Ian Robertson (born 17 January 1945) is a Scottish broadcaster, writer and former international rugby player. He is best known as a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

commentator for

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

Early life

Robertson was educated at George Watson's College in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, Aberdeen University and

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

. He worked for four years as an English teacher at Fettes College, where his most famous pupil was

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

.BBC's Ian Robertson will not be silenced
The Telegraph, 6 September 2007

Rugby career

Robertson played rugby union for

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, Watsonians, London Scottish, Aberdeenshire,

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

(1968–70) and the Barbarians. The most memorable moment of his playing career was Scotland's 1970

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

victory over

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. At 25 he suffered a serious knee injury that ended his sporting career.

Journalism

Robertson joined the BBC in 1972. and since April 1983 he was the Corporation's official rugby union correspondent, covering the sport not only on radio but also on television. He regards Scotland's

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

and 1990 Grand Slams and Jonny Wilkinson's winning drop-kick in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

of the 2003 World Cup as his "best on-air moments". Robertson was also a presenter of the English Premiership video review of 1998-99. In February 2018 he announced that he would be retiring at the end of the year and covered his last game, England v Australia, on 24 November 2018.Ian Robertson's final Six Nations commentary
BBC Five Live, 17 March 2018 Robertson is a prolific writer; he has written over 30 books and a number of biographies,Alumni - Ian Robertson
Christ's College, University of Cambridge including those of Bill Beaumont,Ian Robertson - BBC Rugby Correspondent
Gordon Poole Agency Andy Irvine, and actor

Richard Burton Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his mellifluous baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s and gave a memor ...

. His memoir ''Rugby: Talking a Good Game'' was published in November 2018 by

Hodder & Stoughton Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hachette.H ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Ian 1945 births Living people People educated at George Watson's College Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge BBC sports presenters and reporters Scottish rugby union commentators Scottish rugby union players Barbarian F.C. players Scotland international rugby union players Scottish journalists Cambridge University R.U.F.C. players Rugby union journalists Rugby union players from London Rugby union fly-halves