The Edinburgh Academical Football Club, also known as Edinburgh Accies or Edinburgh Acads, is a rugby union club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The club was formed in 1857 and is the oldest rugby club in Scotland[1], the second oldest club in continuous existence in the World and one of the founding members of the Scottish Rugby Union. The Club's name omits the word "Rugby" as it predates the division between the Association and Rugby codes of football, which took place in the 1860s. At present it plays in Scottish Premiership Division One and plays its home games at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh, Scotland. They are coached by Scottish internationalists Ian Barnes, Jim Renwick and Tom Philip.
The Club's 1st XV finished second in the Scottish Premiership League Division 2, thereby securing promotion to the Premiership Division One for season 2007/8. They experienced a successful Scottish Cup run in the 2006/07 season, reaching the final with victories over Premiership 1 teams Currie, Hawick and Boroughmuir during the run. The team lost the final 24-13 to the Glasgow Hawks.
For Season 2008/9 Accies recruited talent from local schools. The club put five regular teams out this season with the addition of the BATS initiative which they run along with Edinburgh BATs Rugby, Broughton RFC and Trinity Accies RFC.
History
The Accies' home ground, Raeburn Place is also significant as the location of the first ever rugby international.[2] Seven players of the original Scotland side were Academicals, including the captain, FJ Moncrieff.[2]
The Academicals are also responsible for the oldest organised rugby match, against Merchiston which was first played in 1859.[2] In the 1873-4 season, they played ten matches, and won all of them.[2]
Notable players
The Academicals has supplied Scotland with over 100 internationalists including Rob Wainwright and David Sole. Sole was made coach after being relegated from Division 1 at the end of the '95-'96 season, and took them to the top of Div 2.[2]
Recent Scottish internationalists include current Scotland captain Mike Blair, David Callam, Tom Philip, Stuart Moffat, Barry Stewart, Donnie Macfadyen, Scott Murray, Rob Wainwright, David McIvor, Jeremy Richardson, John Allan, Alec Moore and Grand Slam winning captain David Sole (also their most capped player[2]).
A number of Edinburgh Academicals have represented Scotland at both rugby and cricket, these include: Henry Stevenson, T. R. Marshall, L.M. Balfour, E.M. Bannerman, W.E. Maclagan, and K.W. Marshall[3]
References
- ^ Edinburgh Accies Club History, http://www.edinburghaccies.com/club_history.html
- ^ a b c d e f Bath, p86
- ^ Bath, Richard (ed.) The Scotland Rugby Miscellany (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ISBN 1905326246), pp 104, 105; note list shows initials not full names
External links
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Founding Clubs of the SRU |
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Willie Liston
