George Stevenson (30 May 1933 – 24 June 2012) was a

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

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 it ...

player. He played as a

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, but could also cover

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Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Stevenson started playing rugby union with Hawick PSA and then moved to Hawick Linden. From Linden, Stevenson then played for

Hawick Hawick ( ; sco, Haaick; gd, Hamhaig) is a town in the Scottish Borders council area and historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east of Selkirk. It is one ...

. His Hawick team-mate Hugh McLeod said this of Stevenson: "He was a like car. He had gears and he would move into top gear when he thought it was necessary. He was never happy touching the ball down in the corner. He would always want to touch down under the posts. He was such a character."

Provincial career

He played for South of Scotland District. He also played for the combined Scottish Districts side, notably in their 1965 match against the touring

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

international side. Scoring a side-stepping try against the Springboks he helped the Scottish Districts side record a 16-8 win. The ''Border Telegraph'' notes: "Everyone in Hawick that day knew that "Stevie" would sidestep because that was his routine in club colours. The only exception was the poor Springbok defender who was completely bamboozled." The ''Glasgow Herald'' noted the try as a 'spectacular solo try'.

International career

He was capped 24 times for

. He scored a try on his debut against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He played for

Barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be les ...

Business career

He trained to be an engineer but after his national service switched to working in food and drink production. He worked in Bibby's, an agricultural foodstuffs production before switching to be a representative for Ballantine's whisky.

References

1933 births 2012 deaths Scottish rugby union players Scotland international rugby union players South of Scotland District (rugby union) players Hawick RFC players Hawick Linden RFC players Hawick PSA players Rugby union players from Hawick Rugby union centres {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-stub