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Jim Telfer

James Telfer (born 17 March 1940) is a Scottish former rugby union coach and player. As a player, he won 21 international caps in the amateur era, also having a career as a headmaster at Hawick High School and Galashiels Academy and Forrester High School as a chemistry teacher. With Sir Ian McGeechan he had success with both the Scotland national team and the British Lions.

Telfer played for Melrose RFC and was still a student when he was first selected for international duties. He later worked as a chemistry teacher. His first cap came against France at Murrayfield on 4 January 1964. His last match for Scotland was on 28 February 1970 at Lansdowne Road against Ireland.

Telfer gained twenty one caps for Scotland, and, but for injury, might have gained more. Allan Massie wrote of him:

"Telfer is a man of innate authority. (There's a wealth of quiet reserve and self-knowledge, touched by that form of self-mockery which appears as under-statement, in the way he will describe himself as being a 'dominant personality')"

Telfer played back row for Scotland and for the British Lions in 1966 and 1968. He was impressed and heavily influenced by New Zealand rugby. After a cartilage operation he slowed up. He played 23 games for the British Lions on their 1966 tour to Australia and New Zealand and 11 games on their 1968 tour to South Africa.

Between 1963 and 1967, he played 8 times for the Barbarians, scoring six points.

George Crerar said of him "The great thing about Jim Telfer is that he makes sure that if he isn't going to win the ball the other side won't get it either."

Telfer was head coach to the British Lions on their tour of New Zealand in 1983. He was assistant coach, with particular responsibility for the forwards, on the 1997 British Lions tour to South Africa, where he made his well-known motivational 'Everest' speech to the forwards before the 1st Test.

Telfer coached Scotland to the Grand Slam in 1984 and, as assistant to Ian McGeechan, to his second Grand Slam in 1990. In his third term as head coach from 1998 to 1999, Scotland won the final Five Nations Championship.

In 2014 he was coaching the Melrose RFC Under-18 team – Melrose Wasps.

Telfer has been open about copying some New Zealand approaches to the game.

Matches (1981–1984)
1	17 January	France	Parc des Princes, Paris	9–16	1981 Five Nations	Andy Irvine
2	7 February	Wales	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	15–6
3	21 February	England	Twickenham, London	17–23
4	21 March	Ireland	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	10–9
5	13 June	New Zealand	Carisbrook, Dunedin	4–11	1981 tour
6	20 June	Eden Park, Auckland	15–40
7	26 September	Romania	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	12–6	Romania tour
8	19 December	Australia	24–15	Australia tour
9	16 January	England	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	9–9	1982 Five Nations	Andy Irvine
10	20 February	Ireland	Lansdowne Road, Dublin	12–21
11	6 March	France	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	16–7
12	20 March	Wales	Arms Park, Cardiff	34–18
13	4 July	Australia	Ballymore Stadium, Brisbane	12–7	1982 tour
14	10 July	Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney	9–33
15	15 January	Ireland	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	13–15	1983 Five Nations	Roy Laidlaw
16	5 February	France	Parc des Princes, Paris	15–19
17	19 February	Wales	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	15–19
18	5 March	England	Twickenham, London	22–12	Jim Aitken
19	12 November	New Zealand	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	25–25	New Zealand tour
20	21 January	Wales	Arms Park, Cardiff	15–9	1984 Five Nations	Jim Aitken
21	4 February	England	Murrayfield Stadium	18–6
22	3 March	Ireland	Lansdowne Road, Dublin	32–9
23	17 March	France	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	21–12
24	20 May	Romania	Stadionul Dinamo, Bucharest	22–28	Test match
25	8 December	Australia	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	12–37	Australia tour	Roy Laidlaw

Opponent	Played	Won	Drew	Lost	Win ratio (%)	For	Against
Australia	4	2	0	2	050	57	92
England	4	2	1	1	050	66	50
France	4	2	0	2	050	61	54
Ireland	4	2	0	2	050	67	54
New Zealand	3	0	1	2	000	44	76
Romania	2	1	0	1	050	34	34
Wales	4	3	0	1	075	79	52
25	12	2	11	048

The period 1995–98 saw Telfer promoted as director of rugby for the Scottish Rugby Union. Richie Dixon was the head coach of the Scotland National team during this time. Telfer stepped in as head coach of Scotland when Dixon quit in 1998.

Matches (1993–1995, 1998–99)
1	20 November	New Zealand	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	15–51	New Zealand tour	Gavin Hastings
2	15 January	Wales	Arms Park, Cardiff	6–29	Five Nations	Gavin Hastings
3	5 February	England	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	14–15
4	5 March	Ireland	Lansdowne Road, Dublin	6–6
5	19 March	France	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	12–20
6	4 June	Argentina	Estadio Arquitecto Ricardo Etcheverri, Buenos Aires	15–16	Argentina tour	Andy Reed
7	11 June	17–19
8	19 November	South Africa	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	10–34	South Africa tour	Gavin Hastings
9	21 January	Canada	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	22–6	Test match	Gavin Hastings
10	4 February	Ireland	26–13	Five Nations
11	18 February	France	Parc des Princes, Paris	23–21
12	4 March	Wales	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	26–13
13	18 March	England	Twickenham Stadium, London	12–24
14	22 April	Romania	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	49–16	RWC Warm-up
15	26 May	Ivory Coast	Olympia Park, Rustenburg, South Africa	89–0	World Cup
16	30 May	Tonga	Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria, South Africa	41–5
17	3 June	France	19–22
18	11 June	New Zealand	30–48
19	7 February	Ireland	Lansdowne Road, Dublin	17–16	Five Nations	Gary Armstrong
20	21 February	France	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	16–51
21	7 March	Wales	Wembley Stadium, London	13–19
22	22 March	England	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	20–34
23	26 May	Fiji	National Stadium, Suva	26–51	Oceania tour	Rob Wainwright
24	13 June	Australia	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney	3–45
25	20 June	Lang Park, Brisbane	11–33
26	21 November	South Africa	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	10–35	South Africa tour	Bryan Redpath
27	6 February	Wales	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	33–20	Five Nations	Gary Armstrong
28	20 February	England	Twickenham Stadium, London	21–24
29	6 March	Italy	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	30–12	Test match	Eric Peters
30	20 March	Ireland	30–13	Five Nations	Gary Armstrong
31	10 April	France	Stade de France, Saint-Denis	36–22
32	21 August	Argentina	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	22–31	RWC Warm-up
33	28 August	Romania	Hampden Park, Glasgow	60–19
34	3 October	South Africa	Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh	29–46	World Cup
35	8 October	Uruguay	43–12
36	16 October	Spain	48–0	Bryan Redpath
37	20 October	Samoa	35–20	Gary Armstrong
38	24 October	New Zealand	18–30

Opponent	Played	Won	Drew	Lost	Win ratio (%)	For	Against
Argentina	3	0	0	3	000	54	64
Australia	2	0	0	2	000	14	78
Canada	1	1	0	0	100	22	6
England	4	0	0	4	000	67	97
Fiji	1	0	0	1	000	26	51
France	5	2	0	3	040	106	136
Ireland	4	3	1	0	075	89	48
Italy	1	1	0	0	100	30	12
Ivory Coast	1	1	0	0	100	89	0
New Zealand	3	0	0	3	000	63	129
Romania	2	2	0	0	100	109	35
Samoa	1	1	0	0	100	35	20
South Africa	3	0	0	3	000	49	115
Spain	1	1	0	0	100	48	0
Tonga	1	1	0	0	100	41	5
Uruguay	1	1	0	0	100	43	12
Wales	4	2	0	2	050	78	81
38	16	1	21	042

In 2021, World Rugby inducted Telfer into its World Rugby Hall of Fame, alongside Osea Kolinisau, Humphrey Kayange, Huriana Manuel, Cheryl McAfee and Will Carling.

Scotland
- Five Nations Championship
  - Winner: 1964
  - Runner-up: 1966, 1967
- Calcutta Cup
  - Winner: 1964, 1965, 1966
Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1-86200-013-1)
Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ISBN 0-904919-84-6)
Telfer, Jim Jim Telfer: Looking Back... For Once (Mainstream Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-84596-062-9)
Jim Telfer (The Scotsman)
Video Interview with Jim Telfer 3:48 -to- 4:48 on YouTube

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