Finlay Calder

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(born 20 August 1957) is a

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

international former

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

player.

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Born in Haddington, East Lothian and educated at Stewart's Melville College, Calder played at open side

flanker Flanker may refer to: * Flanker (perfume), a newly created perfume sharing attributes of an existing one * Flanker (rugby union), a position in rugby union (not found in rugby league) * ''Su-27 Flanker'' (video game), a 1996 computer game modelin ...

. 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.

International career

He received 2 caps for Scotland 'B' in 1983 to 1984. His full international debut was against France in 1986. He won 34 caps representing

from 1986 to 1991. His last international game was against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

in the third-place play-off match in the 1991 Rugby World Cup. He captained 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 ...

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 John Jeffrey (born 25 March 1959 in Kelso in the Scottish Borders) is a former Scotland international rugby union player. He is an administrator for World Rugby. Rugby Union career Amateur career Jeffrey was educated at St. Mary's Scho ...

and Derek White could not impose their own game, they certainly would make sure that the opposition could not impose theirs''". When in 1989 Calder captained the Lions, he was the first Scottish player selected to do this since

Mike Campbell-Lamerton Colonel Michael John Campbell-Lamerton (1 August 1933 – 17 March 2005) was a Scotland international player. He was also a British Army officer. Military career He was educated at Ottershaw School near Chertsey, Surrey. National Serv ...

in 1966 and the first captain to lead the side to victory since Willie John McBride in 1974.

Honours

Calder was appointed OBE in the

1990 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 1990 were appointments by most of the Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries, and honorary ones to citizens of other countries ...

Family

His twin brother Jim Calder also played for Scotland and the Lions. 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

External links

Finlay Calder
- on the Sporting Heroes database
Fin Calder's Lions
- including nine Scottish players ( Gary Armstrong, Craig Chalmers, Peter Dods,

, Gavin Hastings, Scott Hastings, David Sole, Derek White and Finlay Calder himself)
Fin Calder looks back on the 1989 Lions tour to Australia
1957 births Living people British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Scotland Heriot's RC players Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Stewart's Melville College Rugby union flankers Rugby union players from Haddington, East Lothian Scotland 'B' international rugby union players Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players Stewart's Melville RFC players Scottish twins Twin sportspeople Scottish Districts (combined) players {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-stub