Richie Dixon (born c. 1947) is a former

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, the former head coach of the Scotland national team, the Georgia national team and Glasgow Caledonians (now known as

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 ...

). He was head of Physical Education at

Currie High School Currie Community High School is a six-year comprehensive school serving the south-west of the City of Edinburgh, Scotland. The school roll currently stands at 727 of whom 20% attend as a result of parental placing requests. The school's feeder ...

in Edinburgh from 1972 until 1980.

Playing career

Amateur career

Born in

Chirnside Chirnside is a hillside village in Berwickshire, Scotland, west of Berwick-upon-Tweed and east of Duns. Church The parish church at Chirnside dates from the 12th century. It was substantially rebuilt in 1878 and extensively restored and a ...

Berwickshire Berwickshire ( gd, Siorrachd Bhearaig) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. Berwickshire County Council existed from 1890 until 1975, when the area became part of th ...

, Dixon played for

Jordanhill Jordanhill ( sco, Jordanhull, gd, Cnoc Iòrdain)
is an ...

Provincial career

As a rugby player he was to captain Glasgow District; the side that was later to become the

on professionalism. He started off playing on the Wing or Centre for Glasgow. Later in his career, he made the switch to Flanker and represented Glasgow there too. It was thought that this utility factor negatively influenced his chances of a senior Scotland cap. The ''Glasgow Herald'' of 8 October 1974 commented:

Jordanhill's Richie Dixon began his second district career in that ill-starred Murrayfield inter-city. Having played 22 times for Glasgow on the Wing or Centre between 1967 and 1970, he switched to the pack and re-appeared in the district team as a flanker, but midway in the first half had to go back to full back. The national selectors were reminded that he used to be a back and that seems to have been holding back his career ever since.

International career

Dixon played for Scotland 'B' on 3 occasions and captained the side each time. He also played for the

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 less c ...

. He was on the bench for the

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 ...

side but never managed to get on the pitch to secure his full cap.

Coaching career

Glasgow District

Dixon coached Glasgow District; notably during its famous unbeaten 1989-90 season, winning the

Scottish Inter-District Championship The Scottish Inter-District Championship is a rugby union competition between regional sides in Scotland. Established in 1953, the tournament went through several formats. The Scottish Rugby Union confirmed in January 2023 that the Scottish In ...

outright and topped off with a 22–11 win against

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

Hughenden Stadium Hughenden is a multi-sports venue in the Hyndland area of Glasgow, Scotland. It has been the home since 1924 of Hillhead Sports Club, a private members' club catering for cricket, rugby union and tennis. Hughenden is best known as a rugby venue a ...

Scotland

He coached the

Scotland B national rugby union team The Scotland national B rugby union team was one of several national rugby union teams behind the Scottish national side. It was largely used as a development side and began in the era when Scotland had little in the way of an age-grade pathway. ...

for many years and was also involved in coaching the

Sweden national rugby union team Rugby has been played in Sweden since 1933, the first full international being played in 1949 against Denmark. The country celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2008. Sweden has been a member union of World Rugby since 1988 and is one of the 48 me ...

. He was

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, ...

Head Coach from 1995 to 1998. As

boss he took Scotland to within one game of a grand slam when they were beaten by England at Murrayfield in 1996. Dixon lost his job in 1998 after a defeat by Italy in the warm up to the Five Nations. His success rate in the role for competitive matches was 50% - just below

Jim Telfer James Telfer (born 17 March 1940) is a Scottish former rugby union coach and player. As a player, he won 21 international caps in the amateur era, also having a career as a headmaster at Hawick High School and Galashiels Academy and Forrester H ...

's 53.8% but ahead of

Ian McGeechan Sir Ian Robert McGeechan, OBE (born 30 October 1946) is a retired Scottish rugby union player, coach and teacher. Born in Leeds, McGeechan represented Headingley as his only club during a 15-year club career, qualifying for Scotland through hi ...

's 42%.

International matches as head coach

London Scottish

Dixon had a brief tenure at London Scottish.

Glasgow Warriors

He took over the Glasgow club from New Zealander Keith Robertson in January 1999. As part of the coaching set-up

Rob Moffat Rob Moffat is a Scottish rugby union coach. He was the assistant coach at Edinburgh under Andy Robinson before taking over as head coach in 2009 and has been involved in coaching Scotland A, Glasgow Warriors and the Borders. On 31 January 2011 h ...

joined him as assistant coach. During Dixon's tenure Glasgow Caledonians dropped its merged identity and rebranded itself back to Glasgow Rugby in 2002. Dixon was replaced as Warriors boss by New Zealander

Kiwi Searancke Kiwi Searancke (born c. 1952 in New Zealand) is a former rugby union player, and former head coach of Glasgow Rugby, now known as the Glasgow Warriors. He took over the club from Richie Dixon on 27 June 2002 when Dixon was appointed the SRU's He ...

on 27 June 2002. when he became the SRU's Head of Coach Development. He was to retain some input to the Warriors as he was to become official team manager offering advice to his successor. Glasgow's assistant Rob Moffat was to become Head Coach of the newly reformed

Border Reivers Border reivers were Cattle raiding, raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. They included both Scotland, Scottish and England, English people, and they raided the entire border ...

. Searancke's reign at Glasgow was short-lived as it was felt he was overly critical of the players. This meant Dixon had to step in as caretaker in April 2003 when the New Zealander left the club. The caretaker role only lasted a few weeks as the club quickly settled on

Hugh Campbell Hugh Campbell (born May 21, 1941) is a former American football and Canadian football player, coach, and executive. He served as a head coach in three different professional gridiron football leagues: the Canadian Football League (CFL), the Uni ...

as the new Glasgow Head Coach.

Border Reivers

As well as Head of Coach Development, Dixon was made Assistant Coach at

in 2006. However, financial troubles caused the Borders club to fold in 2007.

SRU

Dixon held the SRU's coaching development role until 2009 when he fell victim to cost cutting.

Georgia

In 2010 he was to become the national coach of the Georgian rugby team and coached them at the World Cup. He was awarded the country's Honorary Order of Excellence by the President for services to rugby in Georgia.

World Rugby

In 2012 he became a project manager for

World Rugby World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...

advising emergent countries. He has special remit for Georgia and Romania.

Honours

As a coach

* **

Five Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

*** Runner-up:

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

Centenary Quaich The Centenary Quaich (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Cuach nan Ceud Bliadhna''; Irish: ''Corn na Céad Bliain'') is an international rugby union award contested annually by Ireland and Scotland as part of the Six Nations Championship. A "Quaich" is a Gae ...

*** Winner:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

*** Winner: 1999-2000

References

External links

Richie Dixon on Andy Nicol
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Richie 1947 births Living people Barbarian F.C. players Glasgow District (rugby union) players Glasgow Warriors coaches Jordanhill RFC players Rugby union players from Scottish Borders Scotland 'B' international rugby union players Scotland national rugby union team coaches Scottish rugby union coaches Scottish rugby union players Georgia national rugby union team coaches