Scottish rugby club members, on their way to Cardiff for the Six Nations opener, feared they wouldn’t make the opener after their coach’s tire got a flat. The burly men sat on the side of the M4 for nearly an hour waiting for help before deciding to take matters into their own hands.
The men, all dressed in mens kilts, put out their legs and hitchhiked.
Forty in total were picked up, one-by-one, by Welsh drivers that saw them on the side of the rode with their thumbs in the air. The rare sighting of a rugby team stranded on the side of the road led some motorists on a mission to pick up and drop off as many of the team members as they could.
Some even drove team members into Cardiff, dropped them off and went back to the M4 to pick up more team members.
Locals who saw the team stranded came out in support, returning to previous junctions to come back and pick up players. The story made headlines when players and officials sent an open letter to the public, all strangers that went out of their way to help the men.
All of the Linlithgow RFC players made it to the game with the help of drivers that took time out of their day to lead to team to the Six Nations opener.
Twitter was filled with comments from many of the drivers that picked up the kilt-wearing hitch-hikers. “It’s not every day you see Scottish men in Kilts broken down on the M4 flagging down a lift! I hope they get to watch the match on time! #SixNations #WALvSCO” tweets Natasha Kiara Euston.
“Was having a bad day but just picked up 4 hitchhikers in Kilts stranded on the M4. Ah, the joie de vivre of the youth #WALvSCO,” tweeted another.
Linlithgow has made it a tradition to make the 800-mile trek to Wales over the past 42 years. The team boarded the bus on Saturday after playing Furnace United to make the trip. The coach carrying the team had a tire burst between junction 35 and 34. Police helped the team on to a layby where they were stranded, just 15 miles from Cardiff.
Team members took to social media to voice their frustration and put out a “call for help.” The team waited for an hour before realizing that nothing was going to be done to fix the tire. One or two team members decided to try and hitchhike their way into Cardiff, and before the club knew it, team members were being picked up and brought into Cardiff’s city center.
The team, wearing traditional Scottish kilts, were seen at the local pub after the game before entering the same coach that stranded them earlier in the day. The coach, finally fixed, brought them back home without incident.
Kilts for men are in high demand before St. Patrick’s Day on March 17, with Differio and other manufacturers offering plaid, military and utility kilts.