Roger Baird
Encyclopedia
Gavin Roger Todd Baird was a Scottish rugby union player, who won 27 caps
Cap (sport)
In sports, a cap is a metaphorical term for a player's appearance on a select team, such as a national team. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of association football...

 playing on the wing for between 1981 and 1988.

A grain merchant, he is a former team manager of Scotland U21s and is assistant coach to Kelso clubmate Gary Callander
Gary Callander
Gary Callander is a retired Rugby Union player who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland.Between 1983 and 1989 he won 6 caps playing Hooker for the Scottish Rugby Union side – for five of which he was Captain and included him leading the Scottish team to win 24–11 over France at Murrayfield Stadium in...

 at Watsonians.

Playing career

Baird attended Merchiston Castle School
Merchiston Castle School
Merchiston Castle School is an independent school for boys in the village of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has about 480 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 8 and 18 as either boarders or day pupils; day pupils make up 35% of the school....

, a private school, noted for producing strong rugby players, and went on to play scrum-half for the Scottish Schools team.

He played for the full Kelso
Kelso RFC
Kelso Rugby Football Club are a rugby union team founded in 1876. They play their home games at Poynder Park, Kelso in the Scottish Borders.Team team currently play in Premiership Division Two and Border League .Kelso's Sevens Tournament takes place annually in August and the competition is part of...

 sevens
Rugby sevens
Rugby sevens, also known as seven-a-side or VIIs, is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players, instead of the usual 15, with shorter matches. Rugby sevens is administered by the International Rugby Board , the body responsible for rugby union worldwide...

 team while still at Merchiston, collecting a Melrose winner’s medal
Melrose Sevens
Melrose Sevens is an annual rugby sevens event held by Melrose Rugby Club, in Melrose, Scotland. It is the oldest rugby sevens competition dating from 1883, when the tournament was suggested by former Melrose player Ned Haig....

 at 17. Bill McLaren
Bill McLaren
William Pollock "Bill" McLaren CBE was a Scottish rugby union commentator, teacher, journalist and one time rugby player. Until his retirement in 2002, he was known as 'the voice of rugby'...

 considered him an exceptional sevens player.

Within two years he was capped by Scotland B, and he won the first of 27 caps in the 24-15 win over at Murrayfield Stadium
Murrayfield Stadium
Murrayfield Stadium is a sports stadium located in the west end of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Its all-seater capacity was recently reduced from 67,800 to 67,130 to incorporate the largest permanent "big screen" in the country though it still remains the largest stadium in Scotland and one...

 in 1981, replacing Bruce Hay
Bruce Hay
Bruce Hamilton Hay was a Scottish international rugby union player.-Background:Hay was born in Edinburgh and educated at Liberton High School. From there he went on to work as an engineer for the National Coal Board...

.

A regular fixture on the left wing for Scotland, he went on the 1983 British Lions tour to New Zealand
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...

, playing in all four Tests, and scoring six tries in 11 appearances. In one of these tries in particularly wet weather, he slammed right into the billboards around the pitch.

Baird also played for the South of Scotland rugby union team. One odd feature of Baird's playing career was noted by 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...

:
"Extraordinarily he has not scored a try for Scotland, though he already holds the record number of tries for the South."


Baird was very successful at District and Club level, and scored a number of times for the British Lions, but never scored for his own country.

External links

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