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In our weekly series, Yahoo Sport’s Nick Metcalfe features a famous voice of sport. This week, ahead of a busy month of autumn rugby internationals, the legendary BBC commentator Bill McLaren goes under the spotlight.

Bill McLaren will forever be associated with rugby union. His voice takes us back in an instant to winters of the past.

From the 1950s through to the early part of this century, rugby on television usually meant McLaren. He was the warmest of companions, and undoubtedly became one of the most famous names in the history of TV sports coverage in Britain.

McLaren had a love of rugby from a very early age, with his father taking him to watch Hawick. One of his major early memories was watching the touring New Zealand team of 1935.

He later played for Hawick. In fact his career as a centre was progressing so well that after military service during World War Two, he was on the verge of wining an international cap.

But unfortunately McLaren contracted tuberculosis, which he was fortunate to survive. It forced him to give up playing the game he loved. During his time recovering, McLaren began broadcasting for the first time, on games of table tennis for hospital radio.

He became a PE teacher, a job he had long coveted and one that he held for decades. During that time, he helped to coach many youngsters from Hawick that went on to become internationals.

But at the same time, McLaren always harboured hopes of a career in journalism. He started as a junior reporter with the Hawick Express. And in 1953 he started working for BBC Radio, his national debut seeing him cover a match between Scotland and Wales. Six years later, he switched to television and that’s where he spent the vast majority of his career.

McLaren was one of a number of commentators who came to prominence after the war and carried on in the broadcasting business for decades. Many of those commentators have already featured in this series, including David Coleman, Peter O'Sullevan, Harry Carpenter, Dan Maskell, Murray Walker and Peter Alliss. I’ll be writing about the great cricket commentator John Arlott, another to hail from the same era, next week.

Most of those broadcasters became synonymous with one sport. And rugby union was McLaren’s game. For many decades, the sport played a key part in the BBC’s Saturday afternoon programme Grandstand throughout the autumn and winter months.

This was particuarly true in the bleakest days of winter, when viewers around the country would enjoy an afternoon of Five Nations action. They usually had McLaren for company. Unsurprisingly, he soon became known as “the voice of rugby”.

He became a familiar voice for millions. Almost an old friend in the corner of the room. The great players, teams and championships came and went, but there was one trusty constant - McLaren with microphone in hand.

As much as anything, his voice was so easy to listen to. That soft Borders accent lent itself so perfectly to the grand old game. It’s amazing to think how many greats of the game will have received at least part of their rugby education while listening to that timeless voice.

McLaren was always able to produce a memorable turn of phrase with ease. He certainly liked his animal metaphors, with lines such as “he’s like a mad giraffe,” or “he’s like a runaway buffalo”.

One missed Ireland penalty was greeted with the words: “It was as if he kicked three pounds of haggis that time, it hardly got off the ground.” When a kick from England’s Rob Andrew just crept over, McLaren said: “It looked like a fluffed number four wood.”

So many memorable rugby moments over the decades went hand-in-hand with a McLaren commentary. A wonderful solo try from the legendary Welshman Gareth Edwards against Scotland in 1972 was accompanied by a special McLaren soundtrack.

“It’s beautifully laid back for Gareth Edwards. Edwards, over the Welsh ten yard line, over halfway. The kick ahead by Edwards, can he score? It will be a miracle if he could. He may well get there. And he has.”

As with so many of the broadcasters in this series, there was one thing you never doubted for a single second, McLaren’s deep and abiding love for the sport he covered. It came across in every commentary, the sheer pleasure he took in witnessing so many special occasions and playing his own small part in bringing them into our living rooms.

Nearly everybody seemed to respect McLaren, with supporters everywhere feeling a real affection towards him. He always had a sense of the fair play about him, along with genuine authority. A fully paid-up member of the old school for sure, but not always harking back to how things were.

He was one to enjoy each new star of the game that came along, and the special teams we all loved to watch. In a way, it felt like McLaren was permanently celebrating the glories of the game.

For me, McLaren’s most memorable ever commentary came when Scotland produced surely their greatest moment in 1990, as they beat big favourites England to claim the Grand Slam at Murrayfield.

Everything about that spring day in Edinburgh was special, with the home team simply inspired as they claimed a famous 13-7 win. And McLaren delivered a superb performance of his own from the commentary box.

McLaren was of course totally unbiased throughout his career, the bastion of fairness, even when his son-in-law Alan Lawson scored a try against England in 1976. But there was something about that day in 1990 being such such a special one for Scottish sport that gave the commentary an extra quality.

Before the game, he told viewers: “I’ve never heard such an emotional rendering of Flower of Scotland.” And his description of the only try of the match would be replayed on television for years afterwards.

“A kick up by Jeffrey, Jeffrey to Armstrong. Armstrong, nicely out to Gavin Hastings. Gavin Hastings with a kick through, on goes Stanger. Stanger could be there. It’s a try. A magnificent try from the 21-year-old.”

A lovely aside to that moment was that try scorer Tony Stanger was one of the internationals coached by McLaren the PE teacher when he was a youngster.

Rugby union went through massive changes before our eyes, as the sport became fully professional, but McLaren offered a welcome link to a distant past.

The first World Cup in 1987 was an historic event, with the tournament becoming one of the biggest sporting events in the world in the decades since. McLaren covered that first tournament in New Zealand and Australia, still the only time the event has been shown on BBC TV. That included the epic semi-final between Australia and France: “Blanco has scored. That’s the try surely that takes the Frenchmen into the final.”

ITV won the rights to show the 1991 World Cup and made McLaren an offer to cover the tournament for them. But he stayed loyal to the BBC, and worked on their radio coverage of the event. McLaren was also part of the 5 Live coverage of the memorable 1995 tournament in South Africa and the 1999 showpiece in Britain and France.

McLaren became the first non-international to be inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2001. His place in the history of the sport was assured.

McLaren was clearly in the autumn of his commentating career however, and he decided to retire from broadcasting in 2002. His final match, fittingly, was a Six Nations clash between Wales and Scotland. The crowd at the game serenaded him by singing “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”.

McLaren died in 2010 at the age of 86. Tributes poured in from across the rugby world. Former Scotland captain Gavin Hastings said: “He was a wonderful commentator and he just brought the world of rugby into so many people’s homes.”

Former England captain Bill Beaumont commented: “Bill is synonymous with what is good about the game. Every player respected Bill, they respected his judgement.”

And Gordon Brown, then Prime Minister, said: “His expertise, enthusiasm and passion for rugby union inspired young and old alike.”

Hearing McLaren’s voice now really does feel like dropping in on a bygone era. Rugby has continued to change at a bewildering pace, with the recent 2015 World Cup illustrating again what a huge global sport it is these days.

But I like to think there will always be a place for a Bill McLaren commentary in our hearts and memories. I’ll be surprised if thinking about that famous voice now doesn’t make you feel all warm inside.