Brendan James Laney, (born 16 November 1973 in

Invercargill Invercargill ( , ) is the southernmost and westernmost list of cities in New Zealand, city in New Zealand, and one of the Southernmost settlements, southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland Region, Southlan ...

, New Zealand) is a former professional

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 represented

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 ...

as one of the original 'kilted Kiwis'. Nicknamed "Chainsaw" for the way he cut through defences, he was also a good goal kicker. From

South Canterbury South Canterbury is the area of the Canterbury Region of the South Island of New Zealand bounded by the Rangitata River in the north and the Waitaki River (the border with the Otago Region) to the south. The Pacific Ocean and ridge of the S ...

in New Zealand, he began his professional rugby career at full back for the Highlanders in the

Super 12 Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

. He played for

Yamaha Jubilo Shizuoka Blue Revs (formerly the Yamaha Júbilo) are a rugby union team based in Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan. The team came second behind Toshiba Brave Lupus in the second season of Japanese rugby's Top League (2004–05). They were coached by former ...

in Japan at the end of his career.

Scotland

He was controversially rushed straight into the Scottish national team by the then national coach,

Ian McGeechan Sir Ian Robert McGeechan, OBE (born 30 October 1946) is a Scottish rugby union player, coach and teacher. Born in Leeds, McGeechan represented Headingley as his only club during a 15-year club career, qualifying for Scotland through his father h ...

just two days after he arrived from New Zealand. This annoyed many ex-Scottish internationals, particularly

Gavin Hastings Andrew Gavin Hastings, (born 3 January 1962) is a Scottish former rugby union player. A fullback, he is widely regarded to be one of the best ever Scottish rugby players and was one of the outstanding players of his generation, winning 61 c ...

who voiced his feelings publicly, and this was hard for Laney who had hero-worshipped Hastings as a child. After the initial controversy died down, however, he became a popular figure with teammates and fans, through his personality and leadership. He also made his mark with Scotland, setting a new record of 24 points in a Six Nations game, and went on to equal Gavin Hastings’ record of scoring 100 points in just nine Test matches. Perhaps most significantly, he contributed 11 points in the 21-6 defeat of the

Springboks The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabhokobhoko) is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

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 ...

in 2002, Scotland’s first win over one of the tri-nations teams in 20 years. His Scotland career was not without disappointment. After heavy criticism, Laney was left out of the Six Nations fixture against Ireland due to the "psychological effect of an injury" and was not to be seen in a Scotland jersey again.

Edinburgh Rugby

Laney played at

flyhalf In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16� ...

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

and fullback for

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 ...

from 2001 to 2005. He played 76 times and scored 409 points from 15 tries, 69 penalties, 53 conversions and seven drop-goals.

Japan

Laney left Edinburgh for

in March 2005.

After rugby

Laney was a rugby commentator for

SKY Sport (New Zealand) Sky Sport is a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by New Zealand's satellite pay-TV company, Sky. History Sky Sport 1 is the original Sky Television sport channel in New Zealand. It was first introduced in 1990 as Sky Spo ...

, but now manages a sports and rugby clothing company in Christchurch.

References

External links

Brendan Laney on Edinburgh Rugby website

Brendan Laney joins Yamaha

Inspired Laney turns on the style
- The Scotsman, 21 March 2005 {{DEFAULTSORT:Laney, Brendan New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union centres South Canterbury rugby union players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Scotland Highlanders (rugby union) players Otago rugby union players Shizuoka Blue Revs players Edinburgh Rugby players 1973 births Living people Rugby union players from Invercargill New Zealand people of Scottish descent Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players People educated at Timaru Boys' High School New Zealand expatriate rugby union players in Japan