Scotland going for record number of games without a try

I have discovered secret SRU 30 year development plan for Scottish rugby.

It started looking at how Scotland could get in (and stay in) records books

First stage - win the last 5 nations - therefore forever be in the records books as being champions

Second - Play to not score tries - this way Scotland can get into the record books as the country that has the record for number of games without scoring

From the following table, you can see Scotland has managed to achieve the impossible dream - we are now out in front of non try scoring teams - and it is going strong

Team Mat Start Date Opposition Ground End Date Opposition Ground
England 3 26 Oct 1991 v Scotland Murrayfield 27 May 1995 v Argentina Durban
Spain 3* 2 Oct 1999 v Uruguay Galashiels 16 Oct 1999 v Scotland Murrayfield
Uruguay 3 8 Oct 1999 v Scotland Murrayfield 11 Oct 2003 v South Africa Perth
Scotland 3* 14 Sep 2011 v Georgia Invercargill 1 Oct 2011 v England Auckland Shows result before this weekend
England 2 8 Jun 1987 v Wales Brisbane 3 Oct 1991 v New Zealand Twickenham
Scotland 2 26 Oct 1991 v England Murrayfield 30 Oct 1991 v New Zealand Cardiff
Romania 2 3 Jun 1995 v Australia Stellenbosch 3 Oct 1999 v Australia Belfast
Georgia 2 12 Oct 2003 v England Perth 19 Oct 2003 v Samoa Perth
Georgia 2 28 Oct 2003 v Uruguay Sydney 11 Sep 2007 v Argentina Lyon
Namibia 2 22 Sep 2007 v Argentina Marseille 26 Sep 2007 v Georgia Lens
Scotland 2 23 Sep 2007 v New Zealand Murrayfield 29 Sep 2007 v Italy Saint-Etienne
Romania 2* 24 Sep 2011 v England Dunedin 28 Sep 2011 v Georgia Palmerston North

* indicates that the sequence is ongoing

(Poetic licence has been taken, as this table shows world cup non scoring stats - but hey too depressed to care)

So well done AR and Dan Parks - history and Hollywood will forever call your name

So what further plans are the SRU aiming to achieve?
Most number of kicks out of hands direct to a full back in a game?
Least number of fingers used when trying to catch a ball
Fatest winger (yes chunk doing his best there)
Least adventourous game plan
Least likely team to have a four leaf clover

Some of the more long term aims include:
Have all the squad from the Netherlands to ensure canal like passes and technicolour moves
Transferal of Dan parks sideburns onto a ball for better airodynamics
Using tunnock caramel wafers for boots to get the chocolate goodness
Developing a syrum from the anger gland of AR to develop a pure team of a highly charged monsters - (first failed test was shown in the documentary - 28 days later)
Becoming Independent, so where travelling teams come over, we can take our ball home and not play
Becoming Independent, so we can change the point scored for visitors to 0.5 for a try and 0.1 for a drop goal, while taking their lunch money to provide our squad free match day food





What else do you think the SRU should be aiming for?

Riskysports wrote:


What else do you think the SRU should be aiming for?

Surely its from Dam Parks?

Just think, but for a cruel stroke of fate, i.e. he couldn't break into the Wallabies full squad, he could have been playing for Oz...



Oh c'mon, he has done very well for Scotland I think, a few bad games does not make him a bad player, he's won some good games for you, remember the bok's game??

2.5 yrs ago, Oz!

Geesh was it that long??? Can't be, was only year or so ago... surely???

Though have to admit his kicking form hand, usually, is very good, just sometimes his rugby brains not quite so good.

OzT wrote:
Though have to admit his kicking form hand, usually, is very good, just sometimes his rugby brains not quite so good.

not sure it is actually - he just kicks so often, one or two bound to come off - then everyone focuses on the good kick

I am sure we could have won a lot more with a number 10 that does more than one thing - but I have been discussing this since before the 2007 world cup and expect will be at the 2015 world cup

Riskysports wrote:I have discovered secret SRU 30 year development plan for Scottish rugby.

...

So what further plans are the SRU aiming to achieve?
Most number of kicks out of hands direct to a full back in a game?
Least number of fingers used when trying to catch a ball
Fatest winger (yes chunk doing his best there)
Least adventourous game plan
Least likely team to have a four leaf clover

Some of the more long term aims include:
Have all the squad from the Netherlands to ensure canal like passes and technicolour moves
Transferal of Dan parks sideburns onto a ball for better airodynamics
Using tunnock caramel wafers for boots to get the chocolate goodness
Developing a syrum from the anger gland of AR to develop a pure team of a highly charged monsters - (first failed test was shown in the documentary - 28 days later)
Becoming Independent, so where travelling teams come over, we can take our ball home and not play
Becoming Independent, so we can change the point scored for visitors to 0.5 for a try and 0.1 for a drop goal, while taking their lunch money to provide our squad free match day food


What else do you think the SRU should be aiming for?

Not being independent didn't matter when Scotland refused to play against the 1924 "Invincibles" All Blacks team (the SRU found out the AB's players were being paid travel expenses and got the hump over "professionalism" - they even considered not playing the Calcutta Cup because England HAD played against NZ)

I'm pretty sure Scotland holds the record for the northern-most rugby test, unless Canada or Russia have been getting creative with venues.

Guess you're right Risky, numbers game and some has to come off.

But rest assured am sure he won't be round in 2015, but if he is repolaced Scotland will have to play a different style, and not rely on his drop goals.

The wingers are good I think but not the centre, at the mo, to get thru. Last weekend twice Scotland broke the line and was clean thru, but managed to muck it up. The wingers I think are quicker, as they should be, the centres, but not seen enough back plays, support wise to break wise, that makes the drop goals irrelevant.

Good to see you can still laugh about it - then again, what's the alternative?

I think some of the stuff on here has been unfairly critical of Parks - yes, he has his limitations, and he made a bad error for the charge down, but it wasn't Parks's fault that the likes of Rennie failed to pass when he made his break or that the forwards knocked on two or three times in the England 22. I'm also not convinced that this is down to coaching, as the players manage to execute better when playing for their clubs / regions -

OK, you can argue about the selections of players like Lamont at 12, who is a good strike runner but not a great ball player, but a lot of it seems to be a lack of confidence in executing the necessary skills only in the Scotland jersey. Nerves and pressure of the occasion, or something that has almost become a self-fulfilling prophecy that Scotland will create and then butcher try-scoring chances?

Norway have a rugby team don't they? Pretty sure Erik Lund has been capped by them. Oslo is definitely more North than Edinburgh.

HammerofThunor wrote:Norway have a rugby team don't they? Pretty sure Erik Lund has been capped by them. Oslo is definitely more North than Edinburgh.

True, and Oslo is further North than Aberdeen too

Do the Finns have a team? Helsinki could win in that case.

Finland has 11 official clubs, 265 senior male players and 25 teen male players.

EDIT: Basically those 11 clubs can only just about put out 1st teams

http://theeastterrace.typepad.com/my_weblog/

John Lind, the last surviving Scottish fan to witness Scotland score an international try, has sadly passed away aged 97 years.

Born on the 17th January, 1915, Lind was present in March, 1933 when Scotland beat England by 3-0 at Murrayfield. Tries were worth just three points in those distant days and the scorer on the day was Ken Fyfe of Cambridge University.

Amazingly, Lind was also present in February, 1930 when Scotland scored three tries in a 14-11 loss to Ireland at the same venue. It was the last occasion Scotland scored more than one try in a game.

In his later years, when it became clear there were no other living witnesses to Fyfe’s historic try, Lind became quite a celebrity and was well known in rugby circles. Every time Scotland played a game and almost scored a try he would be wheeled out to the media (literally, as he was wheelchair bound for the last fifteen years of his life) to regal the assembled throng with the mighty tales of yesteryear.

Each year the try became more fantastic in its telling and evolved from a simple overlap for Fyfe from fifteen yards, to a dramatic 98 metre, multi-phase, chip ahead and catch effort in the dying minute of the game.

But Lind’s embellishments were lapped up by a country full of people who longed to hear stories of the days when it wasn’t unknown for Scotland to cross the whitewash.

Lind was a likeable fellow and cared for Scottish rugby enough to wish to be relieved of his claim to fame.

“I never got to see a four point try,” said Lind just a few months ago (when Scotland almost scored in the World Cup against Romania but fluffed a five man overlap). “And I would have given anything to see one. But a five point try, why, what a marvel that would have been! What a dream.”

Lind was a firm believer in an old Scottish prophecy that said one day a son, descended from the blood of a highlander, would again score a try for Scotland against the Red Rose. Lind hoped to see the prophecy come true on the first weekend of the 2012 Six Nations, but was sadly denied.

Unconfirmed reports claim he died from a heart attack on Saturday when Ross Rennie broke through the English defence and only had to make a simple pass to set up a score. It is thought Lind was so convinced the ‘prophecy of the Scottish try’ was about to come true he died of shock.

“I like to believe he died thinking Scotland had finally ended the try famine,” said a family member.

The Scottish Rugby Union plan to hold a minute’s silence before the next home game.

There are also rumours Lind will be embalmed and placed in the stands at Murrayfield as a reminder of more glorious days.

Brilliant

Riskysports wrote:
What else do you think the SRU should be aiming for?

Getting Shinglers passport sorted out?

Yes Wheeler most amusing but why on earth would Shindler want to pay for Scotland with these numpties in charge ?

OK,things arent going so well for your lot.
Have you considered picking Shingler's Mam???Might be worth a go.

Surely the SRU are paying him. That's why he wants to play for them after all.

Nice Wales 606