Stuart McInally (born 9 August 1990) is a retired Scottish professional

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 ...

player who played as a hooker most notably for

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...

club

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 ...

and the Scotland national team.

Professional career

McInally made his

debut in 2010, and became a regular in the team over the subsequent three seasons. In 2013 it was announced that he would be making the transformation from flanker to hooker, then in 2014

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men's English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when Eng ...

side

Bristol Rugby Bristol Bears (officially Bristol Rugby Club or Bristol Rugby) are a professional rugby union club based in Bristol, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded as Bristol Football Club in 18 ...

signed him on loan. He made his competitive debut in his new position for

in early 2015, and was called up to the

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 ...

squad for the 2015 summer tests. After securing his first caps in the double-header victories against

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, McInally was named in the final 31-man squad for the

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

by Head Coach

Vern Cotter Vernon Anthony Cotter (born 27 January 1962) is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player. He currently coaches the Blues (Super Rugby), Blues in Super Rugby. He started his coaching career at Bay of Plenty including winning the Ranfur ...

. However he then had to withdraw from the squad through injury and was replaced by Kevin Bryce. In 2018 he captained the Scotland team against Argentina in a match which ended 44–15 to Scotland. In January 2016 McInally signed a contract extension with Edinburgh. In August 2016, Edinburgh Rugby named him and

Grant Gilchrist Grant Stuart Gilchrist (born 9 August 1990) is a Scottish professional rugby union player who plays as a Lock (rugby union), lock for United Rugby Championship club Edinburgh Rugby, Edinburgh and the Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland ...

as their co-captains for the coming season. In April 2023, McInally announced that he would retire from professional rugby after the

2023 Rugby World Cup The 2023 Rugby World Cup () was the tenth men's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national rugby union teams. It took place in France from 8 September to 28 October 2023 in nine venues across the country. The opening game ...

. He was not initially included in the Scotland squad announced in August but brought in as a replacement for the injured Dave Cherry. McInally was subsequently injured in training and did not take part in the tournament.

References

External links

*
profile
at Edinburgh Rugby
profile
at Scottish Rugby 1990 births Living people Rugby union hookers People educated at George Watson's College Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for Scotland Rugby sevens players at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Scotland international rugby union players Bristol Bears players Scottish rugby union players Edinburgh Rugby players Rugby union players from Edinburgh 2019 Rugby World Cup players 2023 Rugby World Cup players Scotland international rugby sevens players {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-1990s-stub