{"id":454713,"date":"2026-03-03T04:24:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/454713\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T04:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T04:24:07","slug":"tributes-pour-in-after-british-irish-lion-passes-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/454713\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes pour in after British &#038; Irish Lion passes away"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scotland and British &amp; Irish Lions back row Ken Smith has passed away at the age of 96.<\/p>\n<p>Join the <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/3s8fWrj\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">RUCK\u2019s WhatsApp community here<\/a> and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.<\/p>\n<p>Born in Edinburgh, Smith represented Scotland between 1957 and 1961, earning 18 international caps and securing selection for the British &amp; Irish Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1959.<\/p>\n<p>Lion #395, Smith enjoyed a distinguished playing career before going on to become one of the game\u2019s most respected administrators, both in Scotland and on the global stage.<\/p>\n<p>Although he spent a season with Watsonians, it was at Kelso in the Scottish Borders where Smith truly established his reputation. He earned his first Scotland cap in 1957 and quickly became a key figure in the national side.<\/p>\n<p>In 1959, he was selected as one of five Scots for the Lions tour to Australia and New Zealand, captained by Ronnie Dawson. During the tour, Smith made 17 appearances, including four Test matches.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">A tribute to Ken Smith, the Scotland and Lions back-rower, who has sadly passed away aged 96 \ud83d\udd4a\ufe0f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/W9F5VOS9Oo\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/W9F5VOS9Oo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 British &amp; Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lionsofficial\/status\/2028493311351075298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">March 2, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>He scored the decisive final try in the Lions\u2019 17\u20136 victory over the Wallabies in the opening Test. His final appearance on the tour came in Canada against British Columbia.<\/p>\n<p>After returning home, Smith played two further seasons for Scotland before transitioning into an influential administrative career.<\/p>\n<p>He served as Scotland\u2019s tour manager during their 1981 tour of New Zealand and later became chairman of World Rugby \u2014 then known as the International Rugby Board \u2014 in 1990\/91. In 1994\/95, he was appointed president of the Scottish Rugby Union and was made a CBE during his tenure.<\/p>\n<p>EDITORS PICKS:<\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/>\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scotland and British &amp; Irish Lions back row Ken Smith has passed away at the age of 96.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-454713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}