Finlay Calder

Finlay Calder
OBE
Date of birth	20 August 1957 (age 67)
Place of birth	Haddington, East Lothian, Scotland
School	Stewart's Melville College
Notable relative(s)	Jim Calder (brother); Lewis Calder (nephew)
Rugby union career
Position(s)
Position(s)	Flanker
Amateur team(s)
Years	Team
-	Stewart's Melville
–	Heriots
Provincial / State sides
Years	Team
-	Edinburgh District
1986	Combined Scottish Districts
International career
Years	Team
1983-84	Scotland 'B'
1986-91	Scotland
1989	British and Irish Lions

Finlay Calder OBE (born 20 August 1957) is a Scotland international former rugby union player.^[1]

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Born in Haddington, East Lothian^[2] and educated at Stewart's Melville College,

Calder played at open side flanker. He played for Stewart's Melville and Heriots.

Provincial career

He played for Edinburgh District. He was part of the side that won the 1986–87 Scottish Inter-District Championship.

He played for Combined Scottish Districts on 1 March 1986 against South of Scotland.^[3]

International career

He received 2 caps for Scotland 'B' in 1983 to 1984.

His full international debut was against France in 1986.^[4]

He won 34 caps representing Scotland from 1986 to 1991. His last international game was against New Zealand in the third-place play-off match in the 1991 Rugby World Cup.

He captained the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia in 1989.

Richard Bath wrote that

"Calder's ability to use his drive, determination and innate knowledge of the game to overcome his undoubted shortcomings - in particular he was always a bit slow for an out-and-out open-side - helped him become one of the most effective back-row operators of the modern era. If he and the other two members of the Grand Slam back row John Jeffrey and Derek White could not impose their own game, they certainly would make sure that the opposition could not impose theirs".^[5]

When in 1989 Calder captained the Lions, he was the first Scottish player selected to do this since Mike Campbell-Lamerton in 1966 and the first captain to lead the side to victory since Willie John McBride in 1974.^[6]

Honours

Calder was appointed OBE in the 1990 New Year Honours.^[7]

Family

His twin brother Jim Calder also played for Scotland and the Lions.^[5] The brothers never played in the same Scotland side; Jim won the last of his caps against Wales in March 1985 and Finlay made his debut against France in January 1986.

He has two children.

References

^ "Finlay Calder". ESPN scrum.
^ "Rugby: Player profile: Finlay Calder, Scotland". ESPN. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
^ "The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search".
^ "Rugby Union - ESPN Scrum - Statsguru - Player analysis - Finlay Calder - Test matches". ESPN scrum.
^ ^a ^b Bath, Richard, ed. (1997). The Complete Book of Rugby. Seven Oaks Ltd. pp. 127–8. ISBN 1-86200-013-1.
^ "Finlay Calder". The Scotsman. 2 May 2002. Retrieved 3 October 2015.
^ "Lions captain rewarded". The Herald. 30 December 1989. p. 9. Retrieved 11 April 2017.

External links

Finlay Calder at the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame
Finlay Calder - on the Sporting Heroes database
Fin Calder's Lions - including nine Scottish players (Gary Armstrong, Craig Chalmers, Peter Dods, John Jeffrey, Gavin Hastings, Scott Hastings, David Sole, Derek White and Finlay Calder himself)
Fin Calder looks back on the 1989 Lions tour to Australia

This Scottish rugby union biography article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[1] "Finlay Calder". ESPN scrum.

[ESPN_profile-2] "Rugby: Player profile: Finlay Calder, Scotland". ESPN. Retrieved 3 October 2015.

[3] "The Glasgow Herald - Google News Archive Search".

[4] "Rugby Union - ESPN Scrum - Statsguru - Player analysis - Finlay Calder - Test matches". ESPN scrum.

[Bath-5] Bath, Richard, ed. (1997). The Complete Book of Rugby. Seven Oaks Ltd. pp. 127–8. ISBN 1-86200-013-1.

[6] "Finlay Calder". The Scotsman. 2 May 2002. Retrieved 3 October 2015.

[7] "Lions captain rewarded". The Herald. 30 December 1989. p. 9. Retrieved 11 April 2017.

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v t e Scotland squad – 1987 Rugby World Cup
Forwards	Calder Campbell-Lamerton Deans (c) Jeffrey Milne Paxton Rowan Sole Tomes Turnbull White
Backs	Cramb Duncan G. Hastings S. Hastings Laidlaw Oliver Robertson Rutherford Tait Tukalo Wyllie
Coach: Grant

v t e Scotland squad – 1991 Rugby World Cup fourth place
Forwards	Allan Burnell Calder Cronin Gray Jeffrey Marshall D. Milne K. Milne Rowan Sole (c) Turnbull Watt Weir White
Backs	Armstrong Chalmers Dods G. Hastings S. Hastings Lineen Oliver Shiel Stanger Tukalo Wyllie
Coaching Staff	Telfer (forwards coach)
Coach: McGeechan

v t e British Lions – 1989 Australia tour
Forwards	Ackford Calder Chilcott Dooley Griffiths Jeffrey Lenihan Moore Norster Richards Robinson Smith Sole Teague White Young
Backs	Andrew Armstrong Chalmers Clement Dean Devereux Dods Evans Guscott Hall G. Hastings S. Hastings Jones Mullin Oti Underwood Carling (withdrew - injury)
Coach	McGeechan

v t e British & Irish Lions team captains
To 1910	1888: Robert Seddon ^{Note 1} 1888: Andrew Stoddart ^{Note 1} 1891: Bill Maclagan 1896: Johnny Hammond 1899: Matthew Mullineux ^{Note 2} 1899: Frank Stout ^{Note 2} 1903: Mark Morrison 1904: David Bedell-Sivright^{Note 3} 1904: Teddy Morgan^{Note 3} 1908: Boxer Harding 1910: John Raphael^{Note 4}
To present	1910: Tommy Smyth^{Note 5} 1910: Jack Jones^{Note 5} 1910: Tommy Smyth^{Note 5} 1924: Ronald Cove-Smith 1927: David MacMyn 1930: Doug Prentice 1936: Bernard Gadney 1938: Sam Walker 1950: Karl Mullen 1950: Bleddyn Williams^{Note 6} 1955: Robin Thompson 1955: Cliff Morgan^{Note 7} 1959: Ronnie Dawson 1962: Arthur Smith 1966: Mike Campbell-Lamerton 1966: David Watkins^{Note 8} 1968: Tom Kiernan 1971: John Dawes 1974: Willie John McBride 1977: Phil Bennett 1980: Bill Beaumont 1983: Ciaran Fitzgerald 1986: Colin Deans 1989: Finlay Calder 1993: Gavin Hastings 1997: Martin Johnson 2001: Martin Johnson 2005: Brian O'Driscoll^{Note 9} 2005: Michael Owen^{Note 9} 2005: Gareth Thomas^{Note 9} 2009: Paul O'Connell 2013: Sam Warburton 2013: Alun Wyn Jones^{Note 19} 2017: Peter O'Mahony^{Note 11} 2017: Sam Warburton 2021: Alun Wyn Jones^{Note 12}
Notes	Note 1: Robert Seddon died on tour after a boating accident. Andrew Stoddart became captain for the remainder of the tour. Note 2: Matthew Mullineux decided that after losing the first test that he should withdraw from further test matches, handing on field captaincy to Frank Stout, but remained tour captain. Note 3: David Bedell-Sivright was injured during the first test. Teddy Morgan took over captaincy on the field but Bedell-Sivright remained tour captain. Note 4: The team that John Raphael captained was not selected by the four Home Nations governing body, but had been organised by Oxford University and billed as the English Rugby Union team. However, it was considered the Combined British team by Argentina because it also included three Scots. Note 5: Jack Jones was captain for the first test, but Tommy Smyth remained the tour captain. Note 6: Bleddyn Williams captained in the third and fourth tests v New Zealand and the first test v Australia. Note 7: Cliff Morgan captained in the third test. Note 8: David Watkins captained in the second and foruth tests v New Zealand. Note 9: Michael Owen captained the Lions in the first tour game, the test vs. Argentina in Cardiff. Brian O'Driscoll was injured at the beginning of the first test against New Zealand. Gareth Thomas replaced him as tour captain. Note 10: Sam Warburton was injured in the second test. Alun Wyn Jones replaced him as captain for the third test. Note 11: Tour captain Sam Warburton was named on the bench for the first test. Peter O'Mahony was the captain on the field. Note 12: Tour captain Alun Wyn Jones left the squad for 17 days due to an injury in the first warm-up match, and was replaced by Conor Murray temporarily.