Edinburgh Rugby

The history of the Edinburgh Rugby team can be traced all the way back to 1872 when the Edinburgh District team played in the first ever inter-district match against the Glasgow District.
Throughout the amateur era of rugby union in Scotland, the Edinburgh District side were highly competitive. On several occasions, they were even asked to play against national opposition. In fact, the team was strong enough to beat Canada in 1962, Fiji in 1982 and Japan in 1986. They also won the Scottish Inter-District Championship 18 times during the amateur era.

However, one year after rugby union allowed professionalism in 1995, the Edinburgh District side evolved into Edinburgh Rugby, a fully-professional side. After several turbulent years and a number of rebrands and restructures, the team immediately joined the inaugural season of the Celtic League (now the PRO14) and played in European competitions like the European Rugby Challenge Cup and the Heineken Champions Cup.

Ever since, the team have been moderately successful and they reached the quarter-final stage of the competition in only their second appearance. However, turmoil followed and the team was briefly sold and owned privately before it returned to the Scottish Rugby Union. Shortly after in the 2008-09 season, Edinburgh Rugby recorded their best ever finish in the Celtic League, when they reached the final and narrowly lost to Munster.

In the professional era of rugby, the Edinburgh Rugby team have also experienced several other successes. Most notably, they finished as runners-up in the European Rugby Challenge Cup in 2015 and they won the Scottish Inter-District Championship/Scottish League on three occasions.