Scottish Rugby 'immensely saddened' following death of Scotland and Lions great Dougie Morgan
Scottish Rugby have stated that they are immensely saddened to learn of the death in hospital in Edinburgh last night of former Scotland scrum-half, captain, coach and manager, Dougie Morgan.
He was 73 and had been ill for some time.
In addition to being capped 21 times for Scotland between 1973 and 1978, Morgan also played two Test matches for the British & Irish Lions on their 1977 tour of New Zealand.
Speaking to Scottish Rugby, McGeechan, who played and coached with Morgan over some 40 years, said: “Dougie was a team-mate who became a very good friend during an association with Scottish rugby which covered four decades.
“He was hugely competitive and a talented sportsman – he put up with me on the golf course, an experience which showed his patience and calmness, attributes which made him a perfect manager in later years.
“Dougie had a deep understanding of the game and was tactically very aware. I will never forget him standing on Gareth Edwards’ foot to distract him whilst trying to put the ball into the scrum, an approach which stopped Wales playing and we ultimately won the game. He was also a natural goal kicker.
“He was a great room-mate and always had a mug of tea waiting by the bedside in a morning. He unselfishly helped and supported others. He was also supremely organised, and I often used him as a sounding board when coaching.
“His support was never better than with Jim Telfer, Derek Grant and myself we had a coaching group which shared ideas, particularly in the build up to the Rugby World Cup in 1991.
“On and off the field he was a great friend and companion. I have memories I will always cherish and be very thankful for knowing Dougie.”
Richie Dixon, who coached with Morgan at Scotland under-21, Scotland B and the senior national team and who succeeded Morgan as head coach in 1996, said: “Dougie was a very committed guy. As a player, he was very astute and combative and very much a natural leader and his record for Scotland and the Lions speaks for itself.
“He was very loyal to the rugby family and, most of all, his own family.
“As a coach, he was very much a thinker. I enjoyed working with him. He was just hellbent on making things good. He will be sadly missed.”
The club is deeply saddened to learn of the death of former Edinburgh District and Scotland scrum-half, Dougie Morgan.
A true champion of rugby in the city, our thoughts go out to his friends and family during this difficult time. pic.twitter.com/05azffnGuh
— Edinburgh Rugby (@EdinburghRugby) April 5, 2020
Morgan then moved into team management, fulfilling that role with Scotland 7s, Scotland A – including their 1998 Grand Slam – and the senior Scotland team in 2000, bowing out after the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Australia, where Scotland, again, had reached the quarter-finals.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said: “I was really saddened to hear that Dougie has passed away. He was a great servant to Scottish rugby, first and foremost as a terrific player and captain of the national side.
“He went on to have success as a coach and in 1995 we came very close to winning a Grand Slam and a few months later his Scotland team were only seconds away from topping their pool in the World Cup until France scored deep into injury time.
“Dougie was a hugely popular figure in his time as manager of the national team, someone who enjoyed having a laugh with the players, although he kept his natural competitive instinct whenever we took him on at pool or on the golf course. He has contributed a huge amount to Scottish rugby and he’ll be sorely missed.”
Heriot’s Rugby Club is saddened to learn of the passing of Dougie Morgan of @StewMelRugby1.
Read our full statement below:https://t.co/TumO0vEqZw
— Heriot's Rugby Club (@HeriotsRugby) April 5, 2020
Douglas Waugh Morgan was born in Edinburgh on 9 March 1947 and gave a lifetime of dedicated service to the game.
At a time where international rugby had some world-class scrum-halves, Morgan, the fiercest of competitors, frequently outshone those with a stellar reputation.
Arguably two of his finest performances in a Scotland jersey came in the Murrayfield victories over Wales in 1973 and 1975.
In the former, his debut, the Melville College scrum-half was hailed for his persistent disruption of Gareth Edwards – who had already helped the Lions to a Test series victory in New Zealand – which put the Welsh genius off his game and was pivotal in Scotland’s 10-9 victory.
Then, two years later, in a match which drew a then world-record crowd of 104,000 to Murrayfield, Morgan’s three penalties, in addition to his continuing shackling of Edwards, was once again hugely significant in a 12-10 margin.
On the 1977 Lions tour to New Zealand, Morgan scored all the Lions points, including a try, in the narrow 9-10 loss at Eden Park.
The following year, he was appointed Scotland captain and led the team for the first time at Lansdowne Road in Dublin, where his fellow Lion, tight-head prop, Sandy Carmichael became the first Scot to reach the milestone of 50 caps.
Deep into injury time in that game, Scotland were trailing 9-12 and were awarded a decidedly kickable penalty, which would have earned them a draw. Morgan, underlining that, for him, winning was the only currency in international rugby, opted to run the ball but the move broke down and Ireland held out. He had, however, again demonstrated the courage of his own conviction.
The 1978 championship was a tale of narrow defeats for Scotland – except for a 0-15 loss to England in the Calcutta Cup, which turned out to be Morgan’s final cap, having garnered 71 points for Scotland in his Test career.
He continued to play club rugby for another six years and helped Stewart’s-Melville – the club spawned from the merger of the FP clubs of Daniel Stewart’s and Melville College – to some terrific achievements, not least winning Middlesex Sevens at Twickenham in 1982, where he converted 11 of their 12 tries.
Morgan soon moved into coaching and he progressed up the ladder from the Edinburgh District side eventually becoming Scotland head coach in the 1993-94 season. Before that, he had supported Sir Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer as Scotland won the 1990 Grand Slam and reached the semi-finals of the 1991 Rugby World Cup.
During his tenure as head coach, Scotland reached the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals in South Africa and posted their first victory over France in Paris in 26 years.
In his “day job”, Morgan was a chiropodist at the Jenner’s department store in Edinburgh.
He took great pride in his family and spoke warmly of the rugby skills of son-in-law Graham Shiel, the Melrose midfielder, who went on to win 18 caps for Scotland, and his grand-son, Charlie Shiel, the Edinburgh Rugby scrum-half.
Scottish Rugby extended its sincere condolences to Dougie’s wife Doreen and all his family and many friends.
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
26 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
26 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
26 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
26 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
26 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments