Frans ten Bos
{{Short description|Scotland international rugby union player}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=September 2016}}
{{Infobox rugby biography
| name = Frans ten Bos
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1937|04|21|df=y}}
| birth_place = Richmond, England
| death_date = {{death date and age|2016|9|1|1937|04|21|df=y}}
| death_place = Dundee
| height =
| weight =
| position = Lock
| repteam1 = Scotland
| repyears1 = 1959–1963
| repcaps1 = 17
| reppoints1 = 3
| ru_ntupdate = 15 November 2009
| amatyears1 =
| amatteam1 = London Scottish FC
| amatteam2 = Oxford University RFC
| amatteam3 = Anglo-Scots
| ru_amupdate = 15 November 2009
| occupation = former Chairman of Henderson Strata and WACE
| school = Lathallan School
Fettes College
| university = University of Oxford
}}
Frans Herman ten Bos (21 April 1937 – 1 September 2016)[http://www.espnscrum.com/scotland/rugby/player/6374.html Frans Bos rugby profile] Scrum.com was a Scottish rugby union footballer. He played for {{nrut|Scotland}} as a lock in the 1960s,Massie, p173 and was capped seventeen times.{{Cite web |url=http://www.fettes.com/Prospective/senior/history_distinguished.htm |title=Distinguished Pupils |access-date=21 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090221134603/http://www.fettes.com/Prospective/senior/history_distinguished.htm |archive-date=21 February 2009 |url-status=dead }}
Early life
Ten Bos was born in Richmond, England to Dutch parents, who returned to the Netherlands when he was a child. The German invasion of the Netherlands caused the family to flee to Scotland, via France and West Africa. He was raised in Glasgow, Argyll, and then Elie in Fife. He went to Lathallan School, where he was introduced to rugby, followed by Fettes College
Rugby career
After leaving school, Ten Bos played for Oxford University RFC and London Scottish FC.
Ten Bos was controversially dropped before the Scotland-{{nrut|Ireland}} game in Dublin in 1960, because he was recovering from an injury.McLaren, p90 Yet according to Bill McLaren, "he took part in all the preparatory activities and pronounced himself as fit to play. He certainly gave it 100 per cent during a vigorous session." Yet Alf Wilson, chairman of the selectors, did not think so, and he was replaced by Oliver Grant of Hawick. McLaren continues: "there was a feeling that ten Bos had been unfairly treated and that the lad himself was hurt and distressed by the decision to leave him out."
Notably, ten Bos scored a try against {{nrut|Wales}} in Cardiff, in the 1962 match there, which resulted in Scotland's first victory against Wales in an away game in thirty five years; the score was 8-3 to Scotland.McLaren, p122
A famous story involving ten Bos and Hugh McLeod is told by Bill McLaren. On the evening before the 1963 game between {{nrut|Scotland}} and {{nrut|France}} at Colombes in Paris, Hugh McLeod and Bill McLaren were out having a meal together and bumped into ten Bos near a cafe.McLaren, p123 Hugh McLeod took Ten Bos aside, and told him bluntly:
:"Frans, ye think ye're a guid forrit [forward] but really ye're jist a big lump o' potted meat. If ah was half yer size I'd pick up the first two Frenchman that looked at me the morn [tomorrow] and ah'd chuck them right ower the bloody stand."
Scotland later won the game 11-6, rare for an away game.
Ten Bos tapped McLaren on the shoulder as they left the cafe, and said, "You know, I'd follow him anywhere."
Later life
He later became Chairman of Henderson Strata Investments.
He is profiled in the August, 1973 edition of Rugby World.{{Cite web |url=http://www.rugbyrelics.com/Mgs/RW.htm |title=Rugby World Magazine back issues |access-date=21 November 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091207181014/http://www.rugbyrelics.com/Mgs/RW.htm |archive-date=7 December 2009 |url-status=dead }}
He died on 1 September 2016 at the age of 79.[http://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/deaths/206139/ten-bos.-frans-h ten Bos.-Frans H.]
References and sources
=Printed and Electronic Sources=
- McLaren, Bill Talking of Rugby (1991, Stanley Paul, London {{ISBN|0-09-173875-X}}),
- Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; {{ISBN|0-904919-84-6}})
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090221134603/http://www.fettes.com/Prospective/senior/history_distinguished.htm Distinguished Pupils] on Fettes.com
=Footnotes=
{{Cite news |date=8 September 2016 |title=Frans ten Bos; Powerful Scottish rugby star of Dutch ancestry who escaped the Nazis with his parents in 1940 |page=31 |work=Daily Telegraph |publication-place=London, England |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?p=STND&u=wikipedia&id=GALE%7CA462783493&v=2.1&it=r&sid=bookmark-STND&asid=c29334f1 |access-date=2022-10-15}}
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bos, Frans}}
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
Category:London Scottish F.C. players
Category:Oxford University RFC players
Category:People educated at Lathallan School
Category:People educated at Fettes College
Category:Rugby union players from Argyll and Bute
Category:Rugby union players from Fife
Category:Rugby union players from Glasgow
Category:Rugby union players from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames
Category:People from Richmond, London
Category:Scotland international rugby union players
Category:Scottish people of Dutch descent