Kelso rugby legend John Jeffrey quits chairman role early ahead of taking up international post

The former Scotland international had been due to stand down next month after three years in the post but continue as a non-executive director.

Jeffrey has opted to quit as chairman ahead of schedule, however, and is also giving up his director’s role.

That move follows the 64-year-old being appointed as vice-chairman of World Rugby last week, subject to rubber-stamping at its annual meeting for 2023 on Thursday, May 11. He will hold that post until November 2024.

“It made sense, given the enormous demands of the World Rugby vice-chair role, especially at such an exciting time for the game, with the Rugby World Cup later this year in France, to give the Scottish Rugby Union clarity on my intentions and to focus 100% on my new role,” he said.

“It’s been an enormous privilege to have helped grow the game in Scotland over the past three years and I am looking forward to what will, I am sure, be a hugely demanding and satisfying term as vice-chair.”

Jeffrey is being backed for success on the world stage by the union, its chairman, Lorne Crerar, saying: “John has been one of the truly iconic figures in the Scottish game over the past four decades, and we wish him every success in his new global role.

“It will be hugely prestigious for Scottish Rugby to have one of our own at the sport’s top table.”

Colin Rigby, Scottish Rugby’s president, added: “On behalf of the SRU, I’d like to thank John for his efforts at many levels of the sport and wish him well in his important new role.

“As part of our new governance structures adopted last November, we had already begun a recruitment exercise to appoint a new chair of Scottish Rugby.

“I am pleased to say we have an outstanding roster of highly respected, experienced and successful candidates, each with the necessary knowledge, skills and experience to ensure that Scottish rugby is best placed to thrive and succeed in the coming years. We expect to be able to announce this pivotal appointment in the coming weeks.”

Jeffrey – a member of World Rugby’s council, formerly the International Rugby Board, since 2010 – was nominated for his new international role by his home union, with South Africa’s union seconding him.

A farmer by trade, he was capped for Scotland at flanker 40 times between 1984 and 1991, playing alongside the likes of fellow Borderers Tony Stanger, Peter Dods, Craig Chalmers and Gary Armstrong.