Robert Iain Wainwright (born 22 March 1965) is a former

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 ...

footballer who was capped 37 times for

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 ...

(Captain 16 times) and once for the British and Irish Lions. He played flanker.

Early life

Wainwright was born in

Perth, Scotland Perth (; ) is a centrally located Cities of Scotland, Scottish city, on the banks of the River Tay. It is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and is the historic county town of Perthshire. It had a population of about ...

, the only son of five children. He was educated at

Glenalmond College Glenalmond College is a co-educational independent boarding school in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, for children aged between 12 and 18 years. It is situated on the River Almond near the village of Methven, about west of the city of Perth. T ...

, where his father Jim was a long-serving geography teacher and former Warden (

Headmaster A headmaster/headmistress, head teacher, head, school administrator, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school. Role While s ...

), and read medicine at

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

, on an Army bursary. While at Cambridge he earned full

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

s in rugby and boxing.

Rugby career

Wainwright received his first cap in 1992, as a reserve against .Bath, p164 He could play all back row positions, including flanker and number 8. Wainwright came to prominence in the 1994 Five Nations Championship with a try against England, and also scored a try against France in the final pool match of the

1995 Rugby World Cup The 1995 Rugby World Cup (), was the third Rugby World Cup. It was hosted and won by South Africa, and was the first Rugby World Cup in which every match was held in one country. The World Cup was the first major sporting event to take place in ...

. He became Scotland's first professional Captain following the retirement of

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 ...

after the Rugby World Cup in 1995, and led Scotland to a surprise second place behind England in the 1996 Five Nations Championship. Richard Bath wrote of him that his :"''quiet and urbane manner belies a steely resolve that led

Jim Telfer James Telfer (born 17 March 1940) is a Scottish former rugby union coach and player. As a player, he won 21 international caps in the amateur era, also having a career as a headmaster at Hawick High School and Galashiels Academy and Forrester ...

to eventually appoint the utility back-row man as skipper after

' retirement in 1995... he was forced to wait until the famous back row of Jeffrey, Calder and

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

called it a day after the 1991 World Cup before he could force his way into the Scottish squad... An unshowy player who does so much of the unseen work, Wainwright is a useful tail of the line jumper and a consistently good tackler.''" When Wainwright was injured in 1996,

Gregor Townsend Gregor Peter John Townsend (born 26 April 1973) is a Scottish professional rugby union coach and former player who has been coaching the Scotland national team since 2017. Townsend was previously the assistant coach from 2009 to 2012. As a p ...

took on the position of national captain. Wainwright returned to captain the side in January 1997.

Army career

doctor Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to: Titles and occupations * Physician, a medical practitioner * Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree ** Doctorate ** List of doctoral degrees awarded b ...

by profession, Wainwright was commissioned into the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) was a specialist corps in the British Army which provided medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. On 15 November 2024, the corps was amalgamated with the Royal Army De ...

in 1987 and was promoted to

Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

in 1990,

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

on the completion of his medical training in 1991 and

Major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in 1996. He continued to be employed by the Army while also playing semi-professionally. As the

1997 Five Nations Championship The 1997 Five Nations Championship was the sixty-eighth series of the rugby union Five Nations Championship. Including the previous incarnations as the Home Nations and Five Nations, this was the hundred-and-third series of the northern hemisphe ...

approached, Wainright anticipated that he might be deployed to

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

with

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

peacekeeping troops but this did not occur. He retired in 1999.

Personal life

Wainwright married Romayne in 1992. They have four children: Douglas, Natasha, Alexander, Cameron. After ending his rugby career, Wainwright had planned to return to a career in medicine. In 1999 he and his family moved to the island of

Coll Coll (; )Mac an Tàilleir (2003) p. 31 is an island located west of the Isle of Mull and northeast of Tiree in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Coll is known for its sandy beaches, which rise to form large sand dunes, for its corncrakes, and fo ...

in the

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides ( ; ) is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which experience a mild oceanic climate. The Inner Hebrides compri ...

, taking ownership of a farm. He was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the

2024 New Year Honours The 2024 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms to Orders and decorations of the Commonwealth realms, various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Hono ...

for voluntary and charitable services to the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation.

References

External links

profile
on ''lionsrugby.com''
Heineken cup profile

at

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...