Obituaries: Pat MacLachlan and Rory Watherston

MacLachlan, a scrum-half, won four caps in 1954.  He died in Canada in March, four days after his 97^th birthday.

Watherston, an openside flanker, won three caps in 1963, following in the footsteps of his father, Jack, also a back-row forward, who was capped twice in 1934.

Born in Salisbury (now Harare) in Zimbabwe on 16 March 1928, MacLachlan studied architecture  at Cape Town University, before being awarded the Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University where he graduated in philosophy, politics and economics.

In addition to representing Oxford, he also played for London Scottish, the Barbarians and Scotland.

Pictured: The Scottish XV that faced New Zealand in 1954. Pat MacLachlan is front row, second from the left.

He was twice reserve scrum-half in 1953 – against Ireland and England – and won his first Blue in the 1953-54 season.

He made his Scotland debut in a 0-3 loss to New Zealand at Murrayfield in February 1954 and contemporary reports hailed his international baptism.

“MacLachlan’s instantaneous decisions to break on his own, or pivot and kick when his partner was covered, proved vastly upsetting to the opposition,” noted the correspondent in the Glasgow Herald, who also praised MacLachlan’s “alertness and flexibility of method, which often outwitted the tourists’ fast, strong wing-forwards.”

His last international was against Wales at Swansea later that year and thereafter he returned to Zimbabwe, where he worked as an architect.

In 1961, MacLachlan, with his wife and two sons, emigrated to Canada, where he started a teaching post at Shawnigan Lake School on Vancouver Island.

There, he taught maths, coached the first XV and eventually became headmaster in 1968, having continued to play rugby for British Columbia, the Crimson Tide, Cowichan and the Ebb Tide.

In 1972, he moved to Hong Kong as an admissions representative for secondary schools in Canada, Australia, the UK and the United States and for several years he was one of the announcers at the Hong Kong Sevens.

On retirement, he returned to Canada, where he passed away on 20 March.

Scottish Rugby extends its sincere condolences to Pat MacLachlan’s family and many friends.

William Rory Andrews Watherston was born on 5 March 1933 in Ford, Midlothian, where he grew up on the family farm, the middle of three brothers.  His elder brother Ray, played for Edinburgh Wanderers and his younger brother, Jock, for London Scottish.

Educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, he played for the first XV in 1956-57. Watherston then undertook his National Service in the Royal Marines and after playing for Edinburgh Wanderers, he joined London Scottish when work as a broker took him to Lloyds of London.

Pictured: The Scotland team that defeated France in Colombes, 1963. Rory Watherston is back row, fourth from the left. 

At Scottish, he was part of their prodigious sevens team, triumphant at both Middlesex and Melrose in the 1960s.

He won his first cap against France in Paris in January 1963, a fine 11-6 victory for Scotland, while his last cap was a 3-0 success against Ireland at Murrayfield the following month.

In 1967 he emigrated to Australia, where he worked as a stockbroker in Sydney.

He passed away on 6 May, aged 92, and a memorial service will be held at Sydney Golf Club on Monday 20 May.

Scottish Rugby again extends its deepest sympathies to Rory Watherston’s family and many friends.