Roy Laidlaw

Roy James Laidlaw (born 5 October 1953) is a former Scotland international rugby union player.

Much of his domestic rugby was played with Jed-Forest RFC, who were in the Scottish Second Division at the time.

He played for the Scottish Borders club side.

He was capped by South of Scotland District.

Laidlaw came to prominence in the late 1970s due to a string of good performances for Scotland B, then managed by Jim Telfer.

When Morgan retired in 1979, the selectors brought back Lawson, with Laidlaw staying on the bench.

Although he was first capped against in 1980, he didn't become a regular until 1981.

Amongst the highlights of his career, were his two tries in the Triple Crown decider in Dublin, and when he scored a long range solo try against.

He was an international reserve for three seasons, before getting capped again in 1980.

At the time, Dougie Morgan was holding down the scrum half position in the Scotland team, having displaced Alan Lawson.

As Lawson refused to act as replacement, Laidlaw gained a place on the bench.

Laidlaw continued his good form for Scotland B, and finally gained a place in the Scotland team in the 1980 season, having sat on the bench for 10 games without coming on as a replacement.

Writing during Laidlaw's international career in the mid-1980s, Allan Massie said that:

In 1983, he became captain of, and his style was described as being like "Gareth Edwards rather than Jacques Fouroux."

Massie added:

Laidlaw gained a place in the test team on the 1983 British Lions tour to New Zealand, after the loss of first Terry Holmes and then Nigel Melville to injury, playing in all four tests.

In total he played in a notably high number of games; 13 of the 18.

He scored two tries on the tour and captained the Lions team twice, in the victories over West Coast and Wairarapa Bush.

Jim Telfer, who was Scotland coach by that point, considered that Laidlaw's ability to break was Scotland's sharpest attacking weapon in the 1984 Grand Slam, settling the match in the first twenty minutes.

He was capped 47 times by Scotland.

Laidlaw partnered stand off John Rutherford a record 35 times for Scotland.

As of 1988 this was a world record.

He was Head Coach of the Combined Scottish Districts side in 1996 when they played Australia in November at McDiarmid Park.

This was the last time that the combined Scottish Districts team played; their match with Australia organised before the SRU professionalised its 4 home-based district teams into the Glasgow Warriors, Edinburgh Rugby, Caledonia Reds and the Border Reivers.

Laidlaw's son Clark Laidlaw played and coached rugby, and his nephew Greig Laidlaw was selected 76 times for Scotland, also as a scrum-half.

This has since been surpassed following Finn Russell and Greig Laidlaw (Roy's nephew) starting together in the final pool A game at the 2019 Rugby World Cup against Japan on 13 October 2019 in Yokohama.

Richard Bath comments:

Laidlaw announced on 21 October 2020 that he has dementia and that it may have been worsened by his rugby career.

He was appointed Honorary Captain of Jedburgh Golf Club in 2021.