Douglas Elliot

Douglas Elliot (18 April 1923 – 12 March 2005) also known as W.I.D. Elliot and Doug(ie) Elliot was a Scottish international rugby union player, who played for .

He was six feet three inches and over fourteen stone. He was a backrow forward, and has also been inducted to the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

Rugby Union career

Amateur career

Elliot played for Edinburgh Academicals.

Provincial career

He was capped by Edinburgh District to play Glasgow District in the inter-city match of 1947.

He played for the Scotland Probables side in December 1947.

International career

He was capped 29 times for Scotland between 1947 and 1954.

Allan Massie talking of the 1950s, said:

"Elliot was my first Rugby hero, and for a long time in the Fifties, he was the only one a Scots boy could have... the Scottish sides he played in, especially in the Fifties, gave him little chance to display his attacking abilities. All the same, match reports of the time make frequent mention of Elliot bursting from the line-out to run thirty yards... He was undoubtedly the nearest thing to a forward in the classic All Black mould that Scotland produced in the twenty years after the war, for he was fast also, possessed all the basic skills, and breathed aggression. It was fitting that almost his last game for Scotland was against the All Blacks in 1954, when he captained the side that held the tourists to a single penalty goal."

Bill McLaren remembers in 1947 going for a Scotland trial, and playing at the back of the line-out,

"the only time the ball was thrown anywhere near there and I got it I found myself enmeshed in a vice-like grip. The feeling was of two iron bands imprisoning my arms. The bands belonging to Douglas Elliot, one of the greatest Scottish wing-forwards, whose strength had been developed in his every-day life as a son of the soil. I was much impressed by the form of temporary paralysis he imposed on my arms and it did not surprise me that he remained Scotland's most capped wing-forward with 29 appearances until John Jeffrey gained his 30th cap in the second Test against the All Blacks in Auckland in June 1990."

Farming career

Elliot was invited to play with the British and Irish Lions, but could not afford to spend six months away from his farm; his offer to pay for his flights (the Lions generally went by boat in those days.)

McLaren says when selecting his all-time Scotland XV that "I believe, for instance, that Douglas Elliot (Edinburgh Academicals)... would still have made massive impact in the modern game although it might have irked him not a little that he would have to give far more of his time from farming to attend so many squad sessions."