A quarter of a century has now passed since Scotland won the last-ever Five Nations with one of the championship’s most thrilling finales.
There was a prevailing sense of drama from the first kick of the championship to the very last as Wales defied the odds to beat England at Wembley, handing Jim Telfer’s Scotland the title for the first time since the 1990 Grand Slam.
One of the stars of the triumph was Alan Tait, the rugby league convert who had been part of the victorious 1997 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa two years previously.
"It was amazing,” Tait, now 59, said when asked to reflect on the title-winning campaign.
But Tait, then of Newcastle Falcons, did not even start the first match against Wales. Duncan Hodge’s selection at fly-half meant Gregor Townsend was shifted to the midfield, where he partnered John Leslie. Tait had to bide his time on the bench.
One of the most dramatic starts to a match at Murrayfield followed as Leslie caught Hodge’s kick-off to score after just nine seconds. Twenty-five years later it remains the fastest try in Test history.
Hodge didn’t last more than the first half of the opening game. A leg break ended his championship, shifted Townsend to fly-half and thrust Tait into the midfield.
Tait made an instant impact. He scored against Wales as Scotland kicked off with a 33-20 win,
He added: "I didn’t even know John at the time. He had only just come to Glasgow, and we hadn’t really played together before. We all just clicked against Wales.
“John Rutherford was the backs coach and I remember John [Leslie] saying to him after the game ‘leave this midfield as it is. Let us play together’. He was big on combinations and stability.”
The Scotland coaches listened. Tait was handed the 13 shirt for the trip to Twickenham and proved his worth with a brilliant brace of tries in a thrilling contest that Scotland should have won – an off-day for kicker Kenny Logan proved costly.
“We should have won that game,” Tait admits.
“England always say we had nothing to shout about because we got beat that day.”
As was Scotland’s way in the 1990s, Ireland were dispatched in reasonably straightforward fashion at Murrayfield, a brace of tries from winger Cammie Murray, a third of the championship for Townsend and a length-of-the-field score finished by lock Stuart Grimes saw Scotland into the final weekend with a shot at the title.
It was, though, an outside bet with an England side featuring the likes of Martin Johnson, Neil Back, Lawrence Dallaglio and a teenage Jonny Wilkinson also unbeaten and facing Wales on the final weekend.
Scotland needed to win in Paris – a feat they’d achieved four years earlier – at the Stade de France.
Tait said: “Going to Paris, we didn’t even talk about how important that game was in terms of winning the championship. I think we’d probably just succumbed to thinking England were going to beat Wales.”
On a perfect spring day in the French capital, everything clicked for Scotland. They were rampant in the first half as Tait scored another brace, Martin Leslie also crossed twice and Townsend completed the rare feat of scoring in every championship match.
Tait said: "It was the icing on the cake.
“It was a red-hot day and it just suited us because while our forwards had held their own, the backs were causing a fair bit of damage.
“It was perfect for John and myself, plus Glenn Metcalfe, who I rate as one of Scotland’s best-ever fullbacks alongside Stuart Hogg and Andy Irvine.
“It was a game where we got a chance to cut loose and everything clicked. The first half was just phenomenal.”
In those days there was no ‘Super Saturday’ finale to the championship, so Scotland had to wait until the following day - April 11, 1999 - to discover their fate.
While nowadays every moment would be captured on social media, 25 years ago the players all returned home to watch the tournament decider. Tait took himself to a Kelso pub to see the finale play out.
He added: “I just went to the boozer with a few of my mates. I didn’t realise that a few of the boys had got together to watch the game in Edinburgh.”
England scored three first half tries, but the boot of Neil Jenkins, a Lions team-mate of Tait in 1997, kept Wales in touch at the break as England led 25-18.
Shane Howarth’s second-half try put Wales in front, before two Wilkinson penalties looked to have handed England the title.
Then with two minutes to play, another of Tait’s Lions colleagues, centre Scott Gibbs burst through the English defence from a lineout to score.
It left Jenkins – the world’s premier goalkicker at that time – to knock over the conversion, deny England and hand the title to Scotland.
"When Wales won, we were all going mad,” Tait said.
He added: “We were cracking champagne in the pub down in Kelso – it was that crazy. The boys were all on the phone trying to get everyone together that night, but I couldn’t make it up from Kelso.”
Scottish Rugby hastily organised a trophy presentation for the following day.
Tait admits there was some doubt how many supporters would turn up on a Monday night at Murrayfield, but almost 10,000 did as Gary Armstrong lifted the trophy.
He added: “It was special. You’ve got to enjoy those times and we still talk about it now.”
The 1999 title winners met this year to mark a quarter of a century since their triumph, but Tait said it was a bittersweet occasion following the deaths of Doddie Weir and Tom Smith, who both played their part in the 1999 campaign.
“We always talk about them,” Tait added.
"I was a really good friend of Doddie’s – we were at Newcastle [Falcons] together when we won the Premiership and I really enjoyed his banter.
“It definitely puts everything in perspective.”
Tait hopes the 30-year reunion will see “a load of old men” take the acclaim of the Murrayfield crowd they once entertained, but he’s desperate to see Scotland’s current stars emulate the class of 1999.
He said: "This Scotland team has definitely got the ability to win something, especially with Finn [Russell] in the driving seat.
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“If you look at us when we won that championship, there was players there who did bloody well, but we didn’t have as many world class players as this Scotland squad.
"They have got to get over the line and it’s got to be in the next couple of years.”
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