Scotland

Scotland Rugby, the men in dark blue, carry a tradition stretching back to that very first international against England in 1871, the foundational match of the entire sport. The defining moment of the modern era came on 17 March 1990, when an Ian McGeechan side captained by David Sole walked rather than ran out at Murrayfield against an England team needing only to win for the Grand Slam. The deliberate slow march, Sole at its head, the crowd roaring Flower of Scotland and the eventual 13-7 victory, has become the foundation myth of Scottish rugby, the night when the Calcutta Cup, the Five Nations championship, the Triple Crown and the Grand Slam were all claimed in a single 80 minutes. Scotland have collected three Grand Slams in the Five and Six Nations era, in 1925, 1984 and 1990, plus numerous Triple Crowns and Calcutta Cups. The dark blue jersey, with its embroidered thistle, has been worn by legends including Andy Irvine, Gavin Hastings, Finlay Calder, John Jeffrey, Scott Hastings, Doddie Weir and modern stars Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Greig Laidlaw. The Calcutta Cup against England, contested since 1879 for a trophy fashioned from melted-down silver rupees recovered from the dissolved Calcutta Football Club, is the oldest fixture in international rugby and a date Scottish fans circle in red every year. Murrayfield matchdays produce one of the great atmospheres in world rugby, the Edinburgh skies and the swelling roar of Flower of Scotland combining into something unmistakably Scottish.

Scottish Gas Murrayfield, known to most simply as Murrayfield and previously named BT Murrayfield, opened in 1925 in Edinburgh's west end and has been the spiritual home of Scottish rugby ever since. The current incarnation, rebuilt and expanded across the 1990s, holds around 67,000 spectators, making it the fifth-largest stadium in the UK and by some distance the largest sports venue in Scotland. The ground is owned and run by the Scottish Rugby Union, and the famous skyline of three steeply-raked stands plus the East Stand, redeveloped in 2017 with hospitality and conference facilities, makes for an instantly recognisable silhouette. The pre-match approach down Roseburn Street and across the road from Murrayfield Wanderers ground has been part of Scottish rugby ritual for generations. Inside, the acoustic geometry funnels Flower of Scotland into a wall of sound rolling around the bowl, a sound that visiting fans, even from the rival nations, frequently rate as the most stirring pre-match anthem in the championship.