James Finlay was a

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.Bath, p136

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Finlay played for .

Provincial career

Finlay was capped for Edinburgh District, playing in the very first inter-city match in

1872 Events January–March * January 12 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first ruler crowned in that city in over 500 years. * February 2 – The government of the United Kingdom buys a number of forts on ...

; and captained the side in

1874 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes The Bronx. * January 2 – Ignacio María González becomes head of state of the Dominican Republic for the first time. * January 3 – Third Carlist War &ndas ...

International career

He was capped four times for between 1871 and 1875, including the first ever international.Bath, p4 He also played for

Edinburgh Academicals The Edinburgh Academical Football Club, also known as Edinburgh Accies, is a rugby union club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The club is currently a member of the Scottish Premiership, the top tier of Scottish club rugby. Its home ground is Raeburn Pl ...

Family

He was the brother of Arthur Finlay and

Ninian Finlay Ninian Jamieson Finlay (31 January 1858 – 7 March 1936Godwin, p147) was a Scottish international rugby player.Bath, p136 He was capped nine times for between 1875–81, and is generally considered to be the youngest player ever to be capped ...

who were also capped for Scotland. They all appeared together once in 1875, in the 0–0 draw against at

Raeburn Place Raeburn Place is the main street of the suburb of Stockbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland, and the name of the playing fields there. Rugby The first ever international rugby football game was played on the playing fields at Raeburn Place on 27 Ma ...

: James winning the last of his four caps, while Arthur and Ninian gained their first caps.Bath, p52

References

;Sources # Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Scotland Rugby Miscellany'' (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ) {{DEFAULTSORT:Finlay, James Scottish rugby union players Scotland international rugby union players Edinburgh District (rugby union) players Edinburgh Academicals rugby union players 1852 births 1930 deaths Rugby union players from Edinburgh Rugby union forwards