Calcutta, on any day of the year bar one, it is famous for its huge population, cricket, poverty and as the home of Mother Teresa. However when it comes to early spring, when the RBS 6 Nations commences, Calcutta has a completely different meaning – victory.
4,992 miles from the famous Indian city, lies Raeburn Place in Edinburgh where one of the world’s most fierce and competitive rivalries was established 149 years ago. It was a game that was a mere shadow of the sport we call rugby today, but after 100 minutes of play on March the 17th 1871, Scotland were victorious.
Just the mention of the fixture sends shivers of pride down the spine of any patriotic English or Scottish supporter. It’s the one fixture with longest and unusual history, the one fixture that is guaranteed a sell out crowd, it’s the West Ham Millwall of football, the Roger versus Rafa of tennis, the England Australia of cricket. It’s the Calcutta cup.
Saturday the 25th of February 2006 – Calcutta cup weekend, no one would be able to predict the significance of that fixture with this year’s Murrayfield clash. Scotland had welcomed a new coach in the face of Frank Hadden and things were looking very positive for the men in blue. On the opening weekend of the tournament Scotland beat France 20-16 at home in Edinburgh. While England had secured two huge wins over Wales and Italy.
It was the boots of Scotland’s sharp shooters Chris Paterson and Dan Parks that guided Scotland to claim an 18-12 victory over England that year, the first over “Ye Auld enemy” in 6 years. However, it was the man sitting in the English team box that day, who has the biggest significance ahead of this years Calcutta cup.
Andy Robinson, a man with 8 English caps at flanker, with two British and Irish Lions tours, a Heineken Cup and World Cup winner’s medal.
That day in 2006, marked the beginning of the end of Robinson’s time with England which became a highly documented and public exit in November 2006 after loosing 13 of his 22 games in charge. The media at that time seemed to pay more attention to Robinson than the action on the field, which was in vast contrast to the heroic status that was received after the 2003 world cup triumph.
"I would have liked to have stayed” said Robinson “and I did feel I could improve things, I was confident that I would coach the England team through to a successful World Cup in 2007, but that kind of schedule and those difficulties made it harder than it should have been. I enjoyed it though; the challenge."
"It is my understanding that I had the support of the England players and the England management team.”
Where most people would hang up their boots, Robinson stepped up to the mark and carried on with his long term relationship with rugby. In October 2007 Robinson was named as head coach of Edinburgh, he managed to bring back to back record finishes for Edinburgh in the Magners League finishing fourth in 2008 and second in 2009.
After a bad run of results from Scotland head coach Frank Hadden, an Andy Robinson sized hole opened in the Scottish setup. Rumoured competition from Jake White, Sean Lineen and Robbie Deans was fought off, and in June 2009 Robinson took over.
His first job was to take charge of Scotland ‘A’ that month in the IRB nations cup, with Chris Cusiter as his captain, it was a task he excelled in by bringing the crown to Scotland.
A successful run in the Autumn internationals seen Robinson’s men shake off Fiji and Australia and were unlucky to fall to the sword against the Pumas.
These fixtures helped Scotland to build a good run ahead of this year’s 6 nations and were considered the dark horses of this tournament. But a disappointing run in this year’s campaign with defeats to France, Wales and Italy finds Scotland scraping for a win and staring down the handle of the wooden spoon.
However the fire in the guts of the Scottish is something that world cup winner Lawrence Dallaglio is more than aware of: “Scotland will be spitting blood after what has happened to them over the past few weeks.
“So much will hinge on this game. It is always a massive, massive occasion. And it is when Scotland are desperate you see them pulling something special out of the bag. England will go in as favourites but that won't mean a lot when the game actually starts."
Scotland will have two weeks to find their winning ways to produce a performance equivalent to those that inspired a nation in defeating Australia last year and England in 2006 and 2008.
“The bottom line for the Scots is they will almost certainly be left with the wooden spoon if they don't beat England.”
As history proves, it’s fixtures like these that bring out the best of matches. Memories will easily be cast back to Scotland’s historic win in 1990. England strolled into Edinburgh with a pack leader in the face of Brian Moore and an illustrious backline containing names of Jeremy Guscott and Rory Underwood, they believed the grand slam was in the bag. After numerous bad decisions and many errors England were rocked and after those 80 minutes, Scotland were victorious and had claimed not only the Calcutta cup, but the Five nations, the grand slam and the triple crown.
However, the Scots should have no worry in receiving just as much passion from Andy Robinson as any other proud scot, "I'm English, but what really gets me passionate is winning and the challenge that that presents wherever you are," said Robinson. "I watched the 2008 Calcutta Cup match as a spectator, and I was inspired by the passion of the Scotland supporters. It was a privilege to be asked to be the Scotland coach."
It’s a sure bet that when March the 13th rolls around, and the hype of the games history has settled. When the cameras have steered away from Robinson during “God save the Queen” and focus is directed to South African referee Marius Jonker blowing his whistle, there will be only one thing on the mind of the 46 year old Englishman from Somerset – Victory.
