Scotland - Rugby World Cup Team Stats
Scotland have reached at least the quarter-final stage of every world cup.
Their best finish was 4th in the 1991 competition.
Scotland have only ever lost one of their opening world cup matches, against South Africa in 1999.
In the first four world cups Scotland had the misfortune of meeting New Zealand every time.
They have lost three times to New Zealand in quarter-final matches.
In the 1995 quarter-final against New Zealand they scored 30 points, and still lost!
In the 185 world cup matches played between 1987 and 2003, only one match, Scotland against France in 1987, one of three matches played on the second day of the first ever world cup, has resulted in a draw , when they finished level at 20-20.
Yet incredibly, two of the five world cup finals have been level at 80 minutes and needed extra time to provide a winner.
Scotland’s biggest ever win in a world cup match is the 89-0 defeat of the Ivory Coast in 1995.This might be broken on Sunday.
Scotland are the only team to have kept two teams scoreless in a world cup match. They also beat Spain 48-0 in 1999.
Scotland’s worst defeat in a world cup match was the 51-9 loss at the hands of France in 2003.
Gavin Hastings holds the record for the most ever points in world cup history with 227. Chris Paterson is Scotland’s second highest scorer with 71 and
Gavin Hastings scored an individual world cup record 27 points for Scotland against Romania in the first world cup in 1987. The record lasted two hours as Didier Camberabero scored 30 points for France against Zimbabwe in a later kick off. In the 1995 tournament, Hastings again scored an individual world cup record of 44 points against Ivory Coast and this time the record stood all of 9 days before Simon Culhane scored 45 points for New Zealand against Japan.
Hastings is the only man to have three scores in the top 20 of highest individual scores in a world cup match. As well as the two detailed above, he also scored 31 points against Tonga in 1995.
Hastings is one of only four players to have kicked 8 penalties in a world cup match, against Tonga in 1995.
He was also succesful with 9 conversions in the Ivory Coast match in 1995, a Scottish world cup record.
Gavin Hastings scored 4 tries against Ivory Coast in 1995. This beat the previous best for a Scotsman which was the 3 scored by John Jeffrey in 1987 and by Iwan Tukalo in 1991.
No Scottish player has scored more than one drop goal in a match.
Scotland have never had a player sent off in a world cup match but Tom Smith received a yellow card against USA in 2003.
Scotland only need to score 6 tries to reach the milestone of 100 world cup tries.
Brothers Gavin and Scott Hastings both played for Scotland in the first three world cups, both scoring tries in the same match twice, against Japan in 1991 and Tonga in 1995.
