|
|
|
|
Rugby union in Scotland
|
| |
|
| |
Rugby union is a popular team sport in Scotland.
The national side today competes in the annual Six Nations Championship and the Rugby World Cup. The first ever international rugby match was played on March 27 1871 at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh, when Scotland defeated England in front of 4,000 people. Professional clubs compete in the Magners League and the Heineken Cup, while the Scottish Hydro Electric League Championship exists for over 200 amateur and semi-professional clubs, as does a knock-out competition, the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup. Today, the governing body, the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), is one of only ten first-tier member nations of the IRB.
Governing bodyThe governing body of the game in Scotland is the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), who operate the national team.
Competitions- See also Scottish rugby union system
Historically rugby union was an amateur sport, but the dawn of professionalism changed the way in which the game was structured. The game is now divided into professional and non-professional spheres.
Previously there had been a domestic league that covered the country, the top division of which was essentially the elite of club rugby in Scotland. This league was established in the early 1970s to replace the complicated "unofficial championship" that had been competed for previously. Starting in 1973-74 season, the clubs were organised into a league of six divisions - what today comprises the Premiership and National League elements of the League Championship. Originally, below the six divisions (but not connected by promotion or relegation) were a series of District Leagues, covering smaller geographical areas, organised by District Unions and sometimes involving 2nd XVs. Over a period of time, these District divisions have been reformed and integrated into the Scottish rugby union system meaning that today, only four clubs don't have their first XVs in the interconnected league structure.
The entire system is currently sponsored by Scottish Hydro Electric, making it known as the Scottish Hydro Electric League Championship. This league contains Scottish rugby union's traditional big name clubs, such as Melrose RFC and Hawick RFC, as well as major city clubs such as Boroughmuir RFC, Heriots RFC and Watsonians RFC from Edinburgh, and Glasgow Hawks from Glasgow who were formed from an amalgamation of clubs in the 1990s.
ClubsTraditionally, rugby clubs were very often formed by ex-pupils of independent schools and large state schools, and many clubs names still to this day include abbreviations such as:
- 'High School Former Pupils' (for instance, Dundee HSFP RFC)
- 'Former Pupils' (for instance, Stewart's Melville FP RFC)
- 'Grammar School Former Pupils' (for instance, Aberdeen GSFP RFC)
However, with the introduction of the league system in the 1970s, and the resulting increase in competitiveness and standard of play, most of these clubs have had to loosen their participation criteria to include non ex-pupils, although in most cases the clubs squads do still comprise a large proportion of individuals with connections to the schools. Often the clubs will be part-financed, and their grounds maintained or even owned, by the schools themselves.
Amalgamations of clubs are also reasonably frequent, and when this occurs the clubs often combine names, as in Hillhead/Jordanhill RFC, Hillfoots/Alloa RFC or Waysiders/Drumpellier RFC.
Other leaguesScotland is also home to the oldest organised rugby union league in the world, the Border League, which was formed in 1901. The Border League does not take part in the pyramid structure of the National League, but all its clubs participate in it (and thus the Border League is now effectively a supplementary competition). Two small 'independent' leagues remain outside the system, the Highland Alliance League and the Grampian Alliance League but they have only four clubs between them (the remaining membership being 2nd XVs of clubs in the League Championship) and are not likely to remain in existence for much longer.
Aside from the schools, the other 'traditional powerhouse' of rugby in Scotland was the universities, and to this day the Scottish universities have their own league system independent of the BUCS system which covers the rest of Great Britain. However, the BUSA Scottish Conference comprises divisions of 4 or 5 teams, and therefore not many fixtures each season, so unofficial Saturday University Leagues are organised (somewhat informally) between the universities.
Due to the social and amateur nature of the game, most clubs try to run as many teams as possible so that all their players get games on most weekends, and therefore a large system of what are effectively reserve leagues operate. Known as 2nd XV, 3rd XV, 4th XV etc. depending on the quality of the players making up each team, their competitive activities were formally all supervised by The Scottish 2nd XV League - however in recent years disputes and breakaways have led to the formation of independent 2nd XV leagues in the Scottish Borders and in and around Edinburgh.
See University Leagues in Scotland and 2nd XV Leagues in Scotland for details.
Changes for the professional eraWhen professionalism was introduced into rugby union in the 1990s, and the Heineken Cup created for clubs across Europe, the SRU decided that the existing clubs operating in the Scottish leagues were not competitive enough. They were predominantly amateur, or at best paid small wages; they had low supports and small old-fashioned venues; and the quality of their play was, by the nature of these factors, comparatively low versus new professional clubs and super-teams in other countries. As a rule their players trained only two nights a week.
After a short spell using District teams (effectively select teams drawing together the best amateur players from clubs in a given area), the SRU decided to create professional clubs to compete in the Celtic League, a competition which grew out of an Anglo-Welsh league (and for a time had a cup competition, the Celtic Cup. It is now known as the Magners League and consists of Scottish, Welsh and Irish sides. The aim of creating these 'pro-teams' or 'super-teams' was ensure that Scotland had fairly competitive sides operating in the European competitions, the Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup (as well as the European Shield during its short existence), and to drive up standards of rugby in the country.
Originally, before the Celtic League started, the SRU created four pro-teams, based roughly on the old districts: the Border Reivers based in Galashiels (with occasional matches elsewhere), the Caledonia Reds based in Aberdeen and Perth, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
From four teams to twoHowever these proved a disaster in European competition and for the formation of the Celtic League they were amalgamated into Edinburgh Reivers and Glasgow Caledonian Reds playing in Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively, and later renamed simply Edinburgh and Glasgow.
After a few seasons with two teams, the SRU then reformed a Borders team, initially known as Border Reivers, then renamed The Borders, before reverting to Border Reivers again. At the time of this last change the other two sides were renamed Edinburgh Gunners and Glasgow Warriors. However, the SRU's extreme financial difficulties (they were, and still are, over £20M in debt) forced yet another re-think (especially when the Border Reivers and Glasgow were rooted to the bottom of the Celtic League season after season) - at the end of season 2005-2006, Edinburgh Gunners were sold to a private consortium led by Alex Carruthers, and renamed Edinburgh Rugby.
Continuing difficultiesHowever, even with the running costs of two instead of three teams, the SRU were still struggling. Many attempts were made to find private backers for Glasgow or the Borders (although the only investors interested in the latter wanted to move it to Falkirk, Stirling or Aberdeen) but in the end neither of the teams could be sold. As a result, at the end of 2006-2007 the SRU yet again disbanded the Border Reivers, leaving Scotland with two pro-teams, one under private and one under SRU control.
However, the relationship with Alex Carruthers and his ERC Group which owned Edinburgh Rugby proved to be very uncomfortable. The SRU defaulted in a number of payments of competition prize money to ERC, requiring the consortium to invest their own additional funds, and the SRU refused to share bar takings from Edinburgh Rugby matches at Murrayfield with ERC - at the same time, the SRU was unhappy about the signing policy and the unavailability of players for international team training.
Following a bitter dispute in the press and media during 2007, in which legal action was started, and for a time Edinburgh Rugby was banned from participating in matches, the SRU agreed to buy back Edinburgh Rugby from Alex Carruthers. This caused much unrest in the Scottish Borders, as their team had been wound up only months before, when the SRU insisted it couldn't finance two pro-teams on its own.
The SRU announced shortly after its buy-back that it intends to re-name Edinburgh Rugby as Edinburgh RFC at some point in the future.
Popularity
Unlike in Wales, rugby union is not the national sport in Scotland, although it is extremely popular in the Borders region. It is likely to come second, far behind football, although it has recently come under threat from the increasingly popular sport of cricket, at least in terms of adult male participation. Rugby union is far more widely played than rugby league which despite being very popular in the North of England, has not found wide popularity north of the border - there being only 8 minor clubs, who participate in the Scotland Rugby League.
Rugby is most popular in the Borders region, where it is played widely, and this is probably the only area of Scotland where rugby is the most popular sport - although again here ground is being lost, particularly to football. In the rest of the country rugby tends to be the preserve of private schools, although not exclusively so. Despite not being so popular in the West of Scotland, the domestic league has been dominated in recent years by a Glasgow based club, the Hawks. The sport of shinty is also popular in the Highlands, where few rugby clubs exist.
Whilst attendances at club matches in Scotland are fairly poor (certainly by comparison to football or to the attendances at club matches in neighbouring England or Wales) the national team draws a sizeable crowd, especially for the Six Nations matches. Indeed, despite football generally being more popular than rugby in Scotland, Murrayfield is considerably larger than Hampden Park, the Scottish national football team's home ground, with space to hold around 15,000 extra spectators.
Aside from Murrayfield, there are few major rugby stadiums in Scotland. Many clubs in the Scottish Borders have grandstands, notably Melrose RFC, Hawick RFC, Jed-Forest RFC and Gala RFC. Major city sides, including Boroughmuir, Heriots RFC, Stewart's Melville FP and Watsonians RFC in Edinburgh, and Glasgow Hawks in Glasgow also have seated, covered stands. Of these, Boroughmuir and Hawks have very new stands, the remainder being pre-World War II in origin. Few if any clubs have floodlighting, and undersoil heating is virtually unknown.
The Edinburgh-based pro-team, currently based at Murrayfield, has in its previous guises played at the athletics arena, Meadowbank Stadium, and at the football ground at Easter Road. The Glasgow-based pro-team played at various club rugby grounds, including Hughenden and Old Anniesland, as well as the athletics stadium at Scotstoun before moving to the football ground at Firhill. The Borders and Caledonia teams played at various club rugby grounds in Galashiels, Perth and Aberdeen.
StatisticsAccording to the International Rugby Board, Scotland has 242 rugby union clubs; 350 referees; 54,000 pre-teen male players; 10,000 teen male players; 10,000 senior male players (total male players 74,000) as well as 23,000 pre-teen female players; 500 teen female players; 750 senior female players (total female players 24,250).
DemographicsRugby union is particularly popular in the Borders region. The towns of Hawick, Galashiels, Jedburgh and Melrose, amongst others have produced much national success and many international players. Ironically the Borders currently lacks a professional side, while Glasgow the home territory of Scottish football has its own team.
Current trendsThe national teamThe first international rugby union match in the world was played between England and Scotland in Edinburgh in 1871. Scotland won 4-1. The national side is considered by the IRB to belong in the top tier of nations, although they are not as competitive as the elite sides such as New Zealand or South Africa. They usually play their home matches at Murrayfield Stadium in the West End of Edinburgh.
Scotland contest the Calcutta Cup with England as part of the Six Nations Championship.
Every four years the British and Irish Lions go on tour with players from Scotland as well as England, Ireland and Wales. Scottish players are also regularly selected to represent Barbarians F.C..
See also
External links - - the official site of Scottish Rugby
-
|
| |
|
|
