtime (Thurs 18th November 2004), when I made the forty minute trek from Aldgate to Notting Hill Gate, the home of P.P. Travel (the Party Professionals - although affectionately known to Jess as Piss Poor Travel). P.P. Travel organised the trip (match tickets & accommodation) for us and I needed to pick up our tickets and “tour” t-shirts.

When the Scottish RFU found out they would have an additional fixture against the Wallabies for the Autumn Internationals, they set about providing an opportunity to spread the game of Rugby to other areas of Scotland. In all their wisdom, instead of scheduling their additional fixture (Tickets for which, were yet to go on sale) they chose to move the match scheduled at Murrayfield (which we had tickets for) to Glasgow.

P.P. Travel managed to switch the tickets for us, but apparently all the other people booked on the “tour” had chosen to go to Australia v France instead (which the Wallabies lost), leaving the number on the Scotland tour fixed at seven - us.

Rather than change our flights and accommodation to Glasgow, we decided to leave everything as is and spend the weekend in Edinburgh and catch a bus to Glasgow for the match. This was especially because at the same time as the Aussie match was due to kick off, the Celtic vs. Rangers match was also starting in Glasgow. We didn’t want to be caught out and about with that crowd in the pubs that night.

We left for Edinburgh on the afternoon of Friday 19th November, around 2pm. I had worked a half-day and caught the City Airport shuttle from Liverpool St and met the rest of the group at the Airport. The group consisted of Vicky, Adam, Jess, Frosty, Ant & Ev.

After checking in and finding myself in Business Class (due to my Silver frequent flyer status), I waved good bye to the others (in economy) and set about relaxing for the hour. We arrived in Edinburgh on around 4pm.

The hotel we had allocated to us was the Hotel IBIS, which turned out to be smack bang in the middle of the Royal Mile, Edinburgh’s main tourist “strip”.

Following a brief “situation” with the sleeping arrangements and Jess struggling to pull Frosty away from the hotel’s complimentary shoe shiner machine, we headed out to experience the Scottish night life.

We spend most of the time in the Bank Hotel, a pub around the corner singing Happy Birthday to a 70-year-old bloke and drinking lots during “Happy Hour”. After that we tried to eat at about three different restaurants but couldn't get in to any and wound up at Pizza Hut waiting almost forty minutes for our meals.

Saturday morning (20th November 2004) we were up early and headed to Murrayfield for our tour of the stadium. Because the SRU had ruthlessly ripped away our chance of seeing a rugby match at Murrayfield they kindly let us join their tour of the stadium. The tour guide was one of those old die-hard rugby gentlemen; he knew everything there was to know about the game they play in Heaven and wasn't too rude to the English blokes who were also on our tour.

Besides walking around in the players changing rooms, we got to see where Bill Mclaren, the great commentator once sat to call Scotland matches. Now retired, this legend in Rugby folk-law was famous for describing moments of 'argy bargy' or ‘gigory pokery’. He always tended to get a little too excited whenever Scotland won a game. His final commentary for the BBC was the Wales v Scotland game played on Saturday 6 April 2002 - Scotland won 27-22!

Despite much of the tour being dedicated to Bill, the highlight of this tour for me was getting to run out through the tunnel and onto the pitch…well, almost onto the pitch. Under no circumstances were we allowed to go onto the pitch. Which was a complete shame because I had purchased a rugby ball especially for the drop goal competition Adam & I planned to have.

At the completion of the tour, our tour guide gave us each a small Murrayfield pin as we exited the stadium.

From there we jumped on to the free bus to Glasgow. For some reason (this time not to do with my Frequent Flyer status), I was due to travel on a separate bus from the others. Despite their pleas, I changed it and travelled to Glasgow on the same bus as them.

To make up for the fact that a sea of Scots outnumbered us, we decked ourselves in Aussie colours and showed our Wallabies jerseys proudly. We even hung our Aussie flags over the windows. The Scottish rugby team had to do a double take as their bus overtook ours on the motorway. Adam swore it was because they saw him and were hoping they didn’t have to play against him.

We arrived at Hampden Park an hour or so before kick off and decided to head to the closest pub for a drink. It was only then that we realised that there WEREN’T any pubs near the ground - this was due to the fact that Glasgow is not the nicest place around and Hampden Park is traditionally a soccer ground. Adding alcohol to that and you’ve got yourself some big crowd control issues!

Right before we had decided to dive into the nearest off-licence and buy some cans of beer, a seedy-looking old man motioned us down the stairs of a dodgy establishment labelled “Pool Hall”. As it turned out, said establishment also featured a bar and in there we found many fellow Aussies tucking into their share of pre-match beer.

After a pint or two in the Pool Hall, we started a mass exodus back to the ground to find our seats. Vicky was a bit worried about smuggling in our hip flask but contrary to our beliefs, security was not very “secure”. I walked in with my backpack on and all I got asked was “have you got anything of substance in there?” to which I replied “only a good book.” The security lady laughed and motioned me through. If only Twickenham was as relaxed!

We took our seats and rested our Australian flags on the seats in front of us. What a wonderfully funny bunch of people the Scots are. As the blokes in front of us took their seats they took one look at the row of Aussies behind them and said "Right, that's it, we're not sitting here, let's go and get some other seats".

In a sixty-thousand-seater stadium the attendance was just over twenty thousand. We were all sure that IF the match had been played at Murrayfield, it would have been close to a capacity crowd. Let that be a lesson to you Scotland RFU.

As we rose to sing our national anthem, the players looked a little confused and continued with their warm up drills. It turns out that they weren’t made aware that the anthems were about to play. Much to our delight, after getting through “The Flower of Scotland”, the stadium belted out a second rendition of Advance Australia Fair. THIS time, the players were prepared and even Clyde Rathbone sung his heart out.

The match kicked off in a flurry and I got into a shouting match with the seven-year-old boy sitting in front of us. "Come on Aussie". "Come on Scotland". "Well they can't hear that, come on mate, you have to do it louder.... COME ON AUSSIE".

He gave up when he realised he was never going to be able to shout louder than I was. I also made the surrounding crowd chuckle when I constantly accused the referee of being a stupid Kiwi/English/Welsh/Pakistani - Turns out he was Irish though.

With the Wallabies cruising, I tried to get the Mexican Wave going but it kept fizzling out about ten metres from where it started. This resulted in me challenging the several thousand people sitting to the left of us to a fight outside the stadium. Thankfully none of them took me up on the offer.

After a brief Wallaby lapse, Scotland came fighting back into the match. When it looked as if the Scots might steal the points, Australia kicked into gear and scored two quick tries to blow the score line out to 31-17. A pleasing but unconvincing result for Coach Eddie Jones, I would imagine.

When the match ended, I headed down to towards the players tunnel to get some photos and try and find out which pub the players were going to afterwards - Lote Tuquiri said they hadn’t made up their minds yet though.

At that point I lost Vicky and all contact with her as her phone battery was dead and I had no credit what so ever. We eventually found her lurking outside the bus.
Back in Edinburgh we had a quiet Italian dinner then Frosty, Adam, Jess, Vicky and I headed out to the Three Sisters, the infamous Rugby Bar on the Royal Mile.

This is where the weekend took a turn for the bizarre. Adam and I play Rugby with Keiran, who is good mates with David Lyons. Dave “I play for the Wallaby Lyons”. So for weeks we have been discussing how there is now a chance that we could potentially meet Dave Lyons because we know someone who knows him!

We had been at the Three Sisters for about half an hour, all looking considerably bored and tired. Frosty suggested that we finish our drinks and head somewhere else. We were about to when a table in the corner (with couches) became available. Not wanting to end the night early we jumped at the vacant seat and settled there for the next couple of hours.

After a while the table next to us became available and a guy with a hat headed for it, I didn’t notice him much but then noticed the guy with him was Daniel Vickerman. Still wearing my wallaby jersey, I looked straight at him and said, “good game today mate”. He smiled and continued on.

Imagine my surprise when the bloke behind Mr Vickerman turns out to be Dave Lyons!

I just turned and went “DAVE LYONS! (Pointing at him at this stage), RING KEIRAN PRENTER!” (Keiran had still been trying to get in touch with Dave to sort out Twickenham tickets). Turns out, at this point that the bloke with the hat was Phil Waugh.

Dave plonked into the spare chair next to me and we talked about Keiran and the Wallabies along with some other random stuff. I told him that I wasn’t too impressed with John Roe (who played No8 the previous week, dumping Dave to the bench) and that it was good to see him back in the starting line up.

At this point, I’m sitting at a table with Frosty, Vicky and a few Wallabies. Jess & Adam were at the bar so when they came back, I (rather coolly) introduced them to “Dave”. I had to spell it out to Jess though “Jess, this is Dave…Dave LYONS!”.

Anyway, there are still scratches in the table left by Jess in her haste to get to Phil Waugh to have a chat. Vicky talked Dan Vickerman’s ear off to the point where he had to go to the toilet just to get some peace and quiet. They were all good blokes though. They’re just normal Aussie blokes, who happen to be really good rugby players.

We stayed for another couple of hours talking to the boys and trying not to be too excited.

The following day (Sunday 21st November 2004), at breakfast, we mentioned to Ant (who was ill the night before) that we caught up with a couple of mates, who play rugby - Phil, Dan & Big Dave. It took a little while for him to click, but he got there eventually.

We spent the rest of the day wondering around Edinburgh. Having all been there previously, there wasn’t too much we could do. The Edinburgh Dungeons looked fairly appealing but after an hour or so of dealing with struggling (and somewhat psychotic) Scottish drama students, we left in disgust. The best thing we could do was just go to the pub.

After what seemed like a weeklong holiday, we sat, slumped on the couch in a near-by drinking establishment and recalled conversations with various wallabies and make fun of Vicky for boring Dan Vickerman to death. The time soon came to head to the airport (by bus).

It was a quick check in and we had soon jumped on the plane, heading back to City Airport (just ten minutes from home).

I had finally seen the Wallabies play live - and actually got to meet some of them. Truly a great weekend which was typified by Frosty, Ant, Ev and Vicky cheering their hearts out for a country that isn't theirs. It set the scene for the next match to come…against England at Twickenham!

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Photos

False interpretations
Yes, here we are standing outside Murrayfield stadium, Edinburgh. Unfortunately, the match was being played in Glasgow.

Lovely day
Murrayfield Stadium in the sun

Rugby heads on
Ant thinks about that first hit, in the visitors change rooms.

The Buzz
I got chills running out onto an empty Murrayfield pitch. Imagine what the players feel with 80,000 screaming Scots filling the seats!?

Up & Spoil, boys
Dan Vickerman leaps high in the line out to secure ball for the Wallabies