Donald Shade Munro (born 19 November 1966, Paisley,

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 ...

) is a Scottish rugby union player, who played at lock/second row.

Playing

He spent two stints in New Zealand, in 1987 he played for club side Greytown where he went on to represent the provincial team, Wairarapa Bush in a Ranfurly Shield Challenge against the mighty Auckland, which included 14 current All Blacks at the time. In Scotland he played for Eastwood High School (Newton Mearns) and subsequently all his club rugby for his beloved

Glasgow High Kelvinside Glasgow High Kelvinside , often abbreviated to GHK, is an amateur rugby union club in Glasgow, Scotland. They currently play in Scottish National League Division One. History Glasgow High Kelvinside was formed in 1982 by the merger of Kelvins ...

. where he played from 1984 to 1997. In 1989-90 he played for the famous unbeaten Glasgow District side that remained unbeaten all season. He was selected to tour New Zealand in 1990, the year of Scotland's 2nd Grand Slam, but he unfortunately suffered an horrendous leg break playing for Scotland against a West of Scotland International Select captained by All Black World Cup winning captain David Kirk. It would be nearly 2 years before Munro played again after initially being told that the injury was so severe he would never play again. He was capped seven times between 1994 and 1997 for . According to Richard Bath 007"''Munro... would have surely won many more caps but for a horrendous leg injury. He has made great strides as a coach and is currently assistant to

Sean Lineen Sean Lineen (born 25 December 1961) is a former Scotland international rugby union player. He was a former Head Coach of Glasgow Warriors from 2006 to 2012. He was a Director for the Scottish Rugby Union until December 2021. Rugby Union career ...

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

.''" He also represented Scotland on numerous tour abroad, Japan 1989, South Seas(Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa)1993 and Argentina in 1994. He also represented Scotland in the 1994 Hong Kong sevens which demonstrates how fast and skillful he was for such a big man. Other career highlights were representing the Barbarians on a Charity tour to Japan to help raise money for the Kobe Earth Quake disaster fund as well as representing the Barbarians on various Easter tours. Other representative honours include playing for the Scottish Saltires, Co-Optimists and Rugby Eccose. In 1996 he played for club side Te Puke Sports where he again went on to represent the provincial team, Bay of Plenty in 14 games, the highlight being another Ranfurly Shield challenge against Auckland at Eden Park. In that same season he had to retire as a result of the knee injury he suffered in 1990.

Coaching

He quickly took to coaching where he found a new lease of life taking charge of the newly formed Glasgow Hawks 2nd XV for the season 1997–1998. The following season he became Assistant Coach of the Glasgow Hawks 1st XV and then became Head Coach the following season where he stayed for a further 3 seasons. It was then that he was employed by the Scottish Rugby Union, on a part-time basis, as part of the coaching staff at the Glasgow Warriors Professional team from 2003. He was an assistant coach 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 ...

for many years. In his final year 2014–15 at the club the Warriors won the

Pro12 The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

for the first time becoming the first Scottish side to win a major trophy in the professional era. He was the Head Coach of the Scottish Women's national team. In 2019 he became the Glasgow Warriors Senior Academy Lead Rugby Coach based at Scotstoun Stadium

Scottish Rugby Academy The Scottish Rugby Academy, for sponsorship reasons the Fosroc Scottish Rugby Academy, is a national academy structure designed to give Scotland's young rugby stars a pathway into the professional game. The academy structure is based on 4 regiona ...

Family

Munro is the grandson of JM Bannerman, who was capped in thirty seven consecutive matches for Scotland (a world record at the time), and was a successful Liberal Party peer and

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

advocate, who was president of An Comunn Gaidhealach for a while. His aunt was

Ray Michie Janet Ray Michie, Baroness Michie of Gallanach (''née'' Bannerman; 4 February 1934 – 6 May 2008) was a Scottish speech therapist and Liberal Democrat politician. She served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Argyll and Bute for 14 years, from ...

, a speech therapist and Liberal Democrat MP, as well as the first peer to pledge the oath of allegiance in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

in Gaelic. He is also related to John Bannerman, the historian, and the Gaelic novelist Chrissie Dick. He is married and has two children.

References

External links

One last hurrah at Hughenden
(''The Scotsman'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Munro, Shade 1966 births Living people Glasgow District (rugby union) players Glasgow High Kelvinside RFC players Glasgow Warriors coaches Glasgow Warriors players Rugby union players from Paisley, Renfrewshire Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union coaches Scottish rugby union players Women's rugby union in Scotland