Most people now in Scotland may not remember where and when Flower of Scotland was first used as our national anthem. Yeah sure from the Treaty if Union in 1707 Scotland and England have been considered one nation and respectively we used the same national anthem.
But until the 1990 Five Nations game between Scotland and England we never really had a song for the people. It was never an official song and even till this day Scotland still does not have a national anthem that is the official song of the country.
Back in 1990 we were to play England in the last game for the Five Nations/Grand Slam/Triple Crown titles.
The SRU the year before were beginning to get fed up with God Save the Queen and with the Princess Royal as their popular patron decided to change the song played for Scotland to the Flower of Scotland. A bold step not just in using it as an anthem style song to encourage the support and players but the fact is it is a folk song and this is not a style of music many people like. But the SRU went for it and on the 17th of March, 1990 a Scottish sporting team went onto the pitch and sang with the crowd to Flower of Scotland against a cocky English team whose fans wore Grand Slam Champs t shirts for the game.
The build up to the game was amazing with the press really trying to get copies sold and every day a new story. But one thing was missing in the papers, Will Carling was interviewed before the match and said he hated Scotland and Scottish people. The press back then were more understanding of the outcome of publishing this and instead of printing the story sat on it.
The second ever rendition of Flower of Scotland was sung and England captain Carling can be seen smirking at the song. But that day an anthem was chosen and chosen by the people who attended the game as the passion from the crowd was so amazing. Scotland went on to with the game and send England home to think again.
Tomorrow we have the first Calcutta cup match outside of the UK and again Scotland are underdogs for the win. We also have a unique chance to not only beat England abut knock them out of the World Cup.
We have a big number of ex pats at the game and people who may have never sung Flower of Scotland before as our national anthem against England.
Good luck Scotland!
