Aristotle Selects His Best Scotland Team Of The Past 65 Years

AS AN impressionable youth, my obsession with becoming a Sports Writer was, in part, picqued by reading the back pages of the Weekly News, and in particular Fun and Games Wi' Andy James.

This column featured the exploits of Invertottie Howkers' star centre forward – Wan Fittit; what a character. He had a pet budgie - Hidegkuti, named after that great Hungarian of the 1950s. Wan also had a girl friend named Banda Hope, while his dad was a salt packet inserter at the local crisp factory.

If Wan Fittit was the Erling Haaland of the times, he was just one of Howkers' stable of galacticos assembled by ace manager Wullie Signim, stars such as goalkeeper Dinny Drappit and centre-half Auld N Dunne.

Well, the years have passed and I have morphed into Auld N Dunne, and now write a blog which has as-much relevance to Scottish sport as that memorable 1950s Weekly News feature.

So, having given myself licence to be self-indulgent, I thought I would have some fun during the current interregnum between the end of Season 2022-23 and the upcoming Rugby World Cup by writing some stuff purely for the entertainment value.

I thought I would start with my take on a feature which has been running on Facebook, where one rugby page I follow is asking us to pick our best eclectic Scottish team over the past 60 or so years.

Since that time frame covers almost exactly the length of time I have been involved in the game, I feel well-qualified to select my Best of Scottish Team since 1958. As ever on here, it will be named in 1-23 order.

Starting in the front row, we have had one or two rather special combinations. When I first went to Murrayfield, Scotland's front row almost picked itself: Hughie McLeod, Norman Bruce and Dave Rollo. Later on, we had another terrific trio: Ian McLauchlan, Frank Laidlaw and Sandy Carmichael. Since then we have had brilliant operators such as David Sole, Tom Smith, Colin Deans, Iain Milne, Gordon Bulloch and Euan Murray, so plenty of names in the frame for the hard yards at the coal face.

We have had some wonderful locks, who kept the boiler-house of the scrum well-stoked, from the perhaps a bit small, but wonderfully-athletic Hamish Kemp, whose shock of red hair was a beacon in the dark days of the 1950s, via Mike Campbell-Lammerton and Frans ten Bos, on through The Brown Brothers and Alistair McHarg, then big Andy Reed, allegedly discovered because his mother wore a Heart of Midlothian scarf to a game watched by an SRU selector, Damian Cronin, Scott Murray, Doddie Weir and today's Gray Brothers.

We have been well-served too in the back row, from Jimmy Greenwood and Adam Robson back in the day, via Ronnie Glasgow, Derrick Grant and Jim Telfer, Pringle Fisher, Roger Arneil, The Calder Twins, John Jeffrey, David Leslie, Iain Paxton, John Beattie, Derek White, Jason White, Glasgow Warriors' 'Killer Bees', to today's Jamie Ritchie and Hamish Watson. There's more than a XV there, vying for just three places.

At scrum-half, the under-appreciated Stan Coughtgrie was a British Lion, as was Dougie Morgan and Jed-forest's Three Nines – Roy and Greig Laidlaw and Gary Armstrong. Throw Brian Redpath's name into the mix and you have another one position headache.

Outside them, there are some talented tens in the frame: Jock Turner, Ian McGeechan, John Rutherford, Craig Chalmers and Finn Russell – choices, choices.

Picking the centres too is a tough call – Hawick alone offer us a choice between Geordie Stevenson, Jim Renwick and Alistair Cranston. I could select Sean Lineen and Scott Hastings from the 1990 Grand Slam XV. John Frame and before him, Brian Henderson rewrote the specification sheet for Scottish centres, while today's Warriors' pairing of 'Shugipulotu' are not bad. Although I have mentioned him as a contender for the ten shirt, we must not forget, Ian McGeechan played centre for the immortal unbeaten 1974 Lions, and I must not forget my wee pal Alan Tait..

And what of our back three – the two wingers and full-back. Genius abounds here: Arthur Smith, Andy Irvine, Ken Scotland, Gavin Hastings and today'sStuart Hogg and Darcy Graham are all in contention.

There are 69 names there, from which I have to pick just XV. So, who did I go with:

My Best Scotland XV of the past 65 years:

Ian McLauchlan

Frank Laidlaw

Sandy Carmichael

Alistair McHarg

Gordon Brown

David Leslie

Ron Glasgow

Jim Greenwood (Captain)

 

 

Roy Laidlaw

John Rutherford

Andy Irvine

Scott Hastings

Jim Renwick

Arthur Smith

Ken Scotland

On the bench:

Colin Deans

Hughie McLeod

Iain Milne

Peter Brown

Derrick Grant

Gary Armstrong

Jock Turner

Stuart Hogg

I reckon that squad, coached by Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer could win us the Rugby World Cup any year.

Other combinations are available, and I am sure I will hear of many of these, after all, in this site, opinion is free and argument positively encouraged.

The ground rule is this:

• A great player in one era is given as a great player in any era “He'd be too wee for today's game” doesn't wash

Let the arguments start.