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The 40-year-old Lanark-born ex-hooker went all the way through Biggar’s youth system to establish himself in the Hartreemill team’s 1st XV before joining Glasgow Warriors in 2007.

In addition to winning 47 Scotland caps between 2005 and 2018, Lawson also turned out at club level for Sale Sharks, Gloucester, London Irish and Newcastle Falcons.

Lawson has also worked in previous coaching roles at Scottish Rugby as Scotland U20 forwards coach and consulted as a throwing coach for several national representative teams.

The new appointment sees him join Scottish Rugby on a full-time basis from his position at St Andrews University as Director of Rugby and from Stirling County as their Super6 defence coach.

He said: “Since retiring from playing four years ago I have been fortunate to have developed my coaching in a number of great environments.

“I’m very grateful to The University of St Andrews and Stirling County however the opportunity to work with Scottish Rugby has come at the perfect time for me.

“I’m looking forward to working with Kenny Murray and the rest of the team to further develop the next generation of Scottish players.”

Lawson’s new role was announced as part of a double Scottish Rugby announcement which also included the news that Craig Dods was leaving his role as development officer at Gala to become a specialist kicking coach at Murrayfield.

Both Lawson and Dods will start their new roles next month.

A Scottish Rugby statement read: “These two new full-time roles are to ensure Scotland’s principles for both throwing and kicking are effectively delivered to specific players including Scotland Women and Girls performance programmes, Scotland’s representative age-grade sides, FOSROC Scottish Rugby Contracted Academy players in their respective pro-team environments and those in the FOSROC Regional Academies.

“In addition to delivering expert coaching in their respective areas they will lead on the creation, and support on the implementation, of throwing and kicking coaching resources.”