Alexander David Gregor MacKenzie (born 9 July 1956 in Inverness) is a former Scotland international rugby union player. His regular playing position was Prop.
Contents
Rugby Union career
Amateur career
He first went to Blairmore School at Glass near Huntly. A small primary school, it also produced former Scotland captain David Sole.
MacKenzie was later educated at Strathallan School in Perthshire. In his younger days, he played at hooker and then flanker but the master at Strathallan converted him to Prop at the age of 16 and that position stuck.
He played for Highland.
Highland lost the player to New Zealand in 1977 when Mackenzie went to study agriculture at Lincoln College in Lincoln Town. While in New Zealand he played college rugby and trained with the All Blacks.
He went on a Barbarians tour playing the Welsh sides Newport and Penarth.
McKenzie headed to the Borders, hoping that moving there would put him more in contention for international honours. He played for Gala first. That single game, on 8 September 1984, was to cause McKenzie later issues as he was later banned for playing for Selkirk in any Border League matches that season; since their rules did not permit a player to play for two different Border League clubs in a season.
McKenzie played for Selkirk a matter of weeks later, moving from Gala, as a committee member on the Selkirk board had a vacancy on his farm.
He later returned north to play for Highland again.
Provincial career
McKenzie played for North and Midlands.
On moving to Selkirk, he then played for South of Scotland District.
On returning to the Highlands, he was again named in the North and Midlands squad.
International career
He had 3 caps for Scotland U16s while at Strathallan School.
He captained Scotland U21s.
On four occasions he was selected as a Scotland 'B' replacement.
MacKenzie was capped once in 1984 at prop against Australia on 8 December as part of their 1984 tour of Britain and Ireland. Australia won the match 37–12 at Murrayfield.
Farming career
He ran the family farm at Nigg with his brother Kenneth.
He moved to the Borders then worked on a farm at Selkirk.
He now runs a farm near Hanmer Springs, Canterbury, New Zealand.
Business career
Shortly after moving to Selkirk and working on a farm there, Mackenzie got a job in Edinburgh as a trainee consultant at Hill Samuel Investment Services. Without the farm work keeping him fit, Mackenzie turned to the weights at the gym.