Mark Coxon Morrison (2 April 1877 – 10 May 1945) was a Scottish 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 ...

footballer who captained both

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 ...

and the

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Morrison played for

Royal HSFP Royal High School Former Pupils was a former Edinburgh rugby union club; but the club was re-formed as Barnton RFC and is now known as Royal High RFC. Royal HSFP was a founder member of the Scottish Rugby Union, the second oldest national gove ...

. He played two games for Leicester, one in 1898 and one in 1902.

Provincial career

Morrison played for Edinburgh District and played in the Inter-City matches against Glasgow District.

International career

He played for Scotland twenty three times between 1896 and 1904, and captained the team fifteen times, a record which stood until the era of Arthur Smith, sixty years later.Bath, p150 He first played for Scotland against

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

in 1896, while a teenager playing for

. He continued to play for Scotland until 1904, and captained them a total of 15 times. With Scotland he won three Home Nations Championship with them in 1901, 1903 and 1904. Two of those Championship victories were

Triple Crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Tri ...

wins (1901 and 1903). He was chosen to captain the British and Irish Lions on the

1903 British Lions tour to South Africa The 1903 British Isles tour to South Africa was the fifth tour by a British Isles rugby team and the third to South Africa. It is retrospectively classed as one of the British Lions tours, as the Lions naming convention was not adopted until 195 ...

. The Lions lost the

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series 1–0 with two drawn. In 2002 he was inducted into the

Scottish Sports Hall of Fame The Scottish Sports Hall of Fame is the national sports hall of fame of Scotland, set up in 2002. It is a joint project organised by sportscotland, the national governmental body for Scottish sport, and National Museums Scotland. It is also funded ...

Jimmy Sinclair James Hugh Sinclair (16 October 1876 – 23 February 1913) was a South African cricketer who played in 25 Test matches from 1896 to 1911. He scored South Africa's first three Test centuries and was the first person from any country to score a ...

, the Springbok forward described Morrison as "a real roughouse of a man, and a great leader."

Administrative career

He was the 55th President of the Scottish Rugby Union, in post from 1934 to 1935.

Outside of rugby

Mark Coxon Morrison was born to John Morrison (1839-1923) and Jane Begg (1846-1911) in Dalmeny, West Lothian. He was a farmer by trade.

References

;Sources # Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Complete Book of Rugby'' (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 )

External links

* * * * * 1877 births 1945 deaths British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Scotland Edinburgh District (rugby union) players Leicester Tigers players People educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh Presidents of the Scottish Rugby Union Royal HSFP players Rugby union forwards Rugby union players from Edinburgh Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-stub