Anthony George Stanger (born 14 May 1968) is a Scottish former 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. With 24 international tries, he was

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 ...

's joint record try scorer, along with

Ian Smith Ian Douglas Smith (8 April 191920 November 2007) was a Rhodesian politician, farmer, and fighter pilot who served as Prime Minister of Rhodesia (known as Southern Rhodesia until October 1964 and now known as Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1979. He w ...

, until that record was broken by Stuart Hogg in November 2021. His regular playing positions were Wing and Centre.

Early life

Stanger was born in

Hawick Hawick ( ; ; ) is a town in the Scottish Borders council areas of Scotland, council area and counties of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east o ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

. He attended university at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Applied Sport Sciences – 1st Class Honours (1999)."Talent job lures Tony Stanger back to Scotland"
''The Telegraph'', 17 May 2008.

Rugby career

Stanger played rugby for Scotland at under 18, 19 and 21 levels. He went on the Scotland rugby team's tour of Japan. He was selected to start for Scotland against

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

in October 1989, without playing for the Scotland B side. He scored the winning try in the 1990 Five Nations match against England to seal Scotland's third Grand Slam."The memory lives on for everyone but the hero"
''Herald'', 3 February 2015. He played for Scotland at the

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

and

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 ...

s. In 1997, Stanger was called up to replace Ieuan Evans, who was injured on tour with the British Lions in South Africa 1997, and Stanger gained one cap on the tour.

Later and personal life

Since retiring from playing, Stanger has moved on to other pursuits, mainly in the areas of coaching and guidance for professional sportspeople. He received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Education from University of Edinburgh in June 2007. Stanger worked as a Talent Manager with the Scottish Institute of Sport from 2008 to 2015, then served as Director at performance agency ''Stanger Pro'' alongside his New Zealand-born wife Bid.About
Stanger Pro Their son George is a

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who began his career at Stirling Albion before moving to Hamilton Academical in 2018, also being selected for New Zealand Under-20s.

References

External links

* 1968 births Living people Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Border Reivers players British & Irish Lions rugby union players from Scotland Edinburgh Rugby players FC Grenoble Rugby players Hawick Linden RFC players Hawick RFC players Leeds Tykes players Rugby union players from Hawick Rugby union wings Scotland international rugby union players Scottish rugby union players 1991 Rugby World Cup players 1995 Rugby World Cup players Scottish expatriate rugby union players in France {{Scotland-rugbyunion-bio-1960s-stub