Rugby Matters – A weekly look at the game’s other talking points, by Brendan Gallagher
Scotland only have three Grand Slams to lovingly remember but they were all crackers in their own way and now – the centenary – is the perfect time to celebrate the first and arguably greatest of that holy trinity.
In fact, if I were to be granted the luxury of time travel in sport, watching the Scotland team of 1925 would be very high on my bucket list alongside the 1937 Springboks in New Zealand.
They were mould breakers dripping with X-factor and generational players.
The Scots in 1925 were an incredibly glamorous and attacking side during a fairly grey era not known for its all singing, all dancing rugby.
They were a team good enough to see off the mighty England side that won three Slams in the previous four years and a team that deeply regretted the SRU’s petulant decision to not let them play the New Zealand Invincibles who had been touring.
The SRU were still complaining for heaven’s sake about the over generous expenses the 1905 All Blacks had allegedly received!
Class of 1925
The class of 1925 boasted a legendarily cosmopolitan back line consisting of the four Oxford Blues – Ian Smith, Johnnie Wallace, George Aitken and skipper Phil Macpherson – and this was the season which also saw them start with a last-ever Test at Inverleith in front of 20,000 fans and finish with victory over England in the Calcutta Cup in front of nearly 70,000 fans at a spanking new Murrayfield.
Oh yes, Scottish rugby was on the move in 1925, going places in a hurry and threatening to take a grip on the Championship in the foreseeable future.
The nation that inspired and hosted the first-ever international by challenging England was again taking the sport to another level.
It has been bubbling up for a couple of years. England might have been the dominant force but Scotland were nurturing a golden generation of players with serious speed and panache.
Initially, there was the elegant centre Leslie Gracie but he retired abruptly in his pomp in 1924 while there was also another Eltham College old boy – and future Olympic gold medal winner Eric Liddell, left, who scored tries in four consecutive Tests in 1922 and 1923 before he was lost to athletics.
Ian Scott Smith
One flying Scotsman, however, was immediately replaced by another. Step forward Ian Scott Smith, a wild colonial boy of Scottish parentage who was born in Melbourne and raised in New Zealand before returning home to be educated at Winchester, a soccer school.
An outstanding athlete and sprinter – with ironically no love whatsoever of athletics – Smith was a raw sporting talent but immediately caught the eye of Oxford skipper Macpherson who watched him playing football for Brasenose College.
It was too late for the 1922 Varsity match but Smith was fast-tracked into the Blues team after Christmas, scored two cracking tries in the 21-14 win against Cambridge in 1923 and appeared twice for the British Isles in South Africa.
Judging from pictures, what little footage we have and descriptions from fellow Lion Rowe Harding it seems he was not unlike Duhan van der Merwe in build and approach, possibly a bit leaner and quicker. He was clearly some operator.
Having missed the 1924 Varsity match with a strain he warmed up for the 1925 Five Nations by scoring no less than five tries for Scotland against the Rest.
In terms of sheer pace observers felt he was comparable to Liddell. This was the first time the Oxford quartet were grouped together for Scotland and indeed, ironically, they never played together for Oxford in the Varsity match.
Aitken, remarkably, couldn’t make the team in 1923 being kept out by England’s HP Jacob which was Smith’s only appearance in the fixture. Nor indeed did they ever appear as a quartet for Scotland after 1925.
Unstoppable
In that Championship though they were unstoppable. Macpherson was a Highlander from Badenoch, educated at Fettes, and a natural playmaker and creator in the mould of Finn Russell and Jim Renwick. He was the fulcrum around which the others operated.
Aitken was a born and bred New Zealander, again of Scottish parents, who had played twice for New Zealand against the 1921 Springboks, captaining the All Blacks in the second Test.
He played that day after spending all week in bed with flu, performed badly and was promptly dropped. He later travelled to Oxford won a Rhodes scholarship and played eight Tests for Scotland before returning back to New Zealand.
Johnnie Wallace was the most complicated case of all. Australian born and bred of Scottish parents, he represented the Waratahs on a ten-match tour of New Zealand which culminated in what is now recognised as a Test match between the All Blacks and Australia.
He then spent four years at Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship winning four Blues and appearing for Scotland on nine occasions, before returning home.
Nine Month Tour
At which point he skippered Australia on their monumental nine-month tour of Britain, France and Canada, during which they only lost five of their 31 games. Like I said, glamour and X-factor everywhere.
Smith, having scored those five tries in the trial, started with a bang against France with another four in their 25-4win, in the last-ever game at Inverleith, a game that kicked off early to avoid the darkness caused by a solar eclipse later that afternoon.
Two weeks later, Smith was at it again with another four tries in their 24-14 win against Wales at Swansea, to make it 13 in his last three games for Scotland, albeit the trial game didn’t count to the official records.
His phenomenal burst of scoring came to an end next up against Ireland in Dublin but Wallace continued his record of scoring a try in every Scotland game that season as Scotland won 14-8.
And then came the big one, the Slam decider against England at a shiny new Murrayfield. It was another tight one and this time Scotland sneaked home 14-11 against the perennial champions England with Wallace against crossing to complete his own personal slam for the season.
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