Frans ten Bos

Frans Herman ten Bos (21 April 1937 – 1 September 2016) was a Scottish rugby union footballer. He played for as a lock in the 1960s, and was capped seventeen times.

Early life Ten Bos was born in Richmond, England to Dutch parents, who returned to the Netherlands when he was a child. Yet according to Bill McLaren, "he took part in all the preparatory activities and pronounced himself as fit to play. He certainly gave it 100 per cent during a vigorous session." Yet Alf Wilson, chairman of the selectors, did not think so, and he was replaced by Oliver Grant of Hawick. McLaren continues: "there was a feeling that ten Bos had been unfairly treated and that the lad himself was hurt and distressed by the decision to leave him out."

A famous story involving ten Bos and Hugh McLeod is told by Bill McLaren. On the evening before the 1963 game between and at Colombes in Paris, Hugh McLeod and Bill McLaren were out having a meal together and bumped into ten Bos near a cafe. Hugh McLeod took Ten Bos aside, and told him bluntly: "Frans, ye think ye're a guid forrit [forward] but really ye're jist a big lump o' potted meat. If ah was half yer size I'd pick up the first two Frenchman that looked at me the morn [tomorrow] and ah'd chuck them right ower the bloody stand."

He died on 1 September 2016 at the age of 79.

References and sources Printed and Electronic Sources McLaren, Bill Talking of Rugby (1991, Stanley Paul, London ), Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ) Distinguished Pupils on Fettes.com

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