The Edinburgh Academical Football Club, also known as Edinburgh Accies or Edinburgh Acads, is a rugby union football club in Edinburgh, Scotland. At present it plays in the Scottish BT National 1 league. The club's home ground is Raeburn Place, Edinburgh. They are coached by Derek O'Riordan and Iain Berthinussen.
The club regularly fields three teams and is also involved, with Broughton RFC and Trinity Accies RFC, in the BATs' initiative, a Community Amateur Sports Club providing youth rugby across north Edinburgh.
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Early history
The club was formed in 1857 and is the oldest surviving football club of any code in Scotland, 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.
In the 1873-74 season, they played ten matches, and won all of them.
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Oldest rugby match
The Academicals are also responsible for the world's oldest surviving organised rugby fixture, between The Edinburgh Academy (the school from which the club was formed) and Merchiston Castle School, which was first played in 1859 and continues to this day.
Ground
The Accies' home ground, Raeburn Place is significant as the location of the first rugby international. Seven players of the original Scotland side were Academicals, including the captain, FJ Moncrieff, and an Academical also played for England that day.
Recent history
In season 2007-08, 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
Cross-Sporting internationalists
Cricket
The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented both the Scotland national rugby union team and the Scotland national cricket team.
Scotland Rugby League internationalists
The following (not previously listed above) former Edinburgh Academical players have represented Scotland at full international level.
British and Irish Lions
The following (not previously listed above) former Edinburgh Academical players have represented the British and Irish Lions.
Scotland internationalists
The following (not previously listed above) former Edinburgh Academical players have represented Scotland at full international level in rugby union.
Other internationalists
The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented their nations at full international level.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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