Scottish Rugby appoints specialist coaches in throwing and kicking in new full-time roles

Scottish Rugby has appointed two new skills coaches in full-time positions.

Scott Lawson won 47 caps for Scotland. Picture: Ross Parker/SNS

Scott Lawson, the former Scotland hooker, has joined as a throwing specialist and Craig Dods, a development officer with Gala, will provide kicking coaching.

The pair will work with a variety of playing groups in the men’s and women’s game and will report to Kenny Murray, the SRU’s head of player transition.

Scottish Rugby said in a statement: “These two new full-time roles have been created to ensure that Scotland’s national principles for both throwing and kicking are able to effectively be delivered to specific players including Scotland Women and Girls performance programmes, Scotland’s representative age-grade sides, FOSROC Scottish Rugby Contracted Academy players in their respective pro-team environments and those in the FOSROC Regional Academies.”

Lawson, capped 47 times by Scotland from 2005-18, played for Biggar, Glasgow Warriors, Sale Sharks, Gloucester, London Irish and Newcastle Falcons.

He is a former Scotland U20 forwards coach and was as a throwing coach consultant for several national representative teams. Most recently he has been director of rugby at St Andrews University and defence coach with Stirling County’s Super6 team.

“I’m looking forward to working with Kenny Murray and the rest of the team to further develop the next generation of Scottish players,” said Lawson.

Dods is the son of Peter Dods, the former Gala and Scotland full-back who was goalkicker in the 1984 Grand Slam team.

He will work alongside Chris Patterson who will continue as specialist kicking coach across the professional and international teams.

Dods joins from Gala having worked previously at Kelso and in Hungary where he was head of women’s rugby.

He said: “Kicking has been a passion of mine from a young age so I’m excited that this role will allow me the scope to work with players on an individual basis.”

Murray said: “To have someone of Scott’s calibre join us in a full-time capacity is really exciting. His ability to pass on all his skills, technicalities and experiences will be valuable to the development of all players.

“Craig is a talented young coach who has come through Scottish Rugby’s coaching pathway. His enthusiasm and technical knowledge for all aspects of the skill will help our kickers grow into the best players that they can be.”