Christopher Douglas Paterson broke the 750 points landmark for Scotland on the occasion of his 100th cap - scoring a conversion against Wales in the second match of the 2010 RBS 6 Nations Championship to bring his total to 752.

Paterson broke two Scotland career records during the 2008 two-match Test series in Argentina. In the first Test, which Scotland lost 15-21 in Rosario, he passed Gavin Hastings’s record of 667 points for his country, and the second match of the series, which the Scots won 26-14, was Paterson’s 88th international, surpassing Scott Murray’s record.

His tally now stands at 750 points. Only nine of those have come drop goals, though none of those three scores has been so important that that with which he helped Scotland to a 9-8 victory when he made a replacement appearance against Australia in the Bank of Scotland Corporate Autumn Test at Murrayfield in November 2009.

He became Scotland’s most-capped back in playing in the RBS Six Nations Championship match against Wales at the Millennium Stadium in February 2008. It was his 83rd international, passing the record previously held by Gregor Townsend, who, like Chris, was a product of Galashiels Academy and Gala RFC, and he now has 99 caps.

Chris is only the second Scot to score 600 points for his country, a milestone he passed when he kicked all of the points in the 18-16 win in the 2007 Rugby World Cup match against Italy in St Etienne. Playing in his third Rugby World Cup, Chris had a 100% strike rate in that 2007 tournament with 17 goals (7 penalties and 10 conversions plus a try for a total of 46 points in five games), and he continued that 100% sequence with 16 successful kicks in 2008 RBS Six Nations matches - five against Wales four months later, three against Ireland, four in the Calcutta Cup win against England at Murrayfield, and four more against Italy. He extended that perfect sequence to 36 goals before a penalty miss late in the first half in the Rosario international in Argentina. But his accuracy quickly returned, and by the end of the tour he had kicked 42 out of 43 since the start of the previous year’s RWC. Since the Murrayfield match against France that opened Scotland’s 2006 RBS Six Nations campaign he has been successful with 107 goal kicks out of 120. During that sequence he became only the second Scot to score 500 points in international rugby when he kicked two conversions and two penalty goals in the Calcutta Cup match against England at Twickenham in February 2007. A week later he kicked seven penalty goals in the 21-9 victory against Wales at Murrayfield: that points haul was the highest by a Scot monopolising the scoring in an international, and the penalty-goal tally was the most for any country in the championship. His record-breaking continued during the Murrayfield match against Ireland in March 2007 when he took his championship season’s points tally to 61 and his penalty-goal haul to 16, beating the previous bests by a Scot in the championship, both by Brendan Laney with 60 and 15 during the 2002 tournament.

Chris was Scotland’s captain throughout that championship, in which he scored 65 points, with a strike-rate of 88% (22 out of 25), including 100% in the games against Wales, Italy, and Ireland. Later in 2007 he moved from Edinburgh to Gloucester, though he returned to Edinburgh the following year. In 2006 his impeccable goal-kicking was a key factor in Scotland’s victory over England as he landed five penalties from five attempts. His striking-rate for that Six Nations Championship was 17 successes out of 19 attempts (89%). Beginning with the conversion of his own try against Wales in February and including the 66-19 non-cap win against the Barbarians in May, Paterson was successful with 25 consecutive goal attempts for Scotland – remarkable consistency that ended only in the second Test against South Africa in June. He became the 19th Scot to reach the landmark of 50 caps when he faced South Africa at Murrayfield in 2004. That year he also became the second highest-scoring Scot in a single match with 40 points (three tries, eleven conversions and one penalty) against Japan at McDiarmid Park in Perth. That tally also boosted Chris into second place as Scotland’s highest points-scorer of all time, surpassing Andy Irvine’s total of 273. Chris, who was The Famous Grouse Player of the Year that season (2004-2005), has captained Scotland on 12 occasions, all five matches in the 2004 Six Nations and then seven games in the 2006-2007 season, and his versatility has led to his playing in five different positions for his country – 45 on one or other wing, 31 at full back, and 11 at stand-off as well as 11 replacement appearances. His participation in the 2004 Scotland summer tour was cut short when he sustained a serious facial injury in the Test match against Samoa in Wellington. A compressed multiple fracture of the right cheekbone put him on the plane home to Scotland following surgery in Sydney, but he made a comeback in the opening match of the 2004 Abbey Autumn Tests at Murrayfield against Australia. Chris made a double-try start to Scotland’s 2003 World Cup campaign against Japan and crossed the line again in their next game against the USA. He continued to take Scotland’s kicks throughout the tournament and became the major play-maker when he was fielded at stand-off for the matches against Fiji and Australia. He also scored 29 points including his tenth Test try on Scotland’s 2003 tour of South Africa, thus continuing the tremendous form he showed in that year’s Six Nations Championship. He was Scotland’s top points-contributor (50) in that competition, having landed 15 goals out of 18 attempts and added two tries to his haul over the five matches. His 18 points against Italy – including his ninth Test try – also saw him become the 11th Scot to surpass 100 points in Test rugby. That was a follow-on from his new individual record for a Scot against Wales with his 20 points haul in that success. He scored his first Test try for Scotland in the second Test of the 2000 summer tour to New Zealand and followed up with a cracking try in the 53-6 November win against the United States. His best international try, however, came in the February 2001 Six Nations Championship draw with Wales, featuring blistering pace and sidestep as he stormed in from halfway. Against Ireland in September 2001, Chris was chosen on the wing for the first time at full international level, and he marked that game with assured goal-kicking and punting and intelligent footballing skill. In all, Chris played in five matches on the 2000 New Zealand tour, contributing 21 points (including two tries) to the success against East Coast/Poverty Bay. In 1999 he made his international debut as Scotland’s full back in the World Cup win over Spain and was in the same No.15 shirt for his Six Nations debut against France in March 2000. Having started both schools and club rugby as a stand-off, he was full back against Mpumalanga in his only game on Scotland’s 1999 tour to South Africa.

He progressed to selection for the tour via the Scottish Schools and Scotland's under-19 and under-21 teams. His four under-19 internationals were all in the 1997 FIRA World Junior Championship in Buenos Aires. In his three Scotland A games he has scored 51 points.

A product of Galashiels Academy, Chris made his debut in senior club rugby as an 18-year-old against Kelso in September, 1996. Against the same opponents, he scored the winning try and the clinching drop goal in Gala's victory in the 1999 Scottish Cup final at Murrayfield. Chris became the first Scottish player to appear in 50 Heineken Cup matches (44 for Edinburgh, 6 for Gloucester) when Edinburgh won against Castres in October 2008: it was also the first time a Scottish team had won a Heineken game in France. He joined Edinburgh Reivers in season 1999-2000, though previously he had made two appearances for Glasgow Caledonians, for whom he had a notable debut against Ulster in September 1998, when he broke from almost his own goal-line to run more than 80 metres before delivering the scoring pass.