Hugh McLeod

Hugh Ferns McLeod OBE (8 June 1932 – 12 May 2014) was a Scottish rugby union player, who played forty times for Scotland between 1954 and 1962. He played 14 times for the Barbarians between 1954 and 1959, scoring only once, a try in their 1958 match against East Africa in Nairobi on 28 May 1958 (though this is erroneously listed on the Barbarian website as earning 5 points whereas a try was only worth 3 points at the time). His home team was Hawick RFC. He was made pack leader for a while, and the story goes that some of the posher, or anglified players could not actually understand his accent; one of his semi-humorous phrases as pack leader was "Come here, my wee disciples."

"come here, my wee disciples. Now, ah want tae tell ee that ah've been asked ti lead this pack tomorrow, that ah'm no very keen on the job and if any of you lot want to be pack-leader, just let me know, and ah'll put a word in for you at the right place. Meanwhile, the next one who opens his trap will get my boot bloody hard at his arse."

One of the Anglo-Scots is supposed to have said, "Well, I didn't understand a word of that but it all sounded damned impressive.". 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." McLeod's hobby in later life has been dog shows mainly using his bulldog Spike. He died at the age of 81 on 12 May 2014.