Edinburgh Academical Football Club, also known as Edinburgh Accies, is a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club 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 ...

. The club is currently a member of the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

, the top tier of Scottish club rugby. Its home ground is Raeburn Place, in

Stockbridge, Edinburgh Stockbridge is a district of Edinburgh, located north of the city centre, bounded by the New Town, Edinburgh, New Town and by Comely Bank. The name is Scots ''stock brig'' from Anglic languages, Anglic ''stocc brycg'', meaning a timber bridge. ...

. The team is coached by Iain Berthinussen. The club regularly fields three teams and is also involved with Broughton and Trinity Accies in the Edinburgh BATs initiative, a community amateur sports club providing youth rugby across northern Edinburgh.

History

The club was formed in 1857 and is the oldest surviving football club of any code in Scotland,Edinburgh Accies Club History, and the second oldest rugby union club in continuous existence in the world, behind Dublin University Football Club (founded 1854). They were one of the founding members 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 ...

In the 1873–74 season, they played ten matches, and won all of them. In season 2007–08, the club's 1st XV finished second in Premiership Division 2, thereby securing promotion to the Premiership Division 1. That same season they experienced a successful Scottish Cup run, reaching the final with victories over Premiership 1 teams Currie,

Hawick Hawick ( ; ; ) is a town in the Scottish Borders council areas of Scotland, council area and counties of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east o ...

and Boroughmuir. The team lost the final 24–13 to the Glasgow Hawks. The club played a match against the Barbarians in April 2008 to mark the club's 150th anniversary. A book was also published that had been commissioned to celebrate the club's 150th anniversary, ''The Accies: The Cradle of Scottish Rugby''. In season 2009–10 the club's 1st XV was relegated to Scottish Premier Division 2 after they lost to Heriot's FP in the last game of the season and on the same day Watsonian's beat Melrose. In season 2010–11 the club were Premier 2 League champions and returned to the top level of Scottish club rugby, the Premier 1 League, for the 2011–12 season. They remained in the

after the restructure of the Scottish league system.

Ground

The Accies' home ground, Raeburn Place, is the location of the first rugby international. Seven players of the original Scotland side were Academicals, including the captain, FJ Moncrieff.Bath, p86

Honours

Men

* Scottish Unofficial Championship ** Champions (16 + 4 shared): 1865–66, 1866–67, 1867–68, 1868–69, 1870–71, 1874–75, 1876–77 (with Glasgow Academicals), 1877–78, 1878–79 (with Glasgow Academicals), 1879–80 (with Glasgow Academicals), 1885–86, 1886–87, 1887–88, 1897–98, 1898–99, 1899–1900 (with Edinburgh University and Hawick), 1905–06, 1929–30, 1955–56 * Scottish National League Division One ** Champions (3): 1996–97, 2010–11, 2017–18 ** Runners–Up (2): 2007–08, 2016–17 * Scottish National League Division Two ** Champions (2): 1999–00, 2003–04 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Langholm Sevens ** Champions (1): 1929 *

Melrose Sevens Melrose Sevens is an annual rugby sevens event held by Melrose Rugby Club, at The Greenyards in Melrose, Scotland. It is the oldest rugby sevens competition in the world, dating back to 1883 when the tournament was suggested by former Melros ...

** Champions (3): 1928, 1930, 1949 * Hawick Sevens ** Champions (3): 1929, 1936, 1946 (jointly fielded team with Edinburgh Wanderers) * Gala Sevens ** Champions (1): 2019 * Peebles Sevens ** Champions (3): 1947 (jointly fielded team with Edinburgh Wanderers), 1984, 1989 * Edinburgh Charity Sevens ** Champions (5): 1929, 1932, 1933, 1942 (jointly fielded team with Edinburgh Wanderers), 1945 (jointly fielded team with Edinburgh Wanderers) * Highland Sevens ** Champions (9): 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1954, 1970, 1998 * Edinburgh Borderers Sevens ** Champions (1): 1966 * Broughton Sevens ** Champions (1): 2007 * Lismore Sevens ** Champions (4): 1975, 1982, 1986, 1991 * Haddington Sevens ** Champions (1): 1989 * Edinburgh Northern Sevens ** Champions (1): 2015 * Musselburgh Sevens ** Champions (2): 1979, 1992 * Berwick Sevens ** Champions (1): 2023

Women

* Mull Sevens ** Champions (4): 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997 * Edinburgh Northern Sevens ** Champions (1): 2001

Notable players

British and Irish Lions

The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented the

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

. * Rodger Arneil * Mike Blair * Alf Bucher * Stan Coughtrie * Jimmy Gillespie * Scott Murray * Robert Miln Neill * David Sole * Rob Wainwright

Scotland internationalists

The following (not previously listed above) former Edinburgh Academical players have represented

at full international level in rugby union. * John Allan * Lewis Bell * Dave Callam * Alexander Clay * Jack Crabbie * George Crabbie * David Denton * Francis Dods * John Dods * Cornell du Preez * Douglas Elliot * Arthur Finlay * James Finlay * Ninian Finlay * George Gallie * John Gordon * Ian Graham * Gussie Graham * Chris Gray * Ian Henderson * Mac Henderson * Hamish Inglis * Bulldog Irvine * Duncan Irvine * Walter Irvine * William Lyall * Donnie Macfadyen * John Macphail * George Macleod * Arthur Marshall * William Marshall * Hugh Martin * George Maxwell * Tommy McClung * John McCrow * Bill McEwan * Saxon McEwan * Dave McIvor * James Mein * Stuart Moffat * Alex Moore * William Morrison * Scott Murray * Brian Neill * George Paterson * Tom Philip * Charles Reid * James Reid * Jeremy Richardson * Alec Robertson * Duncan Robertson * Ernest Roland * Graham Ross * William Roughead * James Sanderson * Jock Scott * Hamish Shaw * Allen Sloan * Donald Sloan * Pat Smeaton * Errol Smith * Archibald Stewart * Barry Stewart * Jock Stewart * John Guthrie Tait * Thomas Torrie * Phipps Turnbull * Gordon Watt * Tom White * Francis Wright * Arthur Young

Other internationalists

The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented their nations at full international level. * Bill McEwan * Alastair Reed

Cross-Sporting internationalists

Cricket

The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented both the Scotland rugby union team and the

Scotland cricket team The Scotland national men's cricket team represents the country of Scotland. They play most of their home matches at The Grange Club, The Grange, Edinburgh, as well as at other venues around Scotland. Scotland's history in cricket dates back t ...

.Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Scotland Rugby Miscellany'' (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ), pp 104, 105; note list shows initials not full names * Leslie Balfour-Melville * Edward Bannerman *

Bill Maclagan William Edward Maclagan (5 April 1858 – 10 October 1926) was a Scotland, Scottish international rugby union forward who played club rugby for London Scottish F.C. Maclagan was one of the longest-serving international rugby players during the ...

* Kenneth Marshall * Thomas Marshall * Henry Stevenson * Ben Tod

Rugby league

The following have represented

at full international level. * P. J. Solomon

SRU presidents

Former Edinburgh Academicals have been President of the SRU: * 1883–84 Gussie Graham * 1893–94 Leslie Balfour-Melville

References

* Bath, Richard (ed.) ''The Complete Book of Rugby'' (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997, ). * Massie, Allan ''A Portrait of Scottish Rugby'' (Polygon, Edinburgh; ).

External links

*
'The Accies – The Cradle of Scottish Rugby'
– Club history written by David Barnes {{Authority control Rugby clubs established in 1857 Rugby union teams in Scotland Rugby union in Edinburgh 1857 establishments in Scotland Sports clubs and teams in Edinburgh