This is Murrayfield

A view from the commentators' box

'Watching Scotland play international rugby has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. Ever since that first occasion when I marched down Princes Street with my dad, my wee hand in his, on my way to Murrayfield for the first time, every occasion when Scotland has played has been special to me. It remains a huge disappointment to me that I never got a chance to pull on the famous jersey, listen to the last-minute team talk and run out to play the auld enemy at Murrayfield. I have spent my entire life wishing that I could somehow have played, even just once, for Scotland in a full international. It would have meant more to me than anything else I can think of in a sporting context. When I played in that final trial at our national ground, just entering the dressing room was a thrill in itself. I was awestruck.'

Bill McLaren

Nick Mullins, ITV rugby commentator

I grew up in a little village outside Leicester called Birstall, so my first view of Murrayfield was watching Scotland games from there on television. I would be on the sofa listening to the great Bill McLaren and I had a tradition that I would have a plate of cheese and onion sandwiches and lots of bags of Walkers crisps to keep me going.

It was like watching action from Scotland's Colosseum. Murrayfield looked terrifying and inviting in equal measure to a young Englishman growing up watching events that looked like they were happening a thousand miles away.

My first trip there was as a rugby producer for BBC Radio Five in 1994 when Scotland played England. I was there to make sure that commentators Ian Robertson and Miles Harrison's equipment worked and, thrill of all thrills, Andy Irvine, one of the most exciting players to ever play the game and my Scottish rugby hero, was our summariser. It was a controversial game that England won 15-14 after a very late Jon Callard penalty that maybe shouldn't have been given.

I joined the BBC radio commentary team the following year after Miles left for SKY and I joined Ian Robertson and Alastair Hignell on the BBC rota. When Bill McLaren retired from BBC television commentary Eddie Butler and I stepped up as trying to fill the hole Bill left behind was always going to be a two-man job.

Sometimes I don't remember the score from a game I did last week but I can always remember when I first met Bill. Wales were training at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on the Friday before a 1993 Five Nations game against England and it was pouring rain. More often than not back then that Friday training session, or captains run as it is still called, would be the only time they had together as it was the amateur era and players all had jobs. I turned up not thinking Bill would be there, but at the far end of the pitch through the wind, the rain and the mist there was this tall, elegant man standing in his long coat with his blue tartan scarf round his neck and it was Bill. I have never forgotten that moment. I went to say hello and he offered me the first of many Hawick Balls. I thought if it is good enough for Bill at the top of his game to come out here on a pouring wet and misty day to do his research then it will always be good enough for me. He would have been around seventy at this point and could have stayed in his warm hotel room but he didn't. I thought to myself if this is what Bill does this is what we all have to do. Bill's rules of commentary are as relevant today as they have always been.

I'll never forget Scotland v South Africa in November 2002, which was the next match after Bill retired from the BBC. Not necessarily because Scotland won 21-6 and it was their first win in thirty-three years against South Africa, but because I was in Bill's seat. Whenever I'd been working on the radio we'd always have to walk by Bill's commentary area, and it was always like you were walking by the throne room - not that Bill ever behaved like a king. He always behaved like one of us. He had a floor manager/producer who looked after him called Brian McBeth and he was always very friendly and we were always on first-name terms with Brian and Bill, but to be suddenly sitting in Bill's chair was a whole new experience. An honour. I remember turning up and holding the arms of the chair and sank myself into it thinking, 'What on earth, am I doing here?' We all have impostor syndrome experiences in our lives, but mine has never been bigger than at that moment.

The job of commentary, as Bill taught us all, is about the preparation. He taught me the value of looking at props' backsides from fifty metres away as they train on a Friday morning in the rain so you can recognise them from every angle on match day. For me, following in the footsteps of Bill means trying to be positive about the players, positive about the game and enjoying it and holding on to the essence of why we love rugby so much. Bill loved, Bill cherished, and Bill protected the game. Even in this age of high-stakes professionalism I still think the goodness of the sport that Bill fell in love with is something we have to hold on to.

My daughter Erin lives in Scotland, so I never pass up an excuse to go up there and whenever I go to Edinburgh the memories come flooding back. Murrayfield is much more than a pitch and four stands. You could not be anywhere but Edinburgh when you sit in the commentary box at Murrayfield and enjoy the fabulous view, taking in the incredible atmosphere. My memories of Murrayfield and rugby weekends in Edinburgh are endless and my admiration and love for the legendary Bill McLaren will be with me always.

Andrew Cotter, BBC rugby commentator

I grew up in Troon and my grandfather, the Reverend James Logan Cotter, played stand-off for Scotland twice in 1934 against Ireland at Murrayfield and England at Twickenham.

As an ex-international, he got one complimentary ticket to Scotland games but rarely went. Most of the time my dad Tom would take me or one of my brothers, Colin or Stephen, to Murrayfield.

I was at the 1984 Grand Slam-winning game against France, sitting in the west stand. I was also at the 1986 game against France that was the start of a new era for Scottish rugby with the Hastings brothers, David Sole, Finlay Calder and Matt Duncan making their debuts in that game.

The one game I regret missing, not surprisingly, was the 1990 Grand Slam game. It was a case of 'ye of little faith' from me. Everyone in the week of the game had been talking about how England were just too good and how Scotland were definitely going to lose. I went golfing instead. Big mistake.

The first game I covered in a working capacity at Murrayfield was in 1997 when I was with radio station Scot FM. It wasn't the best of starts as my first game was Scotland's biggest-ever defeat when they lost 68-10 to South Africa in December of that year. Hopefully, fingers crossed, such a result won't ever happen again, at least at Murrayfield.

Afterwards I interviewed Richie Dixon, who was Scotland head coach at the time. I was a very keen young reporter who was really into my rugby but didn't judge the moment well. Richie had done his press conference and the broadcast interviews he had to officially undertake and was obviously in a bad mood after such a heavy defeat. Scot FM didn't have any rights so I was very much at the end of the food chain. When I was interviewing him I just went on and on before he said, 'No, I'm finished now,' and stopped the interview abruptly. Entirely justified. It was a good lesson for me. He had quite enough of me standing there in my waistcoat asking question after question.

This was the early years of professionalism and I remember South Africa full-back Percy Montgomery taking his shirt off to swap at the end of that game and me thinking, 'That's not a physique I've ever seen on any Scottish player.' Scotland was still a good amateur team trying to find its way in a professional era.

That 68-10 defeat to South Africa set the tone for the next twenty years or so of real hardship for Scottish rugby, apart from the 1999 Five Nations championship win, which was welcome but very much a one-off.

The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the last time I worked for Scot FM at Murrayfield before I went down to London the following year to freelance for the BBC and Sky News. My first experience of commentating on a Scotland game at Murrayfield was when they played Wales in 2001. It was for BBC Radio and it was an exciting match that ended in a 28-28 draw. Back then the BBC used to put out rugby commentary on Radio Four long wave with Eleanor Oldroyd presenting. It was a seminal game for me because it was the first time I realised I needed glasses for commentary as my long-distance vision wasn't as good as it should be. I saw this Welsh guy get an interception and set off up the pitch and I thought to myself, 'I'm sure that's Mark Taylor, but I didn't want to commit to saying it is in case it isn't.'

So for the length of his interception run I was just being vague about who had the ball until I was absolutely sure it was Mark Taylor. What didn't help back then was not having monitors in the radio gantry like you do now. Anyway, at the end of that Welsh match I got myself down to the opticians sharpish and have worn glasses to commentate ever since.

What made commentating on Scotland games at Murrayfield extra special for me was that I was following in the path of one of the...