Scottish rugby great Tremayne Rodd dies in Edinburgh

Former Scottish rugby international Tremayne Rodd has died aged 71.

Rodd, who acceded to the title of Baron Rennell on the death of his father in 1978, played 14 times for Scotland over a period of seven years including a famous 0-0 draw with the All Blacks in 1964 and a win over Australia in 1958.

Rodd, who also played for the Barbarians, continued to play well into his 50's, turning out for a House of Lords and Commonwealth Officers XV against a South African President's XV in Cape Town in 1993.

Former Scottish Rugby Union president Iain Laughland recalled another occasion on which the indomitable Rodd, who was also a world class backgammon player, turned out when in his 50s.

"I remember going to see him play for a House of Lords team against a Scottish Bankers XV on the morning of an international in Edinburgh," he told the Independent.

"He was well into his fifties at the time and came over to me just before kick-off and asked me to look after his false teeth. I eventually put them in a plastic bag and left them at the corner flag," he said.

He leaves behind a widow, Phyllis Neill, with whom he had three children, though, the circumstances under which he met her hardly augured well for a long term relationship.

He met her while lining up to check in at an airport following his father's death in Italy.

According to legend he asked her to hold a bag for him while he went to the loo. The bag contained the urn in which his late father's ashes had been placed.

Mirko Sandic Dies

Mirko Sandic, who won gold with the Yugoslav water polo team at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, has died. He was 64.

He died on Sunday, the Serbian Water Polo Association said on Monday. No specific cause of death was given.

Sandic played 235 times for Yugoslavia's national water polo team that also won silver at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and bronze at the European Championships in 1966 and 1970.

He was the key player as his Partizan club won 11 national championships in Yugoslavia.

Sandic later worked as a coach in Singapore, Malaysia and Egypt, and was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1999.