James "Jim" Telfer is a Scottish rugby union coach and a former rugby player. A former headmaster at Hawick High School

Hawick High School

Hawick High School is a non-denominational secondary school in Hawick, in the Scottish Borders. As well as serving the town, it also takes in pupils from as far away as Newcastleton....

 and chemistry teacher, he has won fame as a Scottish forwards coach who gave punishing training sessions to his players. With Sir Ian McGeechan

Ian McGeechan

Sir Ian Robert McGeechan OBE is a Scottish former rugby union player and coach. His nickname is "Geech".-Playing career:...

 he has had success with both the Scotland national rugby union team

Scotland national rugby union team

The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011...

 and the British and Irish Lions

British and Irish Lions

The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

.

Playing career

Telfer gained twenty one caps, and may have gained more, but for injury; as Allan Massie

Allan Massie

Allan Massie is a well-known Scottish journalist, sports writer and novelist.-Early life:Born in 1938 in Singapore, where his father was a rubber planter for Sime Darby, Massie spent his childhood in Aberdeenshire...

  writes of him:

"Telfer is a man of innate authority. (There's a wealth of quiet reserve and self-knowledge, touched by that form of self-mockery which appears as under-statement, in the way he will describe himself as being a 'dominant personality')"

Telfer played back row for Scotland

Scotland national rugby union team

The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011...

 and for the Lions

British and Irish Lions

The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 in 1966 and 1968. He was impressed and heavily influenced by New Zealand rugby. Unfortunately, after a cartilage

Cartilage

Cartilage is a flexible connective tissue found in many areas in the bodies of humans and other animals, including the joints between bones, the rib cage, the ear, the nose, the elbow, the knee, the ankle, the bronchial tubes and the intervertebral discs...

 operation he slowed up.

George Crerar said of Telfer "The great thing about Jim Telfer is that he makes sure that if he isn't going to win the ball the other side won't get it either."

Coaching

He was head coach to the British and Irish Lions on their tour of New Zealand in 1983

1983 British Lions tour to New Zealand

In 1983 the British and Irish Lions toured New Zealand for the first time since 1977. The Lions went down to a 4-0 whitewash for only the second time in history - the previous was also inflicted by the All Blacks on the 1966 Lions. Overall the Lions played eighteen matches, winning twelve and...

. He was assistant coach, with particular responsibility for the forwards, on the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 1997.

Telfer coached Scotland to the Grand Slam in 1984 and, as assistant to Sir Ian McGeechan, to his second Grand Slam in 1990. In his second term as head coach from 1998–1999, Scotland won the final Five Nations Championship.

Sources

• Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1 86200 013 3)
• Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ISBN 0 904919 84 6)
• Telfer, Jim Jim Telfer: Looking Back... For Once (Mainstream Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1845960629)

External links

• Jim Telfer (The Scotsman)
• Video Interview with Jim Telfer 3:48 -to- 4:48