Ross Ford

Ross Ford
Full name Ross William Ford
Date of birth 23 April 1984
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight 113 kg (17 st 11 lb)[1]
School Kelso High School
Occupation(s) Professional rugby union player
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position Hooker
Amateur clubs
Years Club / team
Kelso RFC
correct as of 18 October 2007.
Professional / senior clubs
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2004–07
2007–
Border Reivers
Edinburgh
84
140
(5)
(35)
correct as of 27 April 2015.
National team(s)
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2004 –
2009
Scotland
British and Irish Lions
85
1
(10)
(0)
correct as of 21 March 2015.

Ross William Ford (born 23 April 1984)[1] is a professional rugby union player who plays as hooker for both Edinburgh and Scotland. He signed for Edinburgh after starting his professional career with the Border Reivers, but after the Reivers disbandment in the summer of 2007, Ford was left without a club. He initially signed for the Glasgow Warriors but had been transferred to Edinburgh now that they are back under the Scottish Rugby Union's control.

Biography

Ford grew up in Kelso and went to Kelso High School in the Scottish Borders. He played for Kelso Harlequins (u18s) and then onto Kelso RFC. Ford was a member of the Commonwealth Games Sevens Squad at Manchester in 2002 and captained Scotland under-16. He has also represented his country at under-18 and under-19 level. He is a member of the Scottish Institute of Sport.[2] He initially played at loose forward, but was convinced to switch to hooker while at Border Reivers.[3][4]

Ford was first capped by Scotland in the 2004 Abbey Autumn Tests against Australia at Murrayfield, making his second appearance over a year later, coming on as a replacement against Wales in the 2006 RBS 6 Nations. After one further appearance against England he missed the 2006 summer tour to South Africa through a knee injury but returned to the Scotland squad in the 2007–08 season.

He made his first start in the RBS 6 Nations Championship in Scotland's final match of the 2007 competition, away to France. He followed that up by winning plaudits for his line out throwing and play in both tight and loose in Scotland's World Cup warm-up victory against Ireland.

He was named in Scotland's Rugby World Cup 2007 squad, and became the first choice hooker after the previous #1 hooker Dougie Hall pulled out of the whole World Cup altogether with injury. He scored his first try for Scotland in his first match at the tournament against Portugal.[2]

In 2009, Ford was selected for the British & Irish Lions as a replacement for Jerry Flannery He played for 50 minutes in the third test and was Scotland's only representative in the 3 test matches of that tour.[1][2][5] Ross Ford was the captain of the Scotland Team for the 2012 Six Nations Championship and the 2012 mid-year rugby test series.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Ross Ford", edinburghrugby.org, retrieved 2010-08-30
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Ross Ford", scotlandrugbyteam.org, retrieved 2010-08-29
  3. Reid, Alasdair (2009) "Scotland's happy hooker Ross Ford is looking forward to the physical battle against Ireland", Daily Telegraph, 13 March 2009, retrieved 2010-08-30
  4. Morrison, Iain (2010) "Rugby: Ross Ford's coach pulls a flanker", The Scotsman, 18 June 2010, retrieved 2010-08-30
  5. Hands, David (2009) "Ross Ford called up to join Lions tour", The Times, 23 May 2009, retrieved 2010-08-30

External links