Scotland’s Rugby Shame, kilted bigots sectarian shame at Italy v Scotland in Rome

SCOTLAND’s SHAME has now become Scotland’s rugby shame. The Six nations concluded at the weekend and Scotland bounced back from a punishing defeat in Dublin by winning a close match 29-27 in Rome against Italy who as a result got the wooden spoon.

For Scotland though it was there third win of the tournament having defeated both France and England at Murrayfield after losing their opening game in Cardiff.

So Scottish Rubgy, after a reasonably successful 6 Nations, including a famous win against toe Auld Enemy, should be feeling pretty good about themselves today, right?

Wrong!

The former Scotland rugby player John Beattie, now a broadcaster on the BBC, took to social media to highlight a video that was doing the rounds on twitter. It featured three Scotland rugby fans in the stadium before the Italy v Scotland game on Saturday, playing a sectarian song on the bagpipes and hurling sectarian abuse as add ons.

Beattie has spoken previously about the sickening sectarian behavior he personally experienced at Ibrox. Indeed he recounted one such outrageous sectarian incident when he had Brendan Rodgers on as a guest on his radio show at the end of last year.

Unlike many at the BBC, Beattie is prepared to call out sectarianism in Scottish football. He has done so in football several times and now he has shone a light on sectarianism within a stadium ahead of a Scotland rugby match.

Beattie has identified a Bearsden rugby badge on one of the three bigots; shirts and has alerted the rugby authorities at Murrayfield. They have confirmed that they are investigating.

Many Glasgow Warriors rugby fans are former Club Deck holders at Rangers. Having bought a seat for life from David Murray they discovered in June 2012 that their seat wasn’t for their life but for the life of the company that sold them the seat that had nothing to do with the club.

Anyway they started watching rugby, and Glasgow Warriors have been remarkably successful since 2012. Indeed the vast majority of the players in the Scotland team for the 6 Nations matches came from the Warriors.

It’s probably surprising that it has taken a number of years before the bigotry transferred over to become Scotland’s Rugby Shame…

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About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

1 Comment

  1. “It’s probably surprising that it has taken a number of years before the bigotry transferred over to become Scotland’s Rugby Shame…”

    I have never been to a rugby match but I watch the 6 Nations on TV and have always assumed that the Scotland team was predominantly, if not all, WASPs. I would be delighted to be informed otherwise, so can you say that there is a fair mix of players.