Scottish rugby mourns the loss of Lions and Hawick prop legend Hugh McLeod

It was a lean period for Scottish rugby and he had to wait for his seventh

Test, against Wales in 1955, before he experienced victory.

He was chosen for the Lions tours to South

Africa in 1955 and to Australia

and New

Zealand four years later. It was on those trips that he developed

the fitness regimes that put him head and shoulders above others of the time

and led to him being labelled ‘the Hawick Hardman’.

After his retirement from playing, at the age of 29, McLeod set about shaping

Hawick in his image.

The club dominated Scottish rugby in the Sixties and went on to win five

consecutive championship titles following the creation of a national league

structure in 1973.

A builder by profession, McLeod also ran a sports shop in Hawick for many

years. He was made an OBE in 1962 and was inducted into the Scottish Rugby

Hall of Fame last year.

Recalling his first Test, McLeod recently told the Scottish Rugby Union

website: “I played in many Scottish trials before I got my first cap. I was

in the tank corps at Catterick when I was informed I was in the Scotland

side to play against the French in 1954.

“I had the ’flu when I went to Murrayfield for my first international. My

mother came – she followed the rugby a wee bit, but my father didn’t follow

it a lot.

“She came round the back of the stand, when we were getting our photos taken,

to see us before we went out to play.

“She said afterwards: ‘You looked like a ghost, I don’t know how you played.’

“But it didn’t affect me, I must have got over it. I can’t remember an awful

lot about the game.

“It was something new, a step up, it was bigger and faster.”

Article source: http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/robbie-henshaw-to-miss-ireland-s-tour-of-argentina-1.1813650

Scottish rugby mourns the loss of Lions and Hawick prop legend Hugh McLeod