Merchistonian Football Club is a

rugby football Rugby football is the collective name for the team sports of rugby union and rugby league. Canadian football and, to a lesser extent, American football were once considered forms of rugby football, but are seldom now referred to as such. The ...

team based in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. 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 ...

History

Merchistonian was a founding member of the

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; gd, Aonadh Rugbaidh na h-Alba) is the governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Styled as Scottish Rugby, it is the second oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league s ...

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 Allan Johnstone Massie (born 16 October 1938) is a Scottish journalist, columnist, sports writer and novelist. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has lived in the Scottish Borders for the last 25 years, and now lives in Se ...

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 Murrayfie ...

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 FC 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. Rugby The first ever international rugby football game was played on the playing fields at Raeburn Place on 27 Ma ...

on 29 March, losing 31–20. The intent is 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.

Edinburgh District

The following former Merchiston F.C. players have represented Edinburgh District at provincial level.

British and Irish Lions

The following former Merchiston F.C. players have represented the British and Irish Lions.

References

Rugby union in Edinburgh Sports teams in Edinburgh {{Scotland-sport-team-stub