Ex-scotland lock Ten Bos dies aged 79

Frans ten Bos, one of Scotland’s best-known rugby internationals of the late 1950s and early ’60s, died yesterday at the age of 79.

Ten Bos won 17 caps at lock forward between 1959 and 1963 and was a key member of a team which slowly began to revive Scotland’s international rugby fortunes following a bleak decade in the 1950s.

Born in England to Dutch parents, Ten Bos returned to the Netherlands as a child before being involved in a dramatic escape back to the UK following the Nazi invasion of Holland.

The family made their way to Scotland and Ten Bos went on to attend Fettes College and Oxford University and played club rugby for London Scottish.

During his five seasons in the Scotland team he was twice within touching distance of the Triple Crown, England denying Scotland on both occasions. He was involved in famous wins in Paris and Cardiff which ended long losing runs in both cities. The 1962 win over Wales was Scotland’s first there for 35 years and Ten Bos scored a try and made another for Ron Glasgow. An SRU spokesperson said: “Scottish Rugby is saddened to hear of the death of Frans ten Bos and extends its condolences to his family and friends at this sad time.”

Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter has questioned warnings that English Premiership rugby clubs may be over-spending on player wages, saying that as long as the sport lives within its means, it should “celebrate” the advent of the “million-pound player”.

The Aviva Premiership runs a salary cap of roughly £9 million per club, with 35 to 40 players per squad, and chief executives at Gloucester and Leicester predicted recently that many clubs would continue to sustain losses and fail to invest in infrastructure if they directed rising revenues straight into the pockets of players and agents.

Wasps’ new signing from Australia, utility back Kurtley Beale, is reportedly being paid £500,000 a year, while Leicester’s England centre Manu Tuilagi recently renewed his contract at a reported £1.3m over three years. Up to now, only superstar fly-halves Jonny Wilkinson and Dan Carter playing for Toulon and Racing 92 respectively are reckoned to have got near the £1m-a-season mark but with TV broadcast deals in England and France rising in value, and a new agreement with the Rugby Football Union guaranteeing the English clubs £224m in central funding over the next eight years, the seven-figure sum may become the market rate for the best-known faces.

Baxter, whose Exeter team finished runners-up to Saracens last season, and kick off the new season away to Wasps on Sunday, said: “The most important thing is we focus on producing a really good product that everybody wants to come and watch, that every TV company wants to buy into and that every supporter wants to fill the bars and fill the grounds with. You should actually celebrate a millionpound rugby player, because that would mean rugby’s in a pretty healthy state. It’s almost like we’re scared of it and we don’t want that kind of stuff to happen. If TV deals and revenue and interest in the sport mean that rugby players end up being paid like footballers, would that be a bad thing?”

Exeter are entering their seventh season in the Premiership and have a sound business model. “To have the salary cap as the root of all evil is too simplistic,” Baxter said. “If you have your income stream, and you are running a sustainable business, why not be able to spend it? You don’t want clubs spending up to the salary cap if they can’t afford it. But if a new TV deal comes along, or a new sponsorship deal and all of a sudden there’s a huge influx of money, that’s just supply and demand.”