It was the year 2000 the first year of the 6 Nations with Italy entering the contest. We had just been crowned the last 5 nations winners the year before. We had had a number of retirees leave the Scotland squad and we were introducing new players but on the balance of things we were looking ok. We played Italy in the blazing sun at Stadio Flamino refereed by Jonathon Kaplan. The Italians were magnificent and with Diego Dominguez practically scoring all of their 34 points and we managed to muster only 20. Not the greatest of starts but a day to try and forget- to cap it all I bust my nose quite badly, not for the first time or the last. On the same day England hammered Ireland by 50pts!! I went back to Northampton only to be besieged by the whistling of the Italian Job theme tune for weeks.
Our next outing was against Ireland and with the unbelievable O'Driscoll in great form we were given the run-around especially in the second half, we succumbed to a 44-22 defeat at Lansdowne Road, one of my favourite places to play. Not least because I got to meet up with a lot of my wife’s friends (she is from Belfast) but also the atmosphere at Lansdowne was always special. The place could be empty with 5 mins to go before the National Anthems and then as the KO started the game you would have 100s of Irish fans walking down the touchline having a chat with you with their Guinness in hand. Still, we managed to score 3 tries that day.  On the same day England won a tight affair over France in Paris - no easy feat.
Going into round 3 we knew that we were now going for mid table finish if we could nick a couple of wins before our last day against England, so next up was France at home, our first outing at Murrayfield since November. France were tough and mean and were looking to avenge their defeat by England. We competed much better in the game and were still in the fight all the way to the death until two quick tries by the French gave them a victory. During the game I got penalised for a double movement over the try line at a crucial period in the game.  We lost 16-28 and had a victory snatched away- gutted. On that day England hammered Wales by 40 points. There were a number of Cockerels floating around the clubhouse.
Round 4 appeared in a blur, we were in trouble we kept on having teams just after they had been hammered or beaten by England, we were again away in Cardiff and Shane Williams who at times had us mesmerised, the Welsh found their voices and the Principality stadium got louder and louder and more intimidating!! We lost to a not so good welsh team 26-18. England hammered Italy by 50 points, England were next!  After the match myself and Mattie Stewart had arranged a lift home with Martin Bayfield our old Northampton Teammate who had been working in commentary on the game. On picking up our bags and chucking them into the back of his massive car he couldn’t wait to ask why our bags were so heavy, before we could answer he quipped was it because of the number of wooden spoons we had in there, to be fair we had England next and they had swept everyone before us!!!
Round 5 April 2nd 2000. (Supposed to be good weather)
We had been written off all week and rightly so!!  Nothing better than spoiling a party, this was my chance to play against of my Northampton teammates who had been giving me the full treatment since our demise in Italy!! They were on for the Grand Slam and we were on for the wooden spoon. They had Grand slam parties, T shirts etc all planned. We were doing a rain dance all week!!! We had heard the weather could be a bit unpredictable for the weekend and had been training with that in mind, what we didn’t fully register was how bad the weather was going to be. Before the KO the English team had gone out to line-up without tracksuits on so we decided to make them wait a little longer in the cold - it was only fair. We waited until the referee Clayton Thomas came and physically bundled us out.
The game was played in atrocious weather (I have never been so cold or wet than after that game) the English team continued to play their expansive game that they had been so successful with and we decided to rough them up and pick individuals who we knew would either flare up to the provocation and lose their heads or those who were carrying injuries and were trying to protect themselves. The game went down as one of the best victories for a Scotland team, albeit thankfully thanks to Scotland's victory just recently consigned to the history books. It was not a classic in terms of skills but a classic in terms of passion and ferocity in the face of adversity.
We edged the game 19-13 with Duncan Hodge scoring all our points, thankfully the 4 games before it were forgotten by the loyal Scotland supporters. We had a great night even though it was a Sunday I think I ended up dancing on the table to Tony the Greek theme tune from Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels film.
For us Northampton boys the Scottish contingent were required to be back the next day for a team meeting and our English teammates were given the day off to celebrate their Grand Slam. On the Monday morning we arrived at Edinburgh airport rather bleary eyed, waiting to get a massive coffee we saw a rather large tall gentleman trying to look invisible. Bayfield!!! From across the airport Lounge we shouted and ran towards the already aggrieved Martin Bayfield and gave him both barrels!!  Great memories.
Memory added on July 4, 2021
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