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| Full name | Edinburgh University Rugby Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Founded | 1857; 168 years ago (1857) | ||
| Location | Edinburgh,Scotland | ||
| Ground(s) | Peffermill | ||
| President |  Ruaidhri Power | ||
| Coach(es) |  David Adamson | ||
| Captain(s) | James Boyle | ||
| Top scorer |  Rob Cuthbertson | ||
| League(s) | East Non-League (Men) Scottish Womens Non-League (Women) | ||
| 2019–20 | East Non-League (Men) Scottish Womens Non-League (Women) | ||
| |||
| Official website | |||
| rugby | |||
| Union website | |||
| www | |||
Edinburgh University Rugby Football Club is a leadingrugby union side based inEdinburgh,Scotland which currently plays its fixtures in the Edinburgh Regional Shield competition and theBritish Universities Premiership. It is one of the eight founder members of theScottish Rugby Union. In the years prior to theSRU's introduction of club leagues in 1973 and the advent of professionalism in the 1990s, EURFC was a major club power and it won the 'unofficial' Scottish Club championship several times. It remains a club with an all-student committee, and is only open to students of theUniversity of Edinburgh. The club runs a men's team and a women's team; both playing in the university leagues.
Established in 1857, the club now plays its home fixtures at theUniversity of Edinburgh's Peffermill playing grounds, having moved from its traditional ground atCraiglockhart in the season 1978–79. Its first ever match was in December 1857 againstEdinburgh Academicals FC – in 2007 the two clubs replayed that fixture to celebrate the 150th anniversary of EURFC's founding using replica period kit, ball and complying to the older rules.
EURFC has produced 72 young full-international (for majorIRB countries) players whilst still students representing the club; these include 1924Olympic 400m Gold MedallistEric Liddell, 1904British Lions captainDavid Bedell-Sivright – one of the seven EURFC members also to play as British Lions whilst still students at the club,Norman Mair – the future legendary sports writer and Scotland cricketer,Black & MacDonald the great 1950 British Lions half-back partnership, andIan Smith 'The Flying Scot' from the 1920s who held the 5-nations try-scoring record for many years.
Many more of Rugby's international players worldwide played for the university prior to being capped from other clubs; these include Scotland andBritish Lions greatsDan Drysdale, andAndy Irvine, both future SRU Presidents fromHeriot's FP,David Johnston (Watsonians) who had also played as a contracted footballer forHeart of Midlothian FC, and the recent Club coach Ian Barnes who won many Scotland caps from theHawick club.
In 1871, Club memberAngus Buchanan scored the first ever International try in the inaugural International match whilst representing Scotland versus England atRaeburn Place. There were three current Club representatives in the Scottish brown jerseys on that day; the other two being J.Forsyth andJ.L.H MacFarlane.
In 1901, after winning the Scottish unofficial championship, the Club provided an extraordinary eight members of the Scotland XV to defeat Wales that February. These wereBedell-Sivright, A.B Flett,Alfred Fell,Alex Frew, W.H Welsh, F.M Fasson,A.B Timms, andA.W. Duncan. Of these, Alex Frew not only won three Scotland caps from EURFC but also captainedSouth Africa in its first ever match against the touring British Lions on his lone appearance for that country in 1903. This was as a representative member of theTransvaal Province, where he had settled as a doctor after his Edinburgh graduation of 1902.
A great Rugby rarity happened in 1910 when EURFC playerC.G. Timms had the distinction of representing the Club throughout that year and theBritish & Irish Lions on tour toSouth Africa without ever winning an international cap before or after. 'Charlie' Timms may have made up for his lack of international caps by going on to be awarded fourMilitary Crosses inWorld War I as a Medical Officer – another great and possibly unique rarity. His brotherA.B Timms was capped for Scotland from the Club in 1896, but by the time he was selected for theLions tour of 1899 he was then representing theEdinburgh Wanderers club.
The club's fortunes waned in the 1930s, but a great revival took place in the 1950s, and 1960s when the Club finished runners-up in theScottish Unofficial Championship twice in 1963–64 and 1966–67 – in the latter year 28 out of the 34 matches played were won and the club which led the competition in April which was quite enough to have won outright, was highly commended for sportingly arranging extra fixtures, one of which was lost toHawick who then just won that championship. In this time, names such as contemporary Scotland internationalsJohn Frame, Ian Smith (who went on to score the famous Scotland try that defeated South Africa in 1969), andHarry Rea (an Irish cap) were to the fore.
The last major international player from the club was Jock Millican, thrice capped in 1972–73. This was after the decision had been taken by the club's [all-student] committee to back the SRU proposal for a fully league system on the grounds that it would benefit Scottish rugby as a whole, but also in the full knowledge that this would inevitably pose great problems for the Club itself. Since 1973, only Phil Lucas has been capped internationally while playing for Barbados in 2009.
Until 1983, EURFC enjoyed regular home and away fixtures withOxford andCambridge Universities often with distinct success; many players have interchanged between the three University Clubs on graduations – two of many notable examples of this being Ian Smith, 'The Flying Scot' who joined Edinburgh fromOxford and played for 4 seasons from 1924, andBarbarians' presidentMicky Steele-Bodger ofEngland – a 1947Edinburgh postgraduate fromCambridge destined to become future Chairman of theInternational Rugby Board. In this time, EURFC also had regular fixtures with the University XV's ofDurham,Newcastle, and other northern English Institutions. EURFC has often received and played against Clubs from all of the major Rugby playing countries
In the years 1973 until 2012, the Club retained a position within the top 36 clubs in the SRU league structure on Saturdays; occasional promotions into the Scottish Premiership were usually balanced by returns to the top end of the National League below. Wednesday afternoons saw fixtures in the Scottish Universities championship which was won many times and very many players represented the Scottish Universities XV. Memorable victories include; 2002 BUSA Shield competition with the final played in London, and the SRU'S Scottish HydroElectric Bowl competition was registered in 2009 with the final being played againstAberdeenshire RFC atMurrayfield. However great ambition coupled with reorganisations in the British University competition saw the Club qualify for admission toBUCS Premier North 'B' League at the first available opportunity; this inevitably saw a deeply reluctant departure from the SRU league structure to aid concentration on the enormous travelling requirements south of the border. The Club remains the only Scottish University at this level.
In total EURFC runs four teams:
The 1st XV currently competes in BUCS Premier North A League.
The 2nd XV currently competes in BUCS Scottish 1A.
The 3rd XV currently competes in BUCS Scottish 3A.
The 4th XV currently competes in BUCS Scottish 4A.The 5th XV currently competes in the Edinburgh University Intramural League.
In the past, EURFC has also fielded an EURL (Edinburgh University Rugby League) team in theBUCS competitions.
Edinburgh University also has two ladies teams, run as separate club EULRFC. The first XV were 2009 semi finalists of the British Universities Championships, and have reached the quarter finals in both 2010 and 2011. They compete in the BUCS Northern Premier Division and Scottish Premier League. The 2nd XV team currently compete in the Scottish Universities Championship and the National Development League.
Edinburgh University RFC has a notable history of touring; 2004 tour to South Africa, a major tour to Japan was undertaken in 2008 where one of the games was televised. In June 2011, EURFC returned to a previously toured country in Brazil, celebrating 25 years since they had previously toured there, with two televised matches against theBrazil national rugby union team, one against a regionals side and another against Brazil's U23 side. As well as Japan and Brazil the club has also had sides in USA, Ireland, Canada, France, Australia, Argentina and Spain in recent years.
The following 55 members represented Scotland as full internationals as representative members of Edinburgh University RFC.
Gibbie Abercrombie 1949Les Allan 1952D. R. Bedell-Sivright 1903"Gus" Black 1947A Buchanan 1871Herbert Bullmore 1902Charles Cathcart 1872Henry Chambers 1888Ian Cordial 1952Leslie Currie 1948Jim Davidson 1952Maurice Dickson 1905Andrew Drybrough 1902A. W. Duncan 1901Henry Evans 1885Ernest Fahmy 1920Frank Fasson 1900A. N. Fell 1901Hugh Fletcher 1904Andrew Flett 1901William Forsyth 1871John Frame 1967Rowland Fraser 1911A. Frew 1901A. K. Fulton 1952John Hart 1951Bob Howie 1924James Huggan 1914Frank Hunter 1882H. H. Johnston 1877Eric Liddell 1922Ross Logan 1931 D. C. Macdonald 1953 J. S. Macdonald 1903Ranald Macdonald 1950J. L. H. McFarlane 1871John MacGregor 1909David MacKenzie 1947Norman Mair 1951J. Marsh 1889Jock Millican 1973Reggie Morrison 1886Charles Nimmo 1920Frank Osler 1911William Peterkin 1881J. Reid 1874Andrew Ross 1911Ernest Simson 1902I. S. Smith 1924Louis Stevenson 1888Alexander Stewart 1874A. B. Timms 1896William Halliday Welsh 1900Leonard West 1903John SimsonThe following 18 players represented other full international sides as representative members of Edinburgh University RFC
J. B. Allison 1899 S. B. B Campbell 1911 W. J. N Davis 1890 T. M Donovan 1889 R. S. F Henderson 1883 G. McConnel 1912 H. McVicar 1927J. Marsh 1892 L. C Nash 1889H. H Rea 1967 J. A. S Ritson 1910 T. Smyth 1908M. R Steele-Bodger 1947 T. H Stevenson 1895 R. D Stokes 1891A. S Taylor 1910Sir Lancelot Barrington-Ward 1910
Phil Lucas 2009
Erik Martensson 2015
Fin Field 2016 Liam Owens 2016
Jonathan Gibson 2019Seven players have represented British & Irish Lions whilst still students representing the club:
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