Strokosch retires from Test rugby
The 32-year-old from East Kilbride made his first full international appearance as a replacement against Australia in 2006 before earning his first of 35 starts in the Six Nations against Ireland at Croke Park in 2008.
The Dublin outing was his first of 17 appearances in eight consecutive Six Nations championships [2008-2015] – including the 2008 Calcutta Cup success – as well as four World Cup outings in the two subsequent tournaments of 2011 and 2015, with his last representative honour coming in the 2015 pool win over the United States at Elland Road.
Strokosch said: "I've been lucky enough to fulfil my childhood dream of representing Scotland.
"Wearing the thistle has been the greatest honour and responsibility of my life outside of raising my children and I treasure every memory from my time with the squad.
"I believe that the group we have now are among the most talented that I've seen have the potential to achieve great things for Scottish rugby."
Strokosch represented Scotland throughout the age-grades [Under-16, U18, U19, and U21), as well international Sevens – on the Sevens World Series, World Cup Sevens 2005 in Hong Kong and the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games – before featuring in all three of Scotland A's matches in the 2006 Churchill Cup tour in Canada.
He also enjoyed notable success as a Scotland tourist, starting both games in the historic 2008 aggregate series success over Argentina – Scotland's first over Southern-Hemisphere opposition.
He missed out on the subsequent November Tests against New Zealand and South Africa, but returned for the final match of the series, scoring his first Scotland try in the 41-0 win over Canada at Pittodrie, Aberdeen.
He was then part of Scotland's heroics on the road once more, when they repeated their feat over the Pumas in 2010, featuring – this time as a replacement – and winning both games.
Two years later he had the distinction of being voted 'Scotland player of the tour’ by his coaches on both the 2012 trip to Australia and South Pacific, and the 2013 tour to South Africa.
On that latter occasion his injury time try against Italy presented Greig Laidlaw with the opportunity to land the conversion that secured Scotland a 30-29 success in the quadrangular tournament.
It was following a reflection on both his career and Scotland's journey to the last eight of the World Cup that he decided to call time on his cap career and focus the remainder of his professional playing days at his French club Perpignan.
Scotland head coach Vern Cotter said: "On behalf of the Scotland squad and management I'd like to thank Alasdair for his commitment to the Scotland jersey over the past nine years.
"For almost a decade he has quietly gone about his business with exceptional professionalism, with a lot of the hard work put in – often in the less glamorous and combative areas of the park – going unseen.
"We wish him all the very best in the remaining days with Perpignan where I know he's committed to doing everything he can to ensure their return to the Top 14 before finally hanging up his boots."
