From rugby union’s first ever Test match all the way through to the present day, David Barnes, Peter Burns and John Griffiths delve to the heart of Scottish rugby as the greatest players recount their experiences of representing their country at Murrayfield and around the world.

Featuring the thoughts of 175 players who have represented Scotland since that first match at Raeburn Place in 1871, Behind the Thistle gives a unique insight into the drama and emotion of playing for Scotland – it is a story of great joys and heart-breaking lows, of victories against the odds and of shattering last-gasp defeats; but above all it is a story of unity, friendship and the unbreakable bonds of a brotherhood. 

This is a history of Scottish rugby like no other – told, definitively, by the men who have been there and done it.

‘In turns comic, poignant, spine-tingling and occasionally tragic, its anecdotes provide a dressing room keyhole for those of us who could only ever dream of getting there by any other means . . . a gem of a book’ – Alasdair Reid, Sunday Herald ‘Takes the reader as close as it is possible to get, short of invading the pitch’ – The Scotsman