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 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

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 who played as a

hooker Hooker may refer to: People * Hooker (surname) Places Antarctica * Mount Hooker (Antarctica) * Cape Hooker (Antarctica) * Cape Hooker (South Shetland Islands) New Zealand * Hooker River * Mount Hooker (New Zealand) in the Southern Alps * Hoo ...

. He made 110 test appearances for Scotland, making him their most-capped 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 concept i ...

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, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

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

Border Reivers Border reivers were raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border from the late 13th century to the beginning of the 17th century. They included both Scottish and English people, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their v ...

(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 pl ...

between 2007 and 2019. Ross Ford took over from Stuart Johnson as Head Coach at Gala RFC on 6th December 2022.

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

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

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lot ...

. 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 l ...

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'', 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 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 became t ...

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

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

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, often referred to as the Friendly Games or simply the Comm Games, are a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 British Empire Game ...

Scotland 7s squad at

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

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 affluent area to the west of Edinburgh city centre in Scotland. It is to the east of Corstorphine and north of Balgreen and Roseburn. The A8 road runs east–west through the south of the area. Murrayfield is often con ...

, making his second appearance over a year later, coming on as a replacement against Wales in the 2006 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 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. 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 daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

'', 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 c ...

and the

2012 mid-year rugby test series The 2012 mid-year rugby union tests (also known as the Summer Internationals in the Northern Hemisphere) refer to the rugby union Internationals that were played through June, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere. These matches marked the start of ...

. 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 food company that manufactures breakfast cereal (a brand of porridge) in the United Kingdom. It 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.

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