Alan Lawson (born 19 May 1948, in

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...

) is a former

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

international

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player.

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

He played for

Edinburgh Wanderers Edinburgh Wanderers is a former rugby union club, founded in 1868. It was latterly a tenant of the Scottish Rugby Union, playing home fixtures at Murrayfield Stadium for nearly 75 years. In 1997 it merged with Murrayfield RFC to form Murrayfiel ...

. Lawson stated: 'When I played in the 1970s, Jimmy Thain, the head groundsman, regularly let us play on the international pitch, telling us: The pitch also has to be match fit.' Lawson played for Heriots. In the late 1970s he moved to London Scottish.

Provincial career

He was capped by Edinburgh District. Unusually, he was capped by Scotland before he was capped by a District side. When he moved to London Scottish he represented

Anglo-Scots Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people ...

and Middlesex County.

International career

He played scrum-half for

on 15 occasions between 1972 and 1980. He made his test debut for Scotland against France at

Murrayfield Murrayfield is an affluent area to the west of Edinburgh city centre in Scotland. It is to the east of Corstorphine and north of Balgreen and Roseburn. The A8 road runs east–west through the south of the area. Murrayfield is often conside ...

on 15 January 1972 and he played his last match for Scotland against Wales at

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

on 1 March 1980.

Administrative career

Lawson became the 123rd President of the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; gd, Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league s ...

. He served a one-year term from 2012 to 2013.

Family

He is married to Linda, the daughter of rugby commentator

Bill McLaren William Pollock McLaren (16 October 1923 – 19 January 2010) was a Scottish rugby union commentator, teacher, journalist and one time rugby player. Known as 'the voice of rugby', he retired from commentating in 2002. Renowned throughout th ...

. The couple have three children:

Rory Rory is a given name of Goidelic languages, Gaelic origin. It is an anglicisation of the ga, Ruairí/''Ruaidhrí'' and gd, Ruairidh and is common to the Irish people, Irish, Scottish people, Highland Scots and their diasporas. for the given n ...

, who is also a

rugby union international; Gregor, a Scotland 7s international and entrepreneur founding fancy dress company

Morphsuits Morphsuits is a company in Edinburgh, Scotland that distributes branded spandex costumes, based on the existing skin-tight garments, which cover the entire body. The company offers over 80 different designs. The company was founded by brothers A ...

; and a daughter Lindsay.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lawson, Alan 1948 births Living people Edinburgh Wanderers RFC players London Scottish F.C. players Middlesex County RFU players Presidents of the Scottish Rugby Union Rugby union players from Kirkcaldy Rugby union scrum-halves Scotland international rugby union players Scottish Exiles (rugby union) players Scottish rugby union players