Laughland was educated until the age of 9 in the Himilayas. He then went to Merchiston Castle School in Edinburgh and played for the school team. He played for London Scottish. Laughland captained London Scottish for five successive years winning the Middlesex Sevens tournament each year of his captaincy. He was noted as the architect of the game, changing the play by slowing down to a walking pace, his team showing excellent ball skills and patience before bursting through defences with agility and speed. Laughland then played for Harlequins. He also toured South Africa and Australia on invitation with Harlequins. He played for the Co-Optimists against London Welsh in 1965.
Laughland played for Scotland and was capped 31 times between 1959-1967. He played fly half and center, taking over from Gordon Waddell. Laughland captained Scotland for the last two years of his playing career, winning the Calcutta cup on two occasions at both Twickenham in 1964 and Murrayfield Stadium in 1965. His greatest regret was turning down the opportunity to Captain the Lions in 1965 on their tour to New Zealand due to injury. The mantle was passed to Mike Campbell-Lamerton. Bill McLaren says of a game against in 1960:
The Scottish try was a typical opportunist effort by Scotland's captain Arthur Smith. Iain Laughland operating at stand-off, tried a drop-goal after John Douglas, Norman Bruce and Hugh McLeod had rolled out of the back of a line-out. The ball sliced off Laughland's foot, but Arthur Smith, purring as always like a high powered Rolls Royce, screamed up the wing like a shell and got the touch before the ball rolled out of play... The match was marked by some magnificent Scottish tackling in which the mid-field of Laughland, Eddie McKeating, and George Stevenson set a superb example, that deprived a South African threequarter line comprising Janie Engelbrecht, Ian Kirkpatrick, John Gainsford and Hennie van Zyl of a try; some feat considering that those four contributed 38 tries during the tour.
Mclaren also paid Laughland the accolade of selecting him as his fly Half and captain for the all-time greatest Scottish side from those who played between 1950 and 2003.
His business career saw him heading up Benn Brothers Publications, an international magazine publisher. The company was sold to Excel PLC in 1999 by the remaining Benn family, who had left the helm many years prior. Other interests included golf where as a long-standing member of Rye Golf Club, Sussex, he played to a 3 handicap. Other sporting achievements include captaining Scotland School boys at Cricket and playing for Nairn CountyFootball Club whilst stationed as a Lieutenant with the Sea Forth Highlanders. National service took Laughland to Suez Crisis in Aden from 1956 to 1958 whilst the regiment was stationed at Nairn.
