Merchistonian Football Club is a

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union or rugby league. Rugby football started at Rugby School in Rugby, Warwickshire, England, where the rules were first codified in 1845. Forms of football in which the ball ...

team based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It was for former pupils of

Merchiston Castle School Merchiston Castle School is an independent boarding school for boys in the suburb of Colinton in Edinburgh, Scotland. It has around 470 pupils and is open to boys between the ages of 7 and 18 as either boarding or day pupils; it was modelled ...

. It is believed the club was established in 1860.

History

Beginning

Merchistonian was a founding member of the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the Sport governing body, 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 sys ...

and one of the five Scottish clubs to issue the challenge to English football players that resulted in the first rugby international. The club supplied three players for the match Andrew Galbraith Colville, George Ritchie and the scorer of the match's only goal (conversion) William Cross. Cross also scored one of Scotland's two tries to England's one however, at the time, tries did not result in points merely a 'try' at scoring a goal and Scotland won the match 1–0.William Cross international rugby profile
Scrum.com

Decline

However, as Allan Massie notes, because it was a boarding school, unlike some of the other private schools in Edinburgh, a lot of the former pupils would disperse and go out of the city. Those that remained in the city would often play for

Edinburgh Wanderers Edinburgh Wanderers is a former rugby union club, founded in 1868. It was latterly a tenant of the Scottish Rugby Union, playing home fixtures at Murrayfield Stadium for nearly 75 years. In 1997 it merged with Murrayfield RFC to form Murrayfi ...

Revival

In 2013, the Merchistonian Club (the School's former pupil society) revived the rugby team under the name "Merchistonian Rugby Football Club" (Merchistonian RFC). The side played its first match against traditional rival Edinburgh Academical with both sides fielding a strictly former pupil team (rather than Accies open first XV) at

Raeburn Place Raeburn Place is the main street of the suburb of Stockbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland, and the name of the playing fields there. It is also the location of the first International Rugby match between Scotland and England. Rugby The first eve ...

on 29 March, losing 31–20. The intent was to play this fixture on an annual basis. Merchistonian RFC also competed in a number of sevens competitions and the Edinburgh 10s in 2014.

Status

In 2017, the Scottish Rugby Union board granted the Merchistonian RFC its historic status of being a Football Club (FC) instead of a Rugby Football Club (RFC). Historically rugby clubs were also known as ''football'' clubs so once again the rugby club is named the 'Merchistonian Football Club' (MFC).

Notable players

Scotland internationalists

The following former Merchiston F.C. players have represented

at full international level. * Thomas Anderson * Andrew Drybrough * James Campbell * Gordon Neilson * Tom Whittington

Edinburgh District

The following former Merchiston F.C. players have represented Edinburgh District at provincial level. * Tom Whittington * E. Thew * Benjamin Blyth II * Andrew Drybrough

British and Irish Lions

The following former Merchiston F.C. players have represented the British and Irish Lions. * William Lovat Fraser

SRU presidents

Former Merchistonians have been President of the SRU: * 1875–76 Benjamin Blyth II * 1882-83 William Cross

References

External links

* * Rugby union in Edinburgh Sports clubs and teams in Edinburgh Defunct rugby union teams in Scotland Football clubs established in the 1860s 1860s establishments in Scotland {{Scotland-rugbyunion-team-stub