Iain Hugh Page Laughland (29 October 1935 – 9 August 2020) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

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.player profile
on scrum.com. Retrieved 16 February 2010

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Born in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

, Laughland was educated until the age of 9 in the Himalayas. He then went to Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh and played for the school team. He played for London Scottish. Laughland captained London Scottish for five successive years winning the Middlesex Sevens tournament each year of his captaincy. He was noted as the architect of the game, changing the play by slowing down to a walking pace, his team showing excellent ball skills and patience before bursting through defences with agility and speed. Laughland then played for Harlequins. He also toured South Africa and Australia on invitation with Harlequins. He played for the Co-Optimists against

London Welsh London Welsh Rugby Football Club ( cy, Clwb Rygbi Cymry Llundain) was a rugby union club formed in 1885. Based in Old Deer Park, Richmond-upon-Thames, London Welsh RFC played in the English Premiership in the 2012–13 and 2014–15 seasons, ...

in 1965.

Provincial career

He played for

Scotland Probables 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 ...

in 1959 and 1961.

International career

Laughland played for

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 ...

and was capped 31 times between 1959 and 1967. He played fly half and centre, taking over from

Gordon Waddell Gordon Herbert Waddell (12 April 1937 – 13 August 2012, born Glasgow, died London, was a Scottish rugby union player, a South African politician, and the son of Herbert Waddell. He played for , the Barbarians and on two British and Irish Lio ...

. Laughland captained Scotland for the last two years of his playing career, winning the Calcutta cup on two occasions at both Twickenham in 1964 and

Murrayfield Stadium Murrayfield Stadium (known as BT Murrayfield Stadium for sponsorship reasons, or popularly as Murrayfield) is a Rugby stadium located in the Murrayfield area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It has a seating capacity of 67,144 making it the largest sta ...

in 1965. His greatest regret was turning down the opportunity to Captain the Lions in 1965 on their tour to New Zealand due to injury. The mantle was passed to Mike Campbell-Lamerton. Bill McLaren says of a game against in 1960:

The Scottish try was a typical opportunist effort by Scotland's captain Arthur Smith. Iain Laughland (London Scottish) operating at stand-off, tried a drop-goal after John Douglas (Stewarts College F.P.),
Norman Bruce Norman Bruce (28 June 1932 – 28 March 1992) was a Scotland rugby union international player. Rugby Union career Amateur career Bruce first played for Gala YM and then Gala. The Berwickshire News and General Advertiser of 1 February 1955 note ...
(London Scottish) and Hugh McLeod (
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 of ...
) had rolled out of the back of a line-out. The ball sliced off Laughland's foot, but Arthur Smith, purring as always like a high powered Rolls-Royce, screamed up the wing like a shell and got the touch before the ball rolled out of play... The match was marked by some magnificent Scottish tackling in which the mid-field of Laughland, Eddie McKeating ( Heriots F.P.), and George Stevenson (Hawick) set a superb example, that deprived a South African threequarter line comprising
Janie Engelbrecht Janie may refer to: * Janie (given name) * Janie (1944 film), ''Janie'' (1944 film), an American romantic comedy * Janie (2006 film), ''Janie'' (2006 film), a short *Janie, West Virginia, a community in the United States {{disambig ...
,
Ian Kirkpatrick Ian Andrew Kirkpatrick (born 24 May 1946) is a former New Zealand rugby union player. Described as "supremely athletic, fast, fearless and with an uncanny sense of anticipation", Kirkpatrick is widely regarded as one of the greatest flankers t ...
,
John Gainsford John Leslie Gainsford (August 4, 1938 – November 18, 2015) was a South African rugby union player. He was born in Germiston. Gainsford played in 71 matches for South Africa (the Springboks), including tour games, and was known for being the mo ...
and Hennie van Zyl of a try; some feat considering that those four contributed 38 tries during the tour.

McLaren also paid Laughland the accolade of selecting him as his fly half and captain for the all-time greatest Scottish side from those who played between 1950 and 2003.

Administrative career

Laughland continued his support of Rugby Union from the sidelines, running the Anglo Scots side for many years. He became

President of the Scottish Rugby Union The President of the Scottish Rugby Union is the figurehead of rugby union in Scotland. Origin In 1873, and directly after the Scotland versus England international match, representatives from eight Scottish rugby union sides came together in Gla ...

in 2000–01.

Outside of rugby union

His business career saw him heading up Benn Brothers Publications, an international magazine publisher. The company was sold to Excel PLC in 1999 by the remaining Benn family, who had left the helm many years prior. Other interests included golf where as a long-standing member of Rye Golf Club, Sussex, he played to a 3 handicap. Other sporting achievements include captaining Scotland School boys at Cricket (1953) and playing for Nairn County Football Club whilst stationed as a Lieutenant with the Sea Forth Highlanders. National service took Laughland to Suez Crisis in Aden from 1956 to 1958 whilst the regiment was stationed at Nairn. He died on 9 August 2020 at the age of 84.

References

;Sources # Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Scotland Rugby Miscellany'' (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ) # McLaren, Bill Talking of Rugby (1991, Stanley Paul, London ) # Massie, Allan ''A Portrait of Scottish Rugby'' (Polygon, Edinburgh; ) {{DEFAULTSORT:Laughland, Ian 1935 births 2020 deaths Scottish rugby union players Scotland international rugby union players Rugby players from Mumbai London Scottish F.C. players People educated at Merchiston Castle School Presidents of the Scottish Rugby Union Co-Optimist Rugby Club players British people in colonial India