Famous name from the past in Scotland rugby squad

Press, 21 May 1987, Page 38

Famous name from the past in Scotland rugby squad

By

KEVIN McMENAMIN

Almost half the Scotland World Cup rugby squad, in Christchurch preparing for its first game against France on Saturday, has been to New Zealand before.

Eleven of the players were members of either the 1981 Scotland team to New Zealand or the Lions, which toured two years later.

The coach, Derrick Grant, came with the 1966 Lions, and the assistant coach, lan McGeechan, with the 1977 Lions. But perhaps the most famous name in the present side belongs to a man on his first visit to this part of the world.

He is Jeremy CampbellLamerton, a son of the 1966 Lions captain, Mike Campbell-Lamerton. Jeremy CampbellLamerton, now aged 28, was just seven when his father led the Lions in a test on Lancaster Park. The son will be lucky to follow his father in this respect as Jeremy is only in the reserves for Scotland’s World Cup opener.

However, CampbellLamerton considers himself lucky just to be here. It was against France last year that he was first capped, but was not originally in Scotland’s World Cup squad. He was the loose forward replacement when John Beattie had to withdraw following a bad knee injury suffered against England last month.

Campbell-Lamerton is the oldest of three brothers, but he said he has few memories of his father’s 1966 tour.

“But later he told me about it and he has very fond memories of New Zealand. I have always wanted to come and see the country for myself and to be here for the first World Cup is a double thrill.”

Before becoming a stockbroker in London four years ago, CampbellLamerton served in the Scots Guards. Northern Ireland gave him a taste of the harsher realities of

Army life, and he saw death on a larger scale in the Falklands in 1982.

He was involved in the two major battles of Britain’s war with Argentina, his company suffering 60 casualties, including 12 killed.

Campbell - Lamerton said that from an early age he accepted as a fact of life that his father was a well-known rugby player, but there was never any pressure on him, or his two brothers, to play the game, although all three did. One brother, lan, is at present on tour in Australia with London Scottish. “I would like to be judged on my own ability, and I think most people with well-known parents feel this way. It probably makes success a little more difficult, and, at the same time, the challenge a little greater.” Back home CampbellLamerton has a seven-month-old son, who like his father will be under no pressure to play rugby. But if he does, in 20 years or so a third CampbellLamerton, by the Christian name of Harry this time, could wear the Scottish jersey in New Zealand.