Iain Laughland
All-round rugby back who led Scotland to victory over England and reinvigorated Rugby Sevens
IAIN LAUGHLAND, who has died aged 84, played 31 times for Scotland as a centre or fly-half between 1959 and 1967 and was described by the rugby commentator Bill Mclaren as “the maestro technician who reinvented the tactics of Rugby Sevens.” To Laughland’s lasting regret, injury forced him to turn down an offer to captain the British and Irish Lions on their tour of New Zealand in 1965.
In 1964 he was in the Scottish team that wrested the Calcutta Cup from England for the first time in 14 years, and he captained the side to victory again at Murrayfield two years later. Scotland had been bottom of the Five Nations championship five times during the 1950s; in the 1960s, during Laughland’s period in the team, they ended with the wooden spoon only once.
Known as “Logie”, Laughland was hailed by one rugby authority as “arguably the best all-round Scottish back since the war” and appeared as fly-half in the all-time greatest Scotland team chosen by Mclaren from players between 1950 and 2003. Scottish Rugby described him as “a supremely gifted and innovative player, a prolific winner in the Sevens game”.
He led London Scottish to victory in the Middlesex Sevens five times in six years and won the Montrose Sevens in 1962 and 1965. He was called “the architect of the Sevens game, changing the play by slowing down to walking pace, his team showing excellent ball skills and patience before bursting through defences with agility and speed”. Or, as his wife Ann put it, “slow … slow … then dash.”
After watching the Middlesex Sevens in 1961, Vivian Jenkins, the Sunday Times correspondent, marvelled at the way Laughland and his team-mates Ken Scotland and Jim Shackleton “weaved fairy patterns of a kind beyond the scope of mere Sassenachs”.
Bill Mclaren noted that Laughland was “very quick off the mark.” Asked how he acquired his lightning take-off, he replied: “It was when I was sitting on a latrine in Aden and an Arab sniper put a bullet between my legs.”
Iain Hugh Page Laughland was born on October 29 1935 in Bombay (now Mumbai) to Norman Laughland, who worked for the Imperial Bank of India, and his wife Morag (née Page).
Iain was educated to the age of nine in the Himalayas, then at Croftinloan prep school, Pitlochry, and Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh, where he played for the first XV and also captained a Scottish schools’ team at cricket.
During National Service as a lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders he played football for Nairn in the Highland League before serving in Aden and Egypt at the time of Suez. In Egypt he played cricket for the Army.
After leaving the Army he lived with his parents in Buckinghamshire, and on Saturdays would watch London Scottish at their Richmond ground. When he spotted players he knew from school as former team-mates or opponents, he decided, as he put it, “to take the plunge”. When his mother asked him why he was going out running so much, he said: “I want to play rugby for Scotland.”
He quickly graduated from changing in Nissen huts with the 5th XV to selection for the first team, where he played for 10 years, becoming captain for the 1959-60 season and again in 1963-64, the club’s best season.
In those amateur days, before leagues were formed and the only coach was the team bus, he insisted that the players should always have a tactical plan, but also be ready to play “off the cuff ” on the pitch.
He played most of his rugby for London Scottish at fly-half and also appeared there for East Midlands. His debut for Scotland was in a losing encounter against France in Paris in 1959. It was only in his seventh game, two years later, that he enjoyed a Scottish victory at Murrayfield.
Twice Laughland created vital Scottish tries by mis-hitting attempted drop goals. In 1961, against South Africa, Mclaren described how “the ball sliced off his boot, but Arthur Smith screamed up the wing like a shell and got the touch just before the ball rolled out of play.”
Two years later, with a minute to go and the scores level against France in Paris, he hooked his kick and Ronnie Thomson raced in from the right wing, caught the bouncing ball and scored the winning try. Such was Logie’s reputation as an astute tactician that some people wondered if his mistakes were deliberate.
He appeared in Scotland teams that drew with the All Blacks in 1964 and beat South Africa in 1965. He played 23 times as a centre and eight at fly-half. He led his country to victory over Ireland in Dublin in 1966 and played his final game for Scotland in a heavy defeat by England at Twickenham the following year.
Before retiring he had a spell with Harlequins and went on tours with them to South Africa and Australia.
Iain Laughland was a director of Benn Brothers, who published trade magazines, until 1988. He then worked for a small publisher in Sevenoaks until his work in rugby took up all his time.
He helped to administer the game for 35 years, serving the London Scottish club and the Anglo-scots or Exiles, where he spotted Scottish talent playing in England and recommended players to the national selectors, eventually became a selector himself.
Scottish internationals who graduated in this way included David Soul and Rob Wainwright, as well as Iain Hamilton and Paul Burnell. In 2001 Laughland was president of the general committee of the Scottish Rugby Union.
In 1962 he married Ann Young, whose father had been a Cambridge rugby blue. He was a long-standing member of Rye Golf Club in Sussex where, at his peak, he had a handicap of 3. His wife and daughter Rosie were also talented golfers. His son Andrew runs a business in textiles and interior decoration.
A London Scottish friend said of him: “It’s hard to recall Logie without smiling. He liked to laugh and had a sense of mischief about him.”
His wife and children survive him.
Iain Laughland, born October 29 1935, died August 9 2020