Duncan Hodge (born 18 August 1974) is a Scottish former internationalist

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 ...

player. He gained 26 full caps for Scotland.

Playing career

Hodge was born in Dumfries,

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 ...

Duncan Hodge on Sporting Heroes
/ref> and educated at

Merchiston Castle School Merchiston Castle School is an independent boarding school for boys in the suburb of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has around 470 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 7 and 18 as either boarding or day pupils; it was modelled ...

in Edinburgh. He went on to represent

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

as a student, competing in the same team as

Will Greenwood William John Heaton Greenwood, MBE (born 20 October 1972) is an English former rugby union player who played for Leicester Tigers and Harlequins and was a member of England's 2003 World Cup-winning team and the 1997 British & Irish Lions. H ...

and

Tim Stimpson Timothy Richard George Stimpson (born 10 September 1973 in Liverpool) is a former rugby union international full back (and occasional wing). During his career he played for Wakefield, West Hartlepool, Newcastle Falcons, Leicester Tigers, Perp ...

. As a 19-year-old he was given the choice of touring Zimbabwe and South Africa with Scotland's National Cricket team, or playing under-21 national rugby and completing his university exams.. The latter was the only realistic choice for somebody who has already decided that he wanted to focus on a full-time career in sport. He played for

Watsonians Watsonian Football Club is a rugby union club based in Edinburgh and part of the Scottish Rugby Union. The club is connected with George Watson's College as a club for former pupils, and changed its policy in the 1980s to be a fully open club, ...

until the creation of the Scottish Pro sides when he was contracted to play for

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh pl ...

. He played for

Edinburgh Gunners Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh play ...

twice sandwiched around a two-year spell with

Leeds Tykes Leeds Tykes (formerly Leeds RUFC, Leeds Carnegie and Yorkshire Carnegie) is an English rugby union club in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the National League 1. The club was founded as Headingley FC, but renamed in 1991 when it j ...

. His second season in Leeds was ruined by injury.http://www.rfu.com/News/2005/April/News%20Articles/TykesHodgeHeadsHome where he only managed one league appearance that year.

International honours

Hodge won his first full cap as a replacement for

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 ...

against France in Paris in 1997, having already booked a place in Scottish rugby lore when his drop goal in the dying seconds secured Scotland A's victory over the 1994 Springboks. He has made 13 appearances for Scotland A, captaining them to their 40–35 win over Argentina in November 2001. Hodge in total won 26

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

playing at fly-half for the Scottish rugby union side between 1997 and 2002. As well as his games in Europe he played for Scotland in tours in Australia (1998), New Zealand (2000), and North America (2002). It was on the North American tour when he played in his last full internationals against Canada in Vancouver and USA in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. He also made two appearances in the 1999 World Cup. He scored 123 points for the national side from six tries, 15 conversions, 20 penalties and one drop goal. His finest moment was when he converted his own try and kicked four penalties to score all the points for Scotland in the 2000

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 be ...

19–13 win against England.Duncan Hodge on Cricket Scotland
/ref> This was in the inaugural season of the Six Nations at

Murrayfield Murrayfield is an affluent area to the west of Edinburgh city centre in Scotland. It is to the east of Corstorphine and north of Balgreen and Roseburn. The A8 road runs east–west through the south of the area. Murrayfield is often con ...

, and the first victory for Scotland against England since 1990 prevented England from completing a 6 Nations Championship Grand Slam and Scotland from finishing bottom of the table.

Coaching

Duncan Hodge travelled to the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand as Scotland's kicking coach,"Rugby World Cup 2011: Duncan Hodge blames wind not ball for misses as Paterson is set to return" The Scotsman 21 Sep 2011
/ref> and during the 2015 Rugby World Cup he acted as attack coach. After the World Cup, he joined

References

External links

*
Duncan Hodge on Sporting Heroes

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodge, Duncan 1974 births Living people Durham University RFC players Edinburgh Rugby players Leeds Tykes players People educated at Merchiston Castle School Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union players from Dumfries Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union coaches Scottish rugby union players Watsonians RFC players