Nairn McEwan

Who is Nairn McEwan?

Nairn Alexander MacEwan was a Scottish international rugby player and coach. He played at flanker, and was capped twenty times for Scotland between 1971–75, including a try in the match against England in 1972.

Unusually for a top level Scottish rugby player, MacEwan was a Highlander, and Highland based. As Allan Massie says:

MacEwan helped Highland RFC to their "years of glory in the Seventies, when guided and inspired by [him], they shot up through the divisions, but they have since fallen away, and are now a run of the mill Second Division outfit."

Bill McLaren notes that Bill Dickinson included MacEwan in "one of the most formidable packs of all time", alongside the Scottish rugby greats like Ian McLauchlan, Sandy Carmichael, Alistair McHarg, Gordon Brown, Peter Brown and Rodger Arneil. However, once when Scotland played England at Twickenham, England coach John Burgess made the notorious comment,

Nairn MacEwan was taken off the field in this game after only two minutes.