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42-582: Numerous forms of football were played in Scotland in the years prior to the introduction of the Rugby rules which were adopted for the boys of Edinburgh Academy in the early 1850s. The game spread to Merchiston and the Royal High School with inter school games beginning in 1858. In 1857 the former pupils of Edinburgh Academy formed the first club in Scotland. The game spread and by the end of the 1860s

84-726: A Medical Officer – another great and possibly unique rarity. His brother A.B Timms was capped for Scotland from the Club in 1896, but by the time he was selected for the Lions tour of 1899 he was then representing the Edinburgh Wanderers club. The club's fortunes waned in the 1930s, but a great revival took place in the 1950s, and 1960s when the Club finished runners-up in the Scottish Unofficial Championship twice in 1963–64 and 1966–67 – in

126-519: A contracted footballer for Heart of Midlothian FC , and the recent Club coach Ian Barnes who won many Scotland caps from the Hawick club. In 1871, Club member Angus Buchanan scored the first ever International try in the inaugural International match whilst representing Scotland versus England at Raeburn Place . There were three current Club representatives in the Scottish brown jerseys on that day;

168-680: Is Director of Rugby. The head coach of the Scottish national women's rugby team is Shade Munro . On 28 March 2019, the SRU announced that it had taken a minority stake in Old Glory DC , a team set to begin play in Major League Rugby (MLR), the current top level of the sport in the United States and Canada , in 2020. As MLR operates on a "single-entity" business model similar to the two countries' Major League Soccer , with

210-515: Is headed by the President ( Colin Rigby ) and Chairman (John McGuigan), with Mark Dodson acting as the chief executive officer. Dee Bradbury became the first female president of a Tier 1 rugby nation upon her appointment on 4 August 2018. The Scottish Football Union was founded on Monday 3 March 1873 at a meeting held at Glasgow Academy , Elmbank Street, Glasgow. Eight clubs were represented at

252-759: Is the Scotland national rugby union team , which competes in the Six Nations tournament every year and in the Rugby World Cup every four years. The SRU also oversees the Scotland national sevens team , which competes every year in the World Rugby Sevens Series . And the SRU oversees the Scotland national women's rugby team. The head coach of the Scotland national rugby union team is Gregor Townsend , who began in June 2017. Scott Johnson

294-689: The Brazil national rugby union team , one against a regionals side and another against Brazil's U23 side. As well as Japan and Brazil the club has also had sides in USA, Ireland, Canada, France, Australia, Argentina and Spain in recent years. The following 55 members represented Scotland as full internationals as representative members of Edinburgh University RFC. The following 18 players represented other full international sides as representative members of Edinburgh University RFC Seven players have represented British & Irish Lions whilst still students representing

336-473: The Scotsman newspaper would declare the champion Scottish club in its annual review of the football season. The championship was always awarded on the basis of the results between the teams in the championship table only which meant that games against clubs from England or further afield were not counted. Up until 1939 the honour was awarded to the club with the fewest defeats, which led to several seasons where

378-598: The Scottish Rugby Union . In the years prior to the SRU 's introduction of club leagues in 1973 and the advent of professionalism in the 1990s, EURFC was a major club power and it won the 'unofficial' Scottish Club championship several times. It remains a club with an all-student committee, and is only open to students of the University of Edinburgh . The club runs a men's team and a women's team; both playing in

420-419: The 1960s. By 1972–73, the final season prior to the introduction of league rugby, Leith Academicals, Broughton FP and Perthshire were recognised as championship clubs. The SRU committee in 1973 decided that the structure of the club game needed changing; and introduced a competitive six league structure for its clubs. This became the first officially sanctioned league structure in the world. In season 1973-74

462-525: The Academicals opponents included Edinburgh University , St Andrews University, the Merchistonians, Royal HSFP, West of Scotland FC, Glasgow Academicals, Edinburgh Wanderers and Glasgow University. As inter club games became more commonplace in the mid-1860s the club with the most successful record in club matches was recognised as the Scottish club champion on an unofficial basis. By the 1870s

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504-853: The British University competition saw the Club qualify for admission to BUCS Premier North 'B' League at the first available opportunity; this inevitably saw a deeply reluctant departure from the SRU league structure to aid concentration on the enormous travelling requirements south of the border. The Club remains the only Scottish University at this level. In total EURFC runs four teams: The 1st XV currently competes in BUCS Premier North A League. The 2nd XV currently competes in BUCS Scottish 1A. The 3rd XV currently competes in BUCS Scottish 3A. The 4th XV currently competes in BUCS Scottish 4A. The 5th XV currently competes in

546-817: The Edinburgh University Intramural League. In the past, EURFC has also fielded an EURL (Edinburgh University Rugby League) team in the BUCS competitions. Edinburgh University also has two ladies teams, run as separate club EULRFC. The first XV were 2009 semi finalists of the British Universities Championships, and have reached the quarter finals in both 2010 and 2011. They compete in the BUCS Northern Premier Division and Scottish Premier League. The 2nd XV team currently compete in

588-756: The National League below. Wednesday afternoons saw fixtures in the Scottish Universities championship which was won many times and very many players represented the Scottish Universities XV. Memorable victories include; 2002 BUSA Shield competition with the final played in London, and the SRU'S Scottish HydroElectric Bowl competition was registered in 2009 with the final being played against Aberdeenshire RFC at Murrayfield . However great ambition coupled with reorganisations in

630-557: The North & Midlands (rebranded as Caledonia Reds )—were given the go-ahead to take part in Europe. For the first two seasons, players were still released to play for their clubs in domestic competition, but eventually the districts became full-time operations. Then financial difficulties – the SRU's high debt, partly as a result of the redevelopment of Murrayfield – called for retrenchment. After two seasons, financial difficulties forced

672-502: The RFU now represents exclusively English clubs, in its first few years it had members from outside England, there being no other national union. West of Scotland, Glasgow Academicals and Edinburgh University had joined the RFU in 1871 and Edinburgh Academicals and Royal High School FP had joined in 1872. These five renounced membership of the RFU to join the SFU. The SFU was a founding member of

714-722: The SRU to merge the four teams into two. Edinburgh merged with the Border Reivers to form a team to be known as Edinburgh Reivers. Glasgow merged with Caledonian to form a team to be known as Glasgow Caledonian. The Borders was resurrected in 2002 and joined the second season of the Celtic League, now known as the United Rugby Championship . As a consequence Edinburgh Reivers became simply Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow became Glasgow Rugby. In 2005, all three teams adopted new names. The Borders readopted

756-661: The SRU's campaign to reach out to new audiences outside the traditional rugby areas. When the Heineken Cup (now replaced by the European Rugby Champions Cup ) was suggested SRU officials were concerned that Scottish club sides could not compete against the best teams from France and England and that centrally funded so-called 'super-district' teams might do better. The four traditional districts—the South (renamed Border Reivers ), Edinburgh, Glasgow and

798-638: The Scottish Universities Championship and the National Development League. Edinburgh University RFC has a notable history of touring; 2004 tour to South Africa, a major tour to Japan was undertaken in 2008 where one of the games was televised. In June 2011, EURFC returned to a previously toured country in Brazil, celebrating 25 years since they had previously toured there, with two televised matches against

840-547: The University XV's of Durham , Newcastle , and other northern English Institutions. EURFC has often received and played against Clubs from all of the major Rugby playing countries In the years 1973 until 2012, the Club retained a position within the top 36 clubs in the SRU league structure on Saturdays; occasional promotions into the Scottish Premiership were usually balanced by returns to the top end of

882-411: The championship in 1913–14 which was to be the last championship season for Clydesdale who were unable to continue after the first world war. The championship was unchanged until 1929 when Dunfermline became the first club from the North & Midlands to be included. The 1930s saw St Andrew's University added to the championship in 1936–37, Edinburgh Institution FP renamed as Melville College FP, following

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924-444: The championship was shared. After 1945 it became more commonplace to determine the champion club based on the percentage of games won. The Edinburgh Academicals won the first five championships by virtue of being undefeated in club games between 1865–66 and 1869–70. The Academicals retained the championship in 1870–71 as a result of having the best record amongst the Scottish clubs despite the loss of two matches. Glasgow Academicals won

966-564: The club: Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union ( SRU ; Scottish Gaelic : Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba ) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland . Now marketed as Scottish Rugby , it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league system, known as the Scottish League Championship , and the Scottish National teams. The SRU

1008-524: The first sevens tournament to have national representative sides. The programme for that event also sported the new coat of arms of the SRU that was granted by the Lord Lyon King of Arms on 28 February 1973, for the centenary season. The coat of arms is still in use today, but in the main the SRU use the commercial thistle logo on jerseys and stationery. The coat of arms has the motto "Non Sine Gloria" , meaning "Not Without Glory" . The SRU oversees

1050-668: The fore. The last major international player from the club was Jock Millican, thrice capped in 1972–73. This was after the decision had been taken by the club's [all-student] committee to back the SRU proposal for a fully league system on the grounds that it would benefit Scottish rugby as a whole, but also in the full knowledge that this would inevitably pose great problems for the Club itself. Since 1973, only Phil Lucas has been capped internationally while playing for Barbados in 2009. Until 1983, EURFC enjoyed regular home and away fixtures with Oxford and Cambridge Universities often with distinct success; many players have interchanged between

1092-478: The foundation, Glasgow Academicals ; Edinburgh Academical Football Club ; West of Scotland F.C. ; University of St Andrews Rugby Football Club ; Royal High School FP ; Merchistonians ; Edinburgh University RFC ; and Glasgow University . Five of these clubs were, at the time of founding the Scottish Football Union, already members of the previously instituted Rugby Football Union . Although

1134-466: The great 1950 British Lions half-back partnership, and Ian Smith 'The Flying Scot' from the 1920s who held the 5-nations try-scoring record for many years. Many more of Rugby's international players worldwide played for the university prior to being capped from other clubs; these include Scotland and British Lions greats Dan Drysdale , and Andy Irvine , both future SRU Presidents from Heriot's FP , David Johnston ( Watsonians ) who had also played as

1176-535: The inaugural fixture with the Edinburgh Academicals in 1871–72, and, by remaining undefeated in their other fixtures wrested the championship from Edinburgh for the first time. The championship grew over the course of its history as more clubs attained ‘first class status’. In 1909 the championship was contested by eight Edinburgh clubs, seven Glasgow clubs and seven in the Borders. Edinburgh District

1218-545: The latter year 28 out of the 34 matches played were won and the club which led the competition in April which was quite enough to have won outright, was highly commended for sportingly arranging extra fixtures, one of which was lost to Hawick who then just won that championship. In this time, names such as contemporary Scotland internationals John Frame , Ian Smith (who went on to score the famous Scotland try that defeated South Africa in 1969), and Harry Rea (an Irish cap) were to

1260-565: The league owning all teams and the team operators being league shareholders, this effectively meant that the SRU had taken a small stake in MLR itself. The current president is Colin Rigby who succeeded Ian Barr in 2022. John McGuigan was appointed chair in May 2023. The Chief Executive Officer is Mark Dodson. In May 2014, it was announced that Sheila Begbie had been appointed to the newly created post of Head of Women's Rugby, reporting directly to

1302-441: The name Border Reivers; Edinburgh became Edinburgh Gunners, but would revert to Edinburgh in 2006 due to Arsenal F.C. owning the "Gunners" trademark; and Glasgow became Glasgow Warriors . Furthermore, the SRU planned to have a world-class rugby side for each city or large town in Scotland, when financial circumstances permitted. In 2007, The Borders team was disbanded yet again as a result of continuing financial difficulties. In

Scottish Unofficial Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

1344-621: The national league system, known as the Scottish League Championship , and consisting of: It also oversees the Scottish Cup . It is not directly responsible for local, university or 2nd XV leagues. See also Scottish Women's Rugby . Since the Scottish Women's Rugby Union merged with Scottish Rugby in 2009 the governing body also oversees Women's Fixtures. A National Cup competition: Regional Cup Competition: The SRU oversees Scotland's national teams. The most prominent team

1386-719: The new Scottish League Championship began; the top league of this championship is the Scottish Premiership . Edinburgh University RFC Edinburgh University Rugby Football Club is a leading rugby union side based in Edinburgh , Scotland which currently plays its fixtures in the Edinburgh Regional Shield competition and the British Universities Premiership. It is one of the eight founder members of

1428-543: The older rules. EURFC has produced 72 young full-international (for major IRB countries ) players whilst still students representing the club; these include 1924 Olympic 400m Gold Medallist Eric Liddell , 1904 British Lions captain David Bedell-Sivright  – one of the seven EURFC members also to play as British Lions whilst still students at the club, Norman Mair  – the future legendary sports writer and Scotland cricketer, Black & MacDonald

1470-781: The one and only International Rugby Football Board, now known as World Rugby , in 1886 with Ireland and Wales . (England refused to join until 1890.) In 1924 the SFU changed its name to become the Scottish Rugby Union. International games were played at Inverleith from 1899 to 1925 when Murrayfield was opened. The SRU owns Murrayfield Stadium which is the main home ground of the Scottish national team , though in 2004 international rugby games were played at Hampden Park in Glasgow and McDiarmid Park in Perth , as part of

1512-529: The other two being J.Forsyth and J.L.H MacFarlane . In 1901, after winning the Scottish unofficial championship, the Club provided an extraordinary eight members of the Scotland XV to defeat Wales that February. These were Bedell-Sivright , A.B Flett, Alfred Fell , Alex Frew , W.H Welsh, F.M Fasson, A.B Timms , and A.W. Duncan . Of these, Alex Frew not only won three Scotland caps from EURFC but also captained South Africa in its first ever match against

1554-622: The same year, the SRU began organising the Scotland Sevens , first held in Edinburgh and later in Glasgow. For several years, it was the final event in the annual Sevens World Series , but that distinction now belongs to Madrid. On 21 November 2009 Scotland beat Australia 9–8 after 17 attempts in 27 years. The SRU celebrated its centenary in 1973 with a number of events. Among these was the 1973 International Seven-A-Side Tournament ,

1596-449: The school's relocation in 1937–38, and in 1938–39 Hutcheson's GSFP and Allan Glen's FP ascended to the championship with Allan Glen's heading the table in their first season. The post war years saw Kelvinside and West of Scotland combine until 1950–51 whilst Musselburgh and Aberdeen GSFP were newcomers to the championship. By the middle of the decade Boroughmuir FP had joined the table with Trinity Academicals, Jordanhill and Ayr following in

1638-511: The three University Clubs on graduations – two of many notable examples of this being Ian Smith, 'The Flying Scot' who joined Edinburgh from Oxford and played for 4 seasons from 1924, and Barbarians ' president Micky Steele-Bodger of England  – a 1947 Edinburgh postgraduate from Cambridge destined to become future Chairman of the International Rugby Board . In this time, EURFC also had regular fixtures with

1680-786: The touring British Lions on his lone appearance for that country in 1903. This was as a representative member of the Transvaal Province , where he had settled as a doctor after his Edinburgh graduation of 1902. A great Rugby rarity happened in 1910 when EURFC player C.G. Timms had the distinction of representing the Club throughout that year and the British & Irish Lions on tour to South Africa without ever winning an international cap before or after. 'Charlie' Timms may have made up for his lack of international caps by going on to be awarded four Military Crosses in World War I as

1722-517: The university leagues. Established in 1857, the club now plays its home fixtures at the University of Edinburgh 's Peffermill playing grounds, having moved from its traditional ground at Craiglockhart in the season 1978–79. Its first ever match was in December 1857 against Edinburgh Academicals FC  – in 2007 the two clubs replayed that fixture to celebrate the 150th anniversary of EURFC's founding using replica period kit, ball and complying to

Scottish Unofficial Championship - Misplaced Pages Continue

1764-513: Was represented by Edinburgh Academicals, Royal HSFP, Edinburgh Institution FP, Watsonians, Edinburgh University , Edinburgh Wanderers, Stewarts FP & Heriots FP . The Glasgow District clubs were Glasgow Academicals, Clydesdale, Greenock Wanderers, West of Scotland , Kelvinside Academicals, Glasgow HSFP and Glasgow University whilst the Border representatives were Hawick, Gala, Jed-Forest Melrose, Selkirk, Kelso and Langholm. Hillhead HSFP joined

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