mike blair retires from international rugby

http://www.edinburghrugby.org/news/edinburgh-news/4612-blair-retires-from-international-rugby

Just announced on the edinburgh site that blair has retired from international duty.
Bit surprised at this, thought he might have fought to try and get 100 caps.

He's smart enough to know to quite while still fondly remembered.

A fantastic player and he has been a great servent for Scottish Rugby.

Yep a great player over the last 10 years, 85 caps 14 as captain and a lions tour. Not many achieve that and he has had some stiff competition from Cusiter and to an extent Lawson for most of those years.

Wonder is this has been known for a while hence Laidlaw switching back to 9 again for Edinburgh?!

Another great servant to Scottish rugby, one in a log line of good scrumhalves that we have produced. Felt his powers were waning recently and clearly his love to France and another child have focused his priorities, so fair enough - thank you, Mikey Blair

Whilst I'm generally not a fan of players "retiring" from international rugby, Mike Blair deserves an ovation for his efforts.

At the peak of his game he mixed it with the very best, and as well as great game management abilities, he was none too slow from the base of the ruck either.

One of my (many) Scottish rugby regrets is that he and CP weren't given sufficient opportunity to form a half back pairing. I think there was serious untapped potential there. Still, his drop goal from the base of the ruck will live long in my memory.

Wow. Still makes him our most capped scrum half.

It's easy to forget how great he was - I think that the only other scrum half to be nominated as an IRB Player of the Year in the past decade was Fabien Galthié. Exalted company indeed.

Three world cups and a Lions tour. A dedicated Edinburgh man too.

Apparently he and his family are loving their time in France and good luck to them too.

A class act.

Great player, and will be missed. I always thought that the failure of Scotland's back division was not learning to anticipate the breaks made by Blair.

Hats off to the man.

Aye one of Scotland's greatest ever scrum halfs and one of my favourite players. Sad to see him go!

His form in 2008 was sensational and thoroughly deserved his IRB nomination that year. His form did drop a little in 2009 but still think it was a joke that he wasn't originally selected for the Lions tour.

A great player for Scotland and definitely wish him all the best in the future!

p.s. I definitely think this has been on the cards for a while and lead to Laidlaw playing at 9.

IanBru wrote:Great player, and will be missed. I always thought that the failure of Scotland's back division was not learning to anticipate the breaks made by Blair.

Very much agree with this. At times he was in a different timezone to his Scotland team mates, who were often just waiting to chase the latest Dan Parks hoof, rather than watching what was going on around them.

He'd have been a better player in a better team, if that makes sense.

Imagine what Blair couldve done in a SANZAR team.

One of the best covering scrumhalfs around aswell. He was like an extra fullback when receiving kicks.

Yes Mike Blair was a terrific SH who will be missed with only Laidlaw and Pyrgos in the mix now

I think Cusiter will have at least another year left in him - he needs to get fit and stay fit though!

A cracking servant of Scottish rugby. A true gent and a class act. I wish him and his family all the best.

All we should be saying to Mike Blair is, " So long and thanks for the fish"
and he delivered a few big ones! A cracker of a scrum half and a great servant to Scottish rugby. Thanks Mike

I guess he thought it would be better to retire now, whilst he is still fit and healthy. Rather than have to retire through injury.

Have a good retirement mike.

Well, the scrum-half crises that the more cynical of us predicted looks to have come to pass. For the Six Nations we will now have Pyrgos with two caps, one start; Laidlaw with no starts at scrum-half; Lawson and, if we're desperate, McMillan. I'd be surprised if Laidlaw bring hurriedly reverted to a scrum-half wasn't due to advanced knowledge of Blair retiring.

Credit to Blair, he often played well in a very poor team.

With the current news, I was just having a gander on the Brive website, with google translating into english and looked at the squad list to see Jamie Noon listed as an "englishwoman".

Quite a surprise to read this in the headlines.

Great player in his day. It's always the sign of a team man to be able to admit when his powers are waning and move aside. I agree with those saying that the SRU may have known in advance with Laidlaw suddenly moving back to SH.