Edinburgh Academical Football Club
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| Full name | The Edinburgh Academical Football Club | |
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| Union | Scottish Rugby Union | |
| Nickname(s) | Accies, Acads | |
| Founded | 1857 | |
| Location | Edinburgh, Scotland | |
| Region | Edinburgh | |
| Ground(s) | Raeburn Place, Stockbridge, Edinburgh (Capacity: 5,000) | |
| President | John Wright | |
| Coach(es) | Phil Leck | |
| Captain(s) | Greg Campbell | |
| League(s) | Scottish Premiership | |
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| Official website | ||
| www |
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The Edinburgh Academical Football Club, also known as Edinburgh Accies or Edinburgh Acads, is a rugby union football 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 behind Dublin University Football Club (founded 1854). They are one of the founding members of the Scottish Rugby Union. At present it plays in the Scottish Premiership and plays its home games at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh. They are coached by Phil Leck.
The club regularly fields four teams with the addition of the BATS initiative which they run along with Edinburgh BATs Rugby (a Community Amateur Sports Club), 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, between The Edinburgh Academy (the school from which the club was formed) and Merchiston Castle School which was first played in 1859.[2] In the 1873-4 season, they played ten matches, and won all of them.[2]
In season 2007/8, the Club's 1st XV finished second in the Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership Division 2, thereby securing promotion to the Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership Division 1. That same season they experienced a successful Scottish Cup run, reaching the final with victories over Premiership 1 teams Currie, Hawick and Boroughmuir. The team lost the final 24-13 to the Glasgow Hawks.
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 at The Greenyards. The Club's 2nd XV finished 3rd in the Scottish Reserve League National 1, the 'Blues' (3rd XV) finished 2nd in the Scottish Reserve League East 1, the 'Whites' (4th XV) finished 2nd in the Scottish Reserve League East 2 and the U20's finished the season unbeaten and were crowned champions of the Student & U20's Development League (Edinburgh).
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 Scottish Premiership after the restructure of the Scottish league system.
Notable players
The Academicals has supplied Scotland with over 100 internationalists including Rob Wainwright and David Sole.
Recent Scottish internationalists include former Scotland captain Mike Blair, David Callam, Tom Philip, Stuart Moffat, Barry Stewart, Donnie Macfadyen, Scott Murray, Rob Wainwright, David McIvor, Jeremy Richardson, John Allan[disambiguation needed], Alec Moore, Chris Gray 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
- Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1-86200-013-1)
- Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; ISBN 0-904919-84-6)
- ↑ Edinburgh Accies Club History, http://www.edinburghaccies.com/club_history.html
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Bath, p86
- ↑ Bath, Richard (ed.) The Scotland Rugby Miscellany (Vision Sports Publishing Ltd, 2007 ISBN 1-905326-24-6), pp 104, 105; note list shows initials not full names
External links
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- Edinburgh Academicals Football Club Official Site
- [1] 'The Accies - The Cradle of Scottish Rugby' - Club history written by David Barnes
