Former Scotland and British & Irish Lions player Ken Scotland dies

Former Scotland and British and Irish Lions full-back Ken Scotland has died at the age of 86, the Scottish Rugby Union has confirmed.

Scotland, who also represented his country at cricket, made his international rugby union debut in the 1957 Five Nations Championship against France.

He went on to make 27 appearances over the next eight years, and also played for Leicester Tigers, who named him in their ‘Team of the Century’ in 1999.

Being Barbarians – Rugby Documentary

Video Player is loading.

Play Video

PlaySkip BackwardSkip Forward

Unmute

Current Time 0:00

/

Duration 0:00

Loaded: 0%

Stream Type LIVE

Seek to live, currently behind liveLIVE

Remaining Time -0:00

 

1x

Playback Rate

Chapters

• Chapters

Descriptions

• descriptions off, selected

Captions

• captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
• captions off, selected

Audio Track

Fullscreen

This is a modal window.

The Video Cloud video was not found.

Error Code: VIDEO_CLOUD_ERR_VIDEO_NOT_FOUND

Session ID: 2025-08-11:20ca63cf62ac8984072296 Player Element ID: brightcove-embedded-video

OK

Close Modal Dialog

Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

Text

ColorWhiteBlackRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-Transparent

Text Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityOpaqueSemi-TransparentTransparent

Caption Area Background

ColorBlackWhiteRedGreenBlueYellowMagentaCyanOpacityTransparentSemi-TransparentOpaque

Font Size

50%75%100%125%150%175%200%300%400%

Text Edge Style

NoneRaisedDepressedUniformDrop shadow

Font Family

Proportional Sans-SerifMonospace Sans-SerifProportional SerifMonospace SerifCasualScriptSmall Caps

ResetDone

Close Modal Dialog

End of dialog window.

Close Modal Dialog

This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

Being Barbarians – Rugby Documentary

Our new rugby documentary follows Scott Robertson and Ronan O’Gara in a brand new saga following the Barbarians rugby team, one of the most famous sides in the world. In this clash, they take on New Zealand XV.

Scottish Rugby said it was “immensely saddened” by Scotland’s death, describing him as “a player ahead of his time, a true trailblazer.”

Scotland great Andy Irvine added: “Ken was undoubtedly one of the greatest players ever to grace the rugby field and was one of the nicest chaps you could ever meet.”