The 68-year-old – known within rugby circles as Mighty Mouse – was nominated unopposed by Scotland’s rugby clubs and will take up his post at Scottish Rugby’s annual general meeting in June.

Ayrshire-born McLauchlan played for Scotland 43 times, captaining them on 19 occasions, and was known for his scrummaging and animated loose play, which was a key part of the British & Irish Lions Test series successes in New Zealand in 1971 and South Africa 1974.

He said: “My aim will be to strengthen rugby in Scotland and assist in any way I can to help the clubs to build, the pro-teams to build and the national team to build.”

Elsewhere on the Scottish Rugby Council, nominations are being sought for the representative of Premier One clubs following the relegation of Edinburgh Academicals, meaning Ian Barnes will stand down as P1 representative.

An election will take place for a Premier Three representative to succeed Jim O’Neill who is standing down after Irvine were relegated, the two candidates are Hamilton’s Ian Smith and Dumfries Saints’ John Steele.