My Life in Rugby: Andy Nicol – Former Bath, Glasgow & Scotland scrum-half
Nobody gave us a chance – we hadn’t beaten England for ten years. People still talk about that even though we have beaten them three or four times since. Denying them the Grand Slam was a nice by-product, but that was always going to be the case if we had won.
The funny thing was England actually still won the Championship. In any other sport or competition there is no such thing as a Grand Slam – Matt Dawson didn’t even go up to get the trophy that day because they were that disappointed.
I started playing for Panmure Mini Rugby Club in Dundee when I was six. My brothers both played and my grandfather, George Ritchie, had played for Scotland in 1932.
At the age of 12 I went to Dundee High School, where I came across Sandy Hutchison who had a huge influence on my career.
He did it for about 30 years and every pupil that interacted with him always enjoyed what it is that they were doing. He was influential – he had a great enthusiasm and just a great way of involving everyone.
I think I was the only person to ever play three years in the first team at school and three years in the Scotland schools team – I suppose I was earmarked from an early age.
I left school and went to Edinburgh because Dundee were in the third division, but they got promoted so I moved back and I got capped – it was a great thing for the local area.
There were only three Dundee players to get capped and one was my grandfather. It just showed all the youngsters they didn’t have to leave Dundee to reach the top level.
In January 1992 I went from playing for Dundee in front of 450 fans to playing for Scotland against England in front of 56,000 fans. It was remarkable – it would never happen these days.
When I first joined Bath they were the dominant team and over a period of time when there were 23 major trophies available, Bath won 16 of them.
A lot of clubs struggled with the transition from the amateur era to the professional era, including Bath, but it all clicked in 1997/98 and in the final against Brive.
There was a core of people who knew exactly what it meant for the club to win the Heineken Cup.
For all those years we had called ourselves the best team in Europe, but there was no vehicle to prove that. It was the Holy Grail for Bath and it was a major achievement – that was a very special moment.
I must also hold the accolade of being the shortest multiple tourist in Lions history. In two tours I was there for seven days in total and played six minutes of rugby but I got a taste of it and some great players never did.
I also saw the transition from 1993, when it was a bit of fun, to 2001, which was the real start of the phenomenon. I was out there as a supporter in 2001 so I was part of that red sea in the Gabba.
I was lucky to have the career I did, especially to straddle amateurism and professionalism and I enjoyed doing something that I had loved since I was six years old.
