Gala Rugby Football Club 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 ...

team based in

Galashiels Galashiels (; , ) is a town in the Scottish Borders with a population of around 12,600. Its name is often colloquially shortened to "Gala". The town is a major commercial centre for the Borders region with extensive history in the textile in ...

in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

. Founded in 1875, it plays its home games at

Netherdale Netherdale is a sports complex in Galashiels, Scottish Borders, consisting of two adjacent stadiums used for rugby union and Association football, football. The rugby ground is the home of Gala RFC and was formerly used by the professional Border ...

. The team currently competes in

Scottish National League Division One The Scottish National League Division One (known as Tennent's National League Division 1 for sponsorship reasons) is the second tier of the Scottish League Championship for amateur rugby union clubs in Scotland. The division was established in i ...

, the second tier of Scottish club rugby, and the Border League (the oldest established rugby union league in the world).

Early history

The club was formed at a time of change in Galashiels, and the Borders in general, with the increasingly industrial textile industry. Cricket was played by the new influx of workers (particularly Yorkshire) and a winter alternate was needed, so a 'Football club' was formed in 1876. Although named a 'football' club they only ever played

rugby union football 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 ...

and never

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

. Rugby Union Football is now generally referred to as rugby, but at the time it was still commonly regarded as a code of football, as it technically still is. In 1883, the club took part in the first ever Sevens tournament in Melrose and competed in the final with the hosts. Within a year they (and many other Border clubs) had started their own Sevens, also known as 'Sports'. In 1994, these separate tournaments were organized into the Borders Sevens Circuit league structure, the winners are crowned as the "Kings of the Sevens". Gala has been 'the Kings' on two occasions, in 2004 and the first ever winners in 1994. In 1912 the club moved from Mossilee to a new ground at Netherdale, the new pavilion and grandstand built at a cost of 1150. 1931–32 saw Gala's first and only success in the

Scottish Unofficial Championship The Scottish Unofficial Championship was the top league of Scotland's best amateur rugby union clubs. The Championship was 'unofficial' as the Scottish Rugby Union held that the sport should remain amateur and at the time did not sanction competi ...

under the Captaincy of Jimmy Ferguson. From 1979, with Scottish internationalists Derek White and Peter Dods in the team, Gala won the Division 1 title three consecutive seasons.

1995–present

In 1995, Gala was one of eight teams to play in the new Scottish Premier League. In 1999, inspired by a young Chris Patterson at Stand-off, Gala won a treble of medals, the Division 2 title, the Scottish Cup, and Melrose Sevens. The lowest point in modern history came in 2007, when Gala was relegated to Division 3 for the first time in its history. Worse was that it was only points difference of 2 over the whole season. This gave the club the chance to clear out the dead wood and the team bounced back into Division 2 at the first time of asking. The 2010–11 season saw promotion back into the top flight, its first full season back. 2011–12, saw a 3rd-place finish and the Scottish cup for the second time. Gala finished 2012–13 as both Premier Division and Scottish cup runners-up. 2013–14 saw Gala finish runners-up in the Premiership again. This was a painful result as they were leading for much of the season only to lose out on the final match of the season to local rivals Melrose. They also reached the semi-finals of the Scottish cup and won the Border League. In February 2017 the club launched a rugby academy, despite the realisation that they would be relegated from the premiership at the end of the season.

Honours

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 ...

** Champions (3): 1979–80, 1980–81, 1982-83 ** ''Runners-up (8): 1974-75, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1978-79, 1983-84, 1993-94, 2012-13, 2013-14'' * Scottish League Championship, second-tier ** Champions (2): 1998–99, 2003-04 * Scottish League Championship, third-tier ** Champions (1): 2007-08 *

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Gala Sevens ** Champions (27): 1884, 1887, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1907, 1908, 1913, 1914, 1920, 1922, 1929, 1930, 1934, 1954, 1963, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1993, 1994, 1995, 2013, 2015 * Langholm Sevens ** Champions (10): 1908, 1910, 1924, 1964, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1993, 1998 *

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 (15): 1884, 1890, 1891, 1903, 1932, 1937, 1959, 1964, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1977, 1981, 1994, 1999 * Hawick Sevens ** Champions (16): 1891, 1893, 1901, 1907, 1919, 1923, 1931, 1940, 1949, 1956, 1967, 1972, 1982, 1995, 1996, 2017 * Berwick Sevens ** Champions (3): 2004, 2014, 2015 * Peebles Sevens ** Champions (5): 1924, 1954, 1957, 1961, 2015 * Kelso Sevens ** Champions (15): 1920, 1922, 1924, 1931, 1934, 1938, 1956, 1961, 1964, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1976, 2003 *

Earlston Sevens Earlston Sevens is an annual rugby sevens event held by Earlston RFC, in Earlston, Scotland. This was one of a group of Sevens tournaments instated after the First World War extending the original Borders Spring Circuit. The Earlston Sevens be ...

** Champions (18): 1923, 1927, 1928, 1930, 1938, 1952, 1959, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1971, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993, 2000, 2004, 2017 * Selkirk Sevens ** Champions (11): 1921, 1925, 1950, 1952, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1992 * Kings of the Sevens ** Champions (4): 1994, 1995, 2004, 2015 * Walkerburn Sevens ** Champions (3): 1924, 1926, 1938 * Portobello Sevens ** Champions (2): 1981, 1985 * Gala Thistle Sevens ** Champions (1): 1888 * St. Boswells Sevens ** Champions (1): 1978 * Ardrossan Sevens ** Champions (1): 1970 * Edinburgh Borderers Sevens ** Champions (1): 1923 * Preston Lodge Sevens ** Champions (1): 1985 * Penicuik Sevens ** Champions (3): 1975, 1977, 1983 * South of Scotland District Sevens ** Champions (1): 1974 * Stirling Sevens ** Champions (2): 1992, 1996 * Currie Sevens ** Champions (2): 1994, 1997

Notable players

British and Irish Lions

Scotland internationalists

The following former Gala players have represented

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 ...

at full international level.

Notable non-Scottish players

The following is a list of notable non-Scottish international representative former Gala players:

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
players

The following former Gala players have represented

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

at provincial level.

Notable also outside rugby union

The following is a list of notable former Gala players who have achieved notability in fields outwith rugby union: * P. J. Solomon - rugby league international * Tom Smith - basketball international * Andrew Murdison - rugby league player for Halifax

References

External links

* {{Rugby in the Borders Rugby union teams in Scotland Rugby clubs established in 1875 Rugby union clubs in the Scottish Borders Galashiels 1875 establishments in Scotland