James "Jim / Fritz / Jock" Gerard McLaren (born 28 June 1972) is a Scottish dual-code international

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

and

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 ...

footballer. He played representative level rugby league (RL) for the

Scotland national rugby league team The Scotland national rugby league team represent Scotland in international rugby league football tournaments. Following the break-up of the Great Britain team in 2008, Scottish players play solely for Scotland, apart from occasional Southern ...

, and at club level for

Wakefield Trinity Wildcats Wakefield Trinity is a professional rugby league club in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, that plays in the Super League. One of the original twenty-two clubs that formed the Northern Rugby Football Union in 1895, between 1999 and 2016 the c ...

, and representative level rugby union (RU) for the

Scotland national rugby union team The Scotland national rugby union team represents Scotland in men's international rugby union and is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The team takes part in the annual Six Nations Championship and participates in the Rugby World Cup, ...

, as a

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, and for

Glasgow Warriors Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and became t ...

and

Caledonia Reds Caledonia Reds were a Scottish rugby union professional district team who participated in the Scottish Inter-District Championship and in two seasons of the Heineken Cup. They evolved from one of the traditional four amateur districts of Scotland ...

. He was the first player to be capped by Scotland in a Rugby League international before representing in a Rugby Union international.

Background

McLaren was born in

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

, Scotland.

Club career

Rugby League

McLaren played rugby league in Australia for the

Canberra Raiders The Canberra Raiders are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the national capital city of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. They have competed in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby ...

, before returning to his hometown of

to play rugby union for Stirling County. While with Stirling he was called up to the provincial rugby union sides

and

. Whilst playing for Stirling against Melrose, McLaren was given a 26-week ban by 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 ...

for being found to have kicked

Craig Chalmers Craig Minto Chalmers (born 15 October 1968) is a former Scotland international rugby union player and coach. He represented Scotland, the British Lions and the Barbarians at international level. He made 60 international appearances as a player ...

in the head, in a ruck. Stirling County had claimed that slow-motion video evidence proved that while Chalmers had, indeed, been kicked, the act had not been deliberate. The SRU stated that it was their intent for a 26-week ban for kicking to the head to be mandatory. At the rugby union ban, McLaren once again took up rugby league. At the time rugby league had switched to a summer sport in Britain. McLaren signed for

in 1997. Serving out his rugby union ban in rugby league, he returned to

for the start of the 1997–98 season.

Rugby Union

He was named as a replacement in Glasgow's European Conference match at home to Agen on 30 October 1996. He also played in Glasgow's pre-season match against London Scottish coming off the bench to replace

Alan Bulloch Alan James Bulloch (born 7 July 1977) is a Scottish former rugby union player who gained five international caps at centre. Early life Bulloch was born on 7 July 1977 in Glasgow, Scotland. He was educated at Hutchesons' Grammar School and pla ...

on 10 August 1997. However he also played for

late in season 1997–98. When

folded at the end of season 1997–98, McLaren was earmarked to return to

. However instead he went to France playing for

Bourgoin Bourgoin-Jallieu (; frp, Brégon) is a commune in the Isère department in the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in France. The city had 28,834 inhabitants in 2019 and lies 35 kilometres east-southeast of Lyon. It was formed by the merger of th ...

. Two years later, in 2000, McLaren did sign back with

. He stayed in Glasgow another two years before returning to France, to play for Begles-Bordeaux, and then

Bayonne Bayonne (; eu, Baiona ; oc, label= Gascon, Baiona ; es, Bayona) is a city in Southwestern France near the Spanish border. It is a commune and one of two subprefectures in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine re ...

International honours

Rugby League

McLaren won a

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for Scotland in rugby league while at the Wakefield Trinity Wildcats in the 20–22 defeat by France in Glasgow on 9 July 1997.

Rugby Union

His international rugby union début for the Scotland national rugby union team came against Argentina in 1999. He made 30 Test appearances between 1999 and 2003 and finished his representative career playing in all four of Scotland's pool games in the

2003 Rugby Union World Cup The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup. Originally planned to be hosted by India, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the Indian Rugby Union and Rugby World Cup ...

Personal

Born in Stirling, he emigrated to Australia in 1979. McLaren was educated in Bathurst,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia, and attended

St Stanislaus College St Stanislaus College (often called Tullabeg College) was a Jesuit boys boarding school, novitiate and philosophy school, in Tullabeg, Rahan, County Offaly. St Carthage founded a monastery of 800 monks there in 595 before founding his monaster ...

. He completed tertiary qualifications in microbiology, from

Hawkesbury Agricultural College Hawkesbury Agricultural College was the first agricultural college in New South Wales, Australia, based in Richmond. It operated from 1891 to 1989. It was established on 10 March 1891, and formally opened by Minister for Mines and Agriculture ...

in Sydney, prior to commencing his professional rugby career. He used the name 'Jim' in rugby league; and 'James' when in rugby union.Kenny Logan. Just for kicks.

References

External links

Sporting Heroes profile
on ESPN Scrum dot com. {{DEFAULTSORT:McLaren, James 1972 births Living people Caledonia Reds players Dual-code rugby internationals Glasgow Warriors players Rugby league players from Stirling Rugby union players from Stirling Scotland international rugby union players Scotland national rugby league team players Scottish rugby league players Scottish rugby union players Australian rugby league players Australian rugby union players Stirling County RFC players Wakefield Trinity players CS Bourgoin-Jallieu players CA Bordeaux-Bègles Gironde players Scottish expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate rugby union players in France Scottish expatriate rugby union players Scottish expatriate rugby league players Australian expatriate rugby union players Australian expatriate rugby league players Australian expatriate sportspeople in France Scottish emigrants to Australia Aviron Bayonnais players Rugby union players from New South Wales Rugby league players from New South Wales People from Bathurst, New South Wales