Christopher William Wallace Rea (born 22 October 1943) is a former

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. He was capped 13 times for Scotland, scoring three tries, including the winning try in the 1971

Calcutta Cup The Calcutta Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the rugby match between teams of England and Scotland played annually in the Six Nations Championship. Like the match itself (England–Scotland), the Calcutta Cup is the oldest trophy con ...

. Rea toured New Zealand in 1971 with the

British and 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 ...

, scoring three tries. At the time played club rugby for Headingley FC in Leeds having previously played for

West of Scotland F.C. West of Scotland Football Club is a rugby union club based in Milngavie, Scotland. Founded in 1865, West of Scotland are one of the oldest rugby clubs in the world, and one of the founding members of the Scottish Rugby Union. West have enjoyed ...

Rea became a sports journalist, working for the BBC amongst others, and became Head of Marketing at the MCC and then IRB Communications Manager in 2000. He presented

Rugby Special ''Rugby Special'' was the main rugby union highlights programme on the BBC in the UK. The show ran from 1966 and past presenters included David Vine, Keith Macklin, Cliff Morgan, Chris Rea (rugby union), Chris Rea, Nigel Starmer-Smith, Bill Beaum ...

and also hosted the BBC's canoeing contest 'Paddles Up' during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1995 he moved to ITV to commentate on matches in the 1995 World Cup He is a former student of the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

References

Notes

* Massie, Allan ''A Portrait of Scottish Rugby'' (Polygon, Edinburgh; ) 1943 births Living people Alumni of the University of St Andrews British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Scotland Dundee HSFP players People educated at the High School of Dundee Rugby union centres Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players University of St Andrews RFC players West of Scotland FC players {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-1940s-stub