Dollar still on the money in Scotland
Brendan Gallagher brings his series on rugby’s great schools to an end at Dollar
DOLLAR not only boast one of the most beautiful grounds in the land, nestled in the Ochils, but for a smallish school they have contributed mightily to Scotland and indeed England!
Their most notable early rugby product was also their most distinctive. In fact Eddie Myers is possibly the greatest England player you have never heard of. Despite missing five of his best seasons to World War 1, Myers played a significant part as a direct running, unflappable centre in three England Grand Slams during the Wavell Wakefield era and was ever-present between 1920-25 save for injury and a family bereavement.
Myers was essentially a Yorkshireman, the son of a wealthy Yorkshire textile broker and gloried in the nickname ‘Tyke’ while at Dollar School. His father had long been running the American branch of the family business in New York which is where Eddie was born and where he sailed back to every summer for the long vacation.
While at Dollar, Tyke excelled at everything, captaining the school rugby, cricket, tennis and golf teams and winning the school cups for athletics and gymnastics. The school magazine declared the 1912-13 school year “may fittingly be called Eddie Myers Year”.
At Leeds University, he started to make a splash at centre for first Headingley and then Bradford. He starred for the North in a final trial in 1913 and was an England reserve before War intervened. He served in France throughout with the 6th Battalion West Yorkshire regiment, received serious shrapnel wounds to both thighs and was awarded the MC.
Undeterred he tentatively started playing again for Bradford and Yorkshire when he was demobbed in 1919 and by 1920 had forced his way into the England side at the relatively advanced age, for the time, of 25. Not Myers. Although often in pain with his leg wound, he was determined to make up for lost time and during his 19 England Tests tasted defeat only twice, against Wales in Cardiff in 1922 and then away to Scotland in 1925 when the Scots won the Slam.
Unsurprisingly Wakefield was a huge fan. In his book Rugger the England captain wrote: “The great feature of Myers’ game was his grim determination and I know when in a trial match I once tried to tackle him, I found him one of the hardest men to stop I have ever come up against. On that occasion I only half had him as he fell over the line and scored, and I always think of him with his teeth set, resolved to go through at all costs.
“It would be a good thing if more young players modelled themselves on him, for straight running is not seen as often as it ought to be. Myers was never halfhearted about anything he did, for apart from that hard thrust down the middle of the field, he always took his passes at full speed and he always put all he knew into the tackle.
“He never waited for an opponent but went bang at him and he seemed to think and move just a little ahead of other people on the rugger field, he always caught his man before he could side-step or swerve away.”
It was a while before Dollar started to regularly produce international players but scrum-half Adam Fulton, who graduated from the school in 1947, was an outlier winning two caps between 1952- 54, both against France at Murrayfield. During the 1990s utility back Cameron Glasgow, who spent eight years at the school learning his rugby was another big talent, especially as a Sevens player.
He went on to play for Cambridge University and Edinburgh Wanders and made seven Scotland A appearances before winning his solitary cap in 1997, when he came on as a replacement against Grand Slam-winning France in their final ever Championship Test at the Parc de Prince.
More recently there has been a flood of quality players particularly in the last 20 years or so during which time the school has reached the final of the Scottish Schools Cup seven times, winning the tournament on three occasions.
The three titles all came in successive years in a glorious winning era between 2003 and
2005. In 2003 Dollar defeated Stewart’s Melville College
19-13, the following season they accounted for High School of Dundee 27-14 and in 2005 they defeated the same opponents 13-10. There were losing finals against Merchiston Castle in 2000, Bell Baxter HS in 2007, George Watson’s in 2016 and most recently Stewart’s Melville in 2017.
Right at the start of that run of finals was future Scotland scrumhalf Rory Lawson who captained the 1st XV during this period before going on to Heriots, Edinburgh and eventually Gloucester from where he won the bulk of his 31 Scotland caps.
A grandson of commentator
Bill McLaren and son of former Scotland scrum-half Alan Lawson, his cousin Jim Thompson was to appear in the Dollar ranks a few years later making a big impression as a speedy utility back with full-back his preferred position. Thompson was later to enjoy a fine career with Edinburgh and London Scottish and agonisingly was to play on 12 occasions for Scotland A and to make numerous appearances for the Scotland Seven without the reward of a full cap.
The big names keep coming. A contemporary of Thompson was Scotland centre Graeme Morrison, one of the many Scots born abroad who were sent to board at Dollar. Morrison’s family were working in Hong Kong and he made a quick impression at the school, captaining the side before heading off to make his way at Glasgow Warriors from where he won 35 Scotland caps over ten seasons.
Another member of this golden era was Mike Adamson, who is better known as an international referee these days. Adamson was a razor-sharp flyhalf with Dollar who played at every age group level for Scotland up to Under-21 and had the speed and play-making ability to spend five years with the Scotland Sevens squad.
After retiring in 2014 he was one of those recent ex-players who were fast-tracked as a referee and after five seasons learning his trade in the PRO14 he made the Test panel last year and his international debut when
he took charge of Wales’ Autumn International against Australia. Most recently he has been allocated two matches in the Six Nations.
Probably the most noted modern day product
of all is John Barclay, another Hong Kong-born scot. Barclay was an outstanding presence in the Dollar 1st XV for two years and skippered them to their last title in 2004, and later that year, aged only 17, was asked by the Scotland coach Matt Williams to train with the national team.
At club level he made his Glasgow debut in 2005 and won the first of 76 international caps in 2007, still aged only 20. He appeared in three World Cups for Scotland and during the latter stage of his career captained the side in 15 Tests with a 66 per cent success rate which is one of the better records for a Scotland captain.
One of the most fondly remembered individuals at Dollar was, and is, John Foster who mastermind an unprecedented run of success during his long reign as first the head of PE and then director of rugby which spanned nearly 30 years from 1983.
Foster first became involved in rugby as a pupil at Dunfermline High School and later played for Gala RFC. He started his teaching career in 1975 at his old stomping grounds in Fife before joined Dollar where he coached every age group before concentrating on the 1st XV.
“I have a plethora of incredible memories,” recalls Rory Lawson. “I credit much of my appetite and enjoyment in rugby during my youth to him and he was the master of teaching the values of rugby alongside the skills required to play the game.”