Arthur Orr and Bruce Laidlaw – the retrospective capping ceremony, Friday 9th February 2024

Following the SRU’s announcement that over fifty Scottish caps were to awarded retrospectively, Friday 9th February saw a splendidly organised event when nineteen of the total (there will be several others) were capped . The Capping ceremony by SRU President Colin Rigby of Stewart Melville was introduced by Chris Paterson, and included an address by SRU Head Coach Gregor Townsend. Following the ceremony, the new caps with family and ‘supporters’ moved out to the arena, where the caps were photographed with the Scottish squad. Visits were paid to the Honours Boards in the team tunnel, and following further photographs, Bruce, with his family and supporters moved to a Buckstone restaurant where a celebration lunch was held.

Click on any of the photographs below to enable a full screen slideshow.

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Arthur Orr and Bruce Laidlaw – a great ‘Good News’ news story.

As Bruce Laidlaw said recently, ““It’s been a fifty-four-year wait, but still very welcome and much appreciated”.     This followed an announcement by Scottish Rugby, as shown below…

Scottish Rugby is to honour retrospectively more than 50 players who represented their country in matches that, at the time, did not carry Test cap status.    The decision, made by the Scottish Rugby Union Custodian Board, was announced today (Tuesday 15 August 2023) by President Colin Rigby.

Arthur and Bruce are among over fifty Scottish players whose participation in International rugby with Scotland was not recognised by the award of a Cap. Arthur and Bruce were prominent members of the 1969 September tour of Argentina.

Bruce has contributed substantially to this article, and while Arthur sadly died in 2019, his son Christian, nominated by Scottish Rugby for his father’s award, has also provided much input. The article takes the form of an introduction, link to an extensive PDF of Arthur and Bruce’s involvement in the Argentina Tour and as RHSFP RFC players, and photo galleries of the Tour and their Rugby background.

Argentina in 1969 were not considered worthy enough international opponents for Scottish players to be awarded caps, but the first test result of a loss by 20 points to 3 (albeit a 14 man Scotland prior to the replacement days) showed how competent the Argentineans were. Arthur and Bruce contributed immensely to the tour, playing three and four of the six matches respectively, including one test each.

The good news is the awarding of caps, with Arthur now #1170, and Bruce #1171 in Scottish Rugby’s numbered list of recognised internationalists.   The SRU plan is to have the capping ceremonies on the days of the Six nations games against either France or England in 2024….. Click here to access the PDF

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Argentina 1969 – photo Gallery

The gallery below is a mix of team travel, newspaper cuttings from the games, programmes and match reports. Click on any of the images shown below to enable a full screen slideshow.

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Photo Gallery – Arthur and Bruce RHSFP RFC and representative records

The rugby careers of Arthur and Bruce converged on many occasions. This gallery is a collection of images from RHSFP RFC, representative games and others where Arthur and Bruce are shown together and forms a tribute to the two players. Click on any of the images shown below to enable a full screen slideshow.

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Gallery of images of Arthur Orr

These images (a selection from his early schooldays onwards), were provided by Arthur’s son Christian, who said “it’s been great to know that my Dad has finally been awarded a cap, as he spent his whole life disappointed that he never received one. He was fiercely proud of his rugby career, and also fiercely proud of his association with RHS, and always spoke very highly of his time at the school- wearing his school tie on many a formal occasion”.

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And finally, a small collection of photos of Bruce…