As player, coach and administrator, Bruce Hay was one of the most admired, likeable and influential Scottish rugby union men of his generation.

Most of the current Scotland international side came under his influence as manager of the country's Under-19 team and his reputation extended so far across the globe that one of his final visitors before he died of a brain tumour was Andy Leslie, the President of the New Zealand Rugby Union.

Hay, then a mining engineer at the Newtongrange colliery near Edinburgh, made his first mark on the game in 1972 as a 21-year-old plucked from the obscurity of his local junior club at Liberton to deputise for Andy Irvine, the established Scotland full back, in the Edinburgh side that faced (and beat) Glasgow in an inter-district match. The two men's careers were to be inextricably linked for most of the next decade.

He soon moved up the road to the bigger environs of the Boroughmuir club, the start of an association that lasted the rest of his life without severing his ties with the club where he learnt to play the game. Hay's time with Boroughmuir saw him play 279 matches for them, coach them for nine years and finally take the role of director of rugby.

New Zealand features in all the key parts of his career. It was his performance for a combined Edinburgh-Glasgow side against them at the end of 1972 that marked him out as a player ready for the big time, and he won his first and last caps against the All Blacks, though he broke his arm after 15 minutes of his debut game and had to leave the field — possibly with mixed feelings since it was the infamous “water polo” international when 4in of rain had fallen in the hours before the match.

Hay was at full back for that game and for five of his first six internationals with Irvine, often rated as Scotland's greatest player, shunted out to the wing, the only time in his Scotland career that he had to make way for another player.

In 1978 it was Hay's turn to move to the left wing with Irvine restored to full back, and that was the combination that played in every match bar one (Irvine was injured) in the following four seasons. Hay won 23 caps during seven years when he was ever-present in the Scotland squad, finishing with Scotland's first try in 50 years against the All Blacks in 1981.

He toured twice with the British Isles, in 1977 to New Zealand, where he played in 11 games and scored five tries without winning a place in the international side, and to South Africa in 1980, where he led the midweek side to two victories and appeared in the final three internationals.

After retiring from playing, Hay took up coaching, first with Boroughmuir, who he took to the Scottish league title in 1991, and later with the Edinburgh district side, Scotland B and Scotland Under-19. He stayed on with Boroughmuir as director of rugby.

It was his role as the Scotland Under-19 team manager that should prove to be his lasting legacy, helping to provide the framework for coaches including Frank Hadden, the present international coach, Sean Lineen, the Glasgow coach, and Peter Wright, the present Under-19 coach, to flourish as well as helping to spot and develop most of the current batch of home-grown players.

He had a reputation as a hard-as-nails player with the honesty, character and charisma to win friends wherever he went, as was shown by the 500-plus who travelled to his tribute dinner earlier this year.

He is survived by his wife, Lynda, and daughter Lynsey.

Bruce Hay, rugby player and coach, was born on May 23, 1950. He died of a brain tumour on October 1, 2007, aged 57