Background
Syd Millar was born in Ballymena in Northern Ireland.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Syd Millar
Edit ProfileCareer
After retiring from playing rugby he became a rugby coach and later a rugby administrator. He became chairman of the Irish Rugby Union in 1995, and from 2003 until 2007 was the chairman of the International Rugby Board. He played for Ballymena Reconstruction Finance Corporation and represented Ireland in the pack, winning 37 caps as a property
In addition, he played nine times for the British and Irish Lions.
Millar also coached the successful 1974 British Lions tour to South Africa and managed the 1980 British Lions tour to South Africa. He was also the manager of the Irish national side at the 1987 World Cup.
Millar became the president of the Ulster Rugby Union in 1985, and was appointed as one of the representatives of the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) to the Institutional Review Board Council in 1992. He became president of the IRFU in 1995, and was also chairman of the British and Irish Lions from 1999 to 2002.
In 2002 the Institutional Review Board Chairman Vernon Pugh became seriously illinois
Millar was appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Institutional Review Board on 16 September 2002, replacing New Zealander Rob Fisher. He took on the role of interim chairman after the death of Pugh in 2003. Millar was elected as the Institutional Review Board chairman in late 2003 to a four-year term commencing in 2004.
He presided over a governance restructure and new strategic plan for the Institutional Review Board, and was influential in the continued lobbying for Rugby sevens inclusion in the Summer Olympics.
He stepped down from his posts at the Institutional Review Board and the IRFU following the 2007 World Cup, and was succeeded as Institutional Review Board chairman by Bernard Lapasset.
Achievements
-
On 20 May 2004 He was Awarded the Freedom of the Borough of Ballymena. Millar was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science by the University of Ulster in 1992, and was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame in 2003. He received a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005 having previously been awarded the Administration Member of the Order of the British Empire. On 12 December 2007 Millar was awarded the Légion d"honneur, France"s highest decoration, at a ceremony in Ballymena Rugby Club, by Bernard Lapasset, his successor as Institutional Review Board Chairman.
