Donald Macdonald Scott (15 April 1928 – 22 June 2024) was a Scotland international rugby union player. Normally a centre, he also played on the wing.
Rugby career
Amateur career
Scott played for – and was internationally capped whilst at – Langholm and Watsonians.[1]
Provincial career
He broke through while playing with Langholm to play for the South. He was part of the South team that beat North 10 points to 9 on 11 November 1950.[2]
He was capped for Scotland 11 times from 1950 to 1953, playing in nine Five Nations matches. He was capped at Centre and Wing.[5]
He never scored an international try, though during the Five Nations match against England in 1950, both he and teammate Donald Sloan pounced on a high kick over the try line. As both got up, Scott patted Sloan on the back and the try was awarded to Sloan.[6][7]
Scott also played in Scotland's 44–0 defeat to South Africa in 1951. He remembered: "When I played in any match there were three things I thought the man opposite me might do:- they would run at me and try to beat me; they would run at me and pass the ball; or they would kick the ball. Well, the South Africans did all that, but they also did something I had never seen before: they ran into you. They looked at you and said: come and take me. You watch rugby now and it is all about contact, and laying the ball off in different ways. That was the first time I saw that approach."[8]
Outside of rugby
Scott was a teacher at George Watson's College. He coached the school's 1st XV at rugby union.[9] Scott died at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh on 22 June 2024, at the age of 96.[10][11]
References
^The Essential History of Rugby Union: Scotland. Nick Oswald and John Griffiths.
