Ross William Ford (born 23 April 1984) is a Strength and Conditioning coach for the Scottish Rugby Academy. He was previously a

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

international

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who played as a hooker. He made 110 test appearances for Scotland, making him their most-capped male player. He played in three

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

s (2007, 2011 and 2015) and toured with the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

in 2009, making one appearance. Ford played professional rugby for

Border Reivers Border Reivers were Cattle raiding, raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border. They included both Scotland, Scottish and England, English people, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality.Hay, D. "E ...

(2002–2007) and then

Edinburgh Rugby Edinburgh Rugby (formerly Edinburgh Reivers, Edinburgh Gunners) is one of the two professional rugby union teams from Scotland. The club competes in the United Rugby Championship, along with the Glasgow Warriors, its oldest rival. Edinburgh play ...

between 2007 and 2019.

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Ross Ford grew up in Kelso and went to Kelso High School in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

. He played for Kelso Harlequins (u18s) and then

Kelso RFC Kelso Rugby Football Club are a Scottish rugby union team founded in 1876. They play their home games at Poynder Park, Kelso in the Scottish Borders. The men's team currently play in and the Border League (the oldest established rugby union ...

Professional career

In May 2002 Ford signed for

, before he had finished school. Ford initially played at loose forward, but was convinced to switch to hooker while at Border Reivers.Reid, Alasdair (2009)
Scotland's happy hooker Ross Ford is looking forward to the physical battle against Ireland
, ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'', 13 March 2009, retrieved 2010-08-30 After the Reivers disbandment in the summer of 2007, Ford was left without a club. He initially signed for the

Glasgow Warriors The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and beca ...

in August 2007 but on 18 October 2007 it was announced that he had been transferred to

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

who were back under the Scottish Rugby Union's control in that year. Ford made his 150th appearance for Edinburgh in December 2015.

International career

Ford was a member of the

Commonwealth Games The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations, which consists mostly, but not exclusively, of territories of the former British Empire. The event was first held in 1930 ...

Scotland 7s squad at

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

in 2002. Ford captained Scotland under-16 and has also represented his country at under-18 and under-19 level. He is a member of the Scottish Institute of Sport. Ford was first capped by the Scotland senior side in the 2004 Abbey Autumn Tests against Australia at

Murrayfield Murrayfield is an area to the west of Edinburgh city centre in Scotland. It is to the east of Corstorphine and north of Balgreen, Saughtonhall and Roseburn. The A8 road (Scotland), A8 road runs east–west through the south of the area. Murra ...

, making his second appearance over a year later, coming on as a replacement against Wales in the

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

RBS 6 Nations. After one further appearance against England he missed the 2006 summer tour to South Africa through a knee injury but returned to the Scotland squad in the 2007–08 season. Ford made his first start in the RBS 6 Nations Championship in Scotland's final match of the 2007 competition, away to France. He followed that up by winning plaudits for his line out throwing and play in both tight and loose in Scotland's World Cup warm-up victory against Ireland. Ford was named in Scotland's

Rugby World Cup 2007 The 2007 Rugby World Cup () was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by Fr ...

squad, and became the first choice hooker after the previous #1 hooker Dougie Hall pulled out of the whole World Cup altogether with injury. In his first match at the tournament he came on as a replacement against Portugal and scored his first try for Scotland. In 2009, Ford was selected for the

as a replacement for

Jerry Flannery Jeremiah Paul Flannery (born 17 October 1978) is an Irish rugby union former player and current coach. During his playing career, Flannery, a hooker, played for Munster and Ireland, before being forced to retire in March 2012 due to injury pro ...

. He played for 50 minutes in the third test and was Scotland's only representative in the three test matches of that tour.Hands, David (2009)
Ross Ford called up to join Lions tour
, ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 23 May 2009, retrieved 2010-08-30 Ford was the captain of the Scotland Team for the

2012 Six Nations Championship The 2012 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2012 RBS 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 13th series of the Six Nations Championship. The annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship was ...

and the 2012 mid-year rugby test series. In June 2014 Ford made his 76th appearance and overtook Gordon Bulloch as Scotland's most-capped hooker. In August 2015 he won his 88th cap against Italy, overtaking Scott Murray as Scotland's most capped forward. His one hundredth cap came against Australia in November 2016, with only two other Scots previously having gained 100 caps- Chris Paterson and Sean Lamont. On 24 June 2017 Ford made his 110th test appearance for Scotland and overtook Chris Paterson as the most capped Scot.

Coaching career

On 27 June 2019 it was announced that Ford was retired from playing rugby. Instead he took a role as a Strength and Conditioning coach at the Scottish Rugby Academy.

Other

In 2011 Ford appeared on cereal boxes for

Scott's Porage Oats Scott's Porage Oats is a Scottish breakfast cereal (a brand of porridge) sold in the United Kingdom. The former Scott's Company was established in Glasgow by A&R Scott, two brothers who made a partnership to manufacture oat products. Scott's was ...

along with Chris Paterson and

Thom Evans Thom Evans (born 2 April 1985) is a Scottish former international rugby union player and model. He last played on the wing for Glasgow Warriors in the Celtic League. Evans's rugby career ended aged 24 on his tenth appearance for Scotland when ...

References

External links

profile
at Scottish Rugby * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Ross 1984 births Living people Border Reivers players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Scotland Edinburgh Rugby players Glasgow Warriors players Jed-Forest RFC players Kelso RFC players People educated at Kelso High School, Scotland Rugby union hookers Rugby union players from Kelso Rugby union strength and conditioning coaches Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union coaches Scottish rugby union players 2007 Rugby World Cup players 2011 Rugby World Cup players 2015 Rugby World Cup players Scotland international rugby sevens players Rugby sevens players at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for Scotland Male rugby sevens players