Farewell to Ian McLauchlan, one of the most feared scrummagers of his era
On Saturday, the death was announced of the Mouse that Roared. How inappropriate that on the day the Lions departed for their tour to Australia, one of the most celebrated Lions — who appeared in both the greatest Lions tours, 1971 and 1974 — should have died at 83
Ian McLauchlan, the Scotland and Lions prop, weighed in at not much more than 14st. Even in the 1970s, an era he spanned with wondrous physicality, that was improbably light for a prop, and throughout the sport he became known as Mighty Mouse. His iron-hard attitude and an ability burrow under massive opponents made him one of the most feared scrummagers of his era.
It has become against the law to lift an opponent off his feet in the scrum but in those years, McLauchlan frequently managed to fire his direct opposite numbers out through the roof of the scrum, gaining a technical and also a wonderful psychological advantage.
He played in all four Tests of the epic 1971 Lions tour to New Zealand, scoring a try from a chargedown in the first Test and playing throughout that successful series.
By 1974, he was laying waste to scrum opponents across the world, played in all four Tests of the thunderous Lions tour to South Africa, a brutal crusade in which, as the journalist John Reason wrote: 'McLauchlan took on all-comers with a rasping disdain.'
He was a driving captain of Scotland; it is said that he once fractured a bone in his leg in a Five Nations match but two weeks later captained Scotland against England at Twickenham in the Calcutta Cup, without even a limp.
He went on to serve the game superbly as an administrator and became president of the Scottish Rugby Union. A fellow Lions great, Andy Irvine, paid tribute to McLauchlan. 'He was some character and some player. He was smaller than most props he came up against but I never saw anyone get the better of him.'
'He was so tough, almost indestructible. What a fantastic career he had for Scotland, and the Lions; it's very, very sad.'
He was a wonderfully vivid character inside and outside rugby. The Offside Line notes that he he did not come from a rugby-playing background: 'Sport meant football, racing pigeons, whippets, pitch-and-toss and more football.'
Once he did discover the sport, McLauchlan immediately realised he was at home. 'I was hooked straight away,' he once said. 'I loved the physicality, the brutality and the camaraderie of it. Before long the game had become the be-all and end-all of my life.'
How would he have fared in the professional era? Brilliantly, at a guess. Mighty Mouse never needed financial reward to give it everything he had on the rugby field.
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