Lions and Scotland great ‘Mighty Mouse' Ian McLauchlan dies at 83

Telegraph

4 hours ago

Ian McLauchlan, the former Scotland captain, British and Irish Lions prop forward, and distinguished rugby administrator, has died. He was 83.
Regarded as one of the most fearsome forwards of his generation, McLauchlan was known best by his nickname 'Mighty Mouse,' because of his ability to dominate opposition props despite being relatively small in stature for the front row.
He won 43 caps for Scotland and was captain on 19 occasions, a record then overtaken by another world-class loosehead prop, David Sole.
It was his heroics for the Lions that etched his place in rugby folklore.
McLauchlan would go on to feature in all eight Test matches for the Lions on their victorious tours to New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa in 1974, one of only five players to do so.
His final Scotland appearance was against New Zealand at Murrayfield in November 1979 at the age of 37, a decade after making his debut.
After retiring from playing, he went on to serve the game as a highly regarded administrator, serving as president of the Scottish Rugby Union between 2010 to 2012.
A strong advocate for the women's game, he also served as a member of the Scottish Rugby Union board from 2010-19 and was a director of European Professional Club Rugby.
In 2013, he was inducted to Scottish Rugby's Hall of Fame and in December 2017 he was awarded OBE in the New Year's Honours List. He also served as chair of the British and Irish Lions Trust and was a trustee and chair of Scottish rugby's own charity, the Murrayfield Injured Players Foundation.
His contribution to rugby union in total spanned six decades, from winning his first cap for Scotland at Twickenham in 1969 to his last SRU board meeting in 2019.
Born in Tarbolton, Ayrshire on 14 April 1942, he was the first former pupil of Ayr Academy and first student of Jordanhill College to be capped for Scotland. Writing in his autobiography, Mighty Mouse, he described how he fell in love with the game despite not coming from a rugby-playing background. 'I loved the physicality, the brutality and the camaraderie of it. Before long the game had become the be-all and end-all of my life,' he wrote.
He played his club rugby with Jordanhill and West of Scotland, and was first called up for a Scottish trial in 1963, and he made his debut for Glasgow District in the same season.
While it was his scrummaging technique that would make him a feared opponent on the world stage, even against much bigger opponents – he was around 5ft 8ins and weighed just over 14st – he was also famed for his broken-field play and try-scoring prowess. When he eventually made his Scotland debut in 1969, at the age of 27 in the Calcutta Cup match, he had already scored 13 tries in the club game.
Within a couple of seasons, he became an ever-present figure in the Scotland team, becoming captain in 1973, famously playing against England just three weeks after breaking his leg in the victory over Ireland, in a bid to win the Triple Crown. As Sandy Carmichael, his front-row colleague once remarked: 'His heart is bigger than his body.' Scotland lost but shared the Five Nations title.
McLauchlan taught at Broughton High School in Edinburgh and when he retired from playing had a brief spell in rugby journalism before setting up his own marketing company.
His latter years were spent on Islay, on where his wife, Eileen was born. She passed away in 2023.
Telegraph Sport columnist Sir Ian McGeechan paid tribute to his former team-mate and captain.
'Mouse was instrumental for a group of us who came into the Scotland team in the early 1970s,' said McGeechan. 'After he came back from the 1971 [Lions] tour of New Zealand, where he had been so instrumental in the rugby and approach that was played against the All Blacks, a group of us, including myself and Andy Irvine, felt the impact of his support.
'When he was appointed captain, the difference in the atmosphere and attitude was incredible, as was the support he gave us. He was a clever rugby player; he had good hands and was PE-trained. He just encouraged us to play in a Scotland jersey, and I really appreciated being captained by him. He told us not to be afraid to play.
'He was just a good person to be with. He had a good sense of humour and was committed to making sure Scotland were playing on the front foot and not being afraid of it. We benefited hugely from having the Mouse as captain. It was the same on the 1974 Lions tour of South Africa with those of us who went on tour for the first time.
'When he became an administrator, he was not afraid to speak his mind. Everyone knew just what he thought. In that way, he was not afraid of challenging things. A man who in his own way was very good for Scottish and Lions rugby.'