It came the year after the notable failure of England and Scotland to impress at the 1958 FIFA World Cup, for which all four nations qualified for the only time.

Many of these problems stemmed also from the deaths of a number of international players from some teams in the Munich air disaster the year before.

During the Home Championship, the Ireland team took the unusual step of flying to Madrid for a friendly game against Spain between the matches against England and Scotland.

Scotland came second after comfortably beating Wales, drawing with the Irish but then narrowly losing to England in London, which cost them a share of first place.

Wales recovered from their defeat to the Scots to draw with England in the second match but lost heavily to the Irish in their final game, and so finished last.