Subscribe They knew exactly what the score was and yet they decided to join the masses Gavin took a
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They knew exactly what the score was and yet they decided to join the masses Gavin took a real hammering. I've played with him, against him and I've coached him and I knew how he would respond in the Five Nations. He's just a big man in every respect."When Hastings won his record 53rd cap prior to the defeat of Ireland, Morgan laid out all the Scottish jerseys in the dressing room bar one. He personally presented the No 15 shirt to the captain and full-back and made a little speech. "I told him what an outstanding career he'd had, and was having, and that no person deserved the record more than him. It was quite an emotional moment." Morgan had tears in his eyes and he reckons Big Gavin was also close to opening the waterworks.There was considerable cause for further celebration when, in one of the great moments in the history of Scottish rugby, Hastings scored a try under the posts in the dying minutes at Parc des Princes to seal their first win in France for 26 years. Morgan was first on to the pitch, embracing Hastings in a bear hug.
"It was just a great day and for it to finish the way it did, no scriptwriter could have done better A fair drop of champagne was drunk that night. The SRU [Scottish Rugby Union] pushed the boat out."It will seem like a drop in the ocean if Scotland pull off the Grand Slam, a feat they have managed at Murrayfield but never at Twickenham "It's anybody's game," Morgan insisted. "England are overwhelming favourites, because they are a very good side with very few weaknesses. They are better organised and better prepared than when we beat them in 1990. Then they were basically telling the world how good they were. They won't fall into that trap again."Yes, they've got a lot of big men but that's always been the case and we've coped with it in the past.
We are not afraid to attack and a lot will depend on the referee. When England played in Cardiff the line-outs were a shambles."Then, of course, there is Hastings's right foot and nobody knows more about its effectiveness than Morgan, who was also a specialist kicker. After every training session he stands behind the posts and supervises the full-back's routine. "He's never kicked as consistently well as this before."Morgan's fondest memory of Twickenham was Stewart's Melville winning the Middlesex Sevens in 1982 He kicked 11 conversions out of 12.
The odd one out hit a post.Morgan, who succeeded Ian McGeechan in 1993, hardly knows Jack Rowell, his England counterpart, but he knows plenty about the man's methods and about English rugby. He has two Bath players in his pack, Eric Peters and Dave Hilton, and is also in regular contact with McGeechan who, through his Northampton post, could tell him all he needed to know about Tim Rodber and Martin Bayfield.Hilton is the latest Anglo-Scot to get kitted out with a kilt (the SRU gets a discount from the Edinburgh kilt-maker Geoffrey Taylor) and the clanning of the team has become an important source of pride for the Scots. "It used to be dinner jackets but now everybody wears a kilt," said Morgan, who favours the hunting stewart of the McKay clan.Whatever happens on Saturday, or in the World Cup, Morgan, who is 47, will stand down. "Straight from school I've spent 30 years in senior rugby and I'd like a break.