Scott Murray (born 15 January 1976) 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 ...

player who played lock for

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 th ...

. He was at one time the record caps holder for Scotland having represented them on 87 occasions, five of which as captain and playing at three

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

. He also toured with the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

and won Scotland player of the season three times. He is currently the head coach for the

San Diego Legion The San Diego Legion is an American professional rugby union team based in San Diego, California. The team was founded in 2017 and competes in Major League Rugby. Home field The team plays at Snapdragon Stadium, which is located on the campus ...

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR or USMLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2022 season it was contested by thirteen teams: twelve from the United States and one from Canada. Of ...

(MLR).

Club career

Murray is a former Scottish school basketball international who attended

Morgan Academy Morgan Academy is a Secondary School in the Stobswell area of Dundee, Scotland. History The building was designed in 1862 by the Edinburgh architects John Dick Peddie and Charles Kinnear, opening in 1866 as the Morgan Hospital, a charitable i ...

and Preston Lodge High School. He represented Scotland at every youth level and has played for Preston Lodge RFC and Edinburgh Academicals before moving to England to help

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst t ...

win the Allied Dunbar Premiership Division Two (now the RFU Championship) in 1998 and gain entrance to the English Premiership. Murray went on to play for

Saracens upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Pe ...

and

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

before joining French team US Montauban following the

2007 Rugby World Cup The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to ...

. In July 2010 he joined

Castres Castres (; ''Castras'' in the Languedocian dialect of Occitan) is the sole subprefecture of the Tarn department in the Occitanie region in Southern France. It lies in the former province of Languedoc, although not in the former region of Langue ...

after Montauban were liquidated due to financial problems. Murray left Castres in June 2012 to join newly promoted

Mont-de-Marsan Mont-de-Marsan (; Occitan: ''Lo Mont de Marçan'') is a commune and capital of the Landes department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, southwestern France. Population Military installations The French Air and Space Force operates the ''Constantin Rozano ...

based side Stade Montois. In December, with two years still left on his playing contract, he was appointed as forwards coach following a reshuffle at the club that saw previous coach Marc Dantin moved to other duties. Mont-de-Marsan were relegated from the Top 14 at the end of the season finishing bottom of the table having only managed to win two games.

National honours

Murray's debut for Scotland came against Australia on 22 November 1997 and he won the 1998–99 Scotland player of the season in the year when Scotland won the final

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 ...

. Since then he has won this honour a further two times in 2001–02 and 2002–03 and gained selection for the

on their tour of Australia in 2001, although he did not feature in any of the full tests. In the

2003 Rugby 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 ...

Countdown Test against Italy he captained the side from the start for the first time when he won his 50th cap. Murray started all three Autumn Tests in November 2005 and became Scotland's most capped player of all time, when on 10 March 2007, he collected his 83rd Test cap, surpassing Gregor Townsend's previous record of 82 caps. He has collected another four caps since (the last being against the

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

in the

) and held the national record until 14 June 2008, when

Chris Paterson Christopher Douglas Paterson, MBE (born 30 March 1978) is an ambassador and specialist coach for the Scotland and Edinburgh rugby union teams. He is a former professional rugby union player who played for Scotland and, for the most part of hi ...

won his 88th cap. Murray failed to make the initial

2008 Six Nations Championship The 2008 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2008 RBS 6 Nations because of sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the ninth series of the rugby union Six Nations Championship, the 114th series of the international championship. Fiftee ...

squad, though he was later added but did not feature in any games.

Low point

During the Six Nations Scotland v

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 2 ...

game at the

Millennium Stadium The Millennium Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm y Mileniwm), known since 2016 as the Principality Stadium ( cy, Stadiwm Principality) for sponsorship reasons, is the national stadium of Wales. Located in Cardiff, it is the home of the Wales national ru ...

on 12 February 2006 Murray was sent off by referee Steve Walsh after he perceived that Murray retaliated by lashing out with his boot following a late tackle by Ian Gough. His sending off was seen as a decisive point in the game that Wales won 28–18. Murray became only the second Scotland player ever to be sent off (the other being second row colleague Nathan Hines) and was subsequently banned for three weeks, after an unsuccessful appeal, meaning he would miss the upcoming

Calcutta Cup The Calcutta Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the rugby match between England and Scotland played annually in the Six Nations Championship. Like the match itself (England–Scotland), the Calcutta Cup is the oldest trophy contested b ...

game.

Coaching career

In 2018 Murray took up a coaching role at San Diego Legion in the US Major League Rugby.

References

External links

Murray gets three-week suspension
BBC, 15 February 2006

The Guardian, 13 February 2006

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the G ...

, 13 February 2006 *
player profile
at www.lequipe.fr {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Scott 1976 births Living people Alumni of Preston Lodge High School Bedford Blues players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Scotland Edinburgh Academicals rugby union players People educated at Morgan Academy Preston Lodge RFC players Rugby union locks Rugby union players from Musselburgh Saracens F.C. players Scotland 'A' international rugby union players Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players