Rugby Union in Scotland

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Rugby Union is a popular sport in Scotland .

The Scottish national team opposed England in the first international match in the history of the sport on March 27, 1871, which they won 4-1 in Edinburgh . She participates in the Six Nations annually and has qualified for all world championships so far . The world association IRB counts them among the ten strongest national teams in the world and therefore belongs to the so-called "first tier". The Scottish professional clubs play in the Pro14 against teams from Ireland , Italy , South Africa and Wales and can qualify there for the European Rugby Champions Cup , in which the best European clubs meet.

history

Game for the Calcutta Cup 1892
The national team in 1896

In Scotland there is a long tradition of ball games similar to today's rugby, such as "Jeddart Ball" or the "Kirkwall Ba game". Both sports include passing the playground equipment and forms of scrum . The forerunners of rugby were already actively practiced in the 17th century. Since 1858 the students of the Merchiston Castle School and the Edinburgh Academy have played against each other in the oldest regular pairing in the sport.

The Scottish national team took part in the first international match in history when they met England on March 27, 1871 and won 4-1. The Scottish Football Union , founded in 1873, was one of the first of its kind and is a founding member of the International Rugby Board alongside the Irish and Wales' associations . The English Rugby Football Union refused to become a member of the international association for a few years. It was not included until 1890.

In 1895 the sport in England split into the variants rugby union and rugby league . The rugby league players were paid, with rugby union remaining an amateur sport. In Scotland, however, the split had little impact on the game, the clubs opted exclusively for rugby union. This division into amateurs and professionals remained for 100 years until the decision was made in 1995 to open rugby union to professional players. In that century there had been only 14 Scottish players joining the English rugby league.

The variant of 7-a-side rugby was invented by Ned Haig in Scotland in 1883. The first international 7-a-side tournament took place in 1973 at the Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. Due to the success of the format, the Hong Kong Sevens tournament was launched in 1976 and is now part of the IRB Sevens World Series . In 1993 the first Rugby 7th World Cup took place in Scotland. The World Cup trophy is named " Melrose Cup", named after the hometown of the inventor Ned Haig.

In 1924 the Scottish Federation was renamed the Scottish Rugby Union . Another major change was the move of the national team to Murrayfield Stadium. Before that, the international matches were played in Inverleith .

Competitions

Edinburgh in the Magners League

The top rugby union league for Scottish clubs is the Magners League, which also consists of teams from Ireland and Wales. The Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby currently represent Scotland in this league. These two teams have automatically qualified for the Heineken Cup since 2007 , when the third Scottish professional team Border Reivers was disbanded that year.

Below the Magners League there is the Scottish Hydro Electric League Championship. This is divided into the Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership , the Scottish Hydro Electric National Leagues and the Scottish Hydro Electric Regional Leagues, each of which contains three divisions. There is also a national cup, the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup, which is played between teams from all divisions.

Scotland is also home to the world's oldest rugby union league, the Border League , which has existed since 1902 . Today it is no longer part of the official league structure, but the participating clubs play both in the Border League and in one of the three other Scottish Hydro Electric leagues. The universities of Scotland have traditionally played a large part in the country's rugby scene. They also have their own league system, which consists of divisions of four to five teams. The games take place at irregular intervals.

Since the professionalization of sport, the SRU has tried various measures to make the Scottish teams competitive in international comparison. Initially, four regional teams were set up, of which only two still exist today. Despite this reduction, the Scottish Association still faces financial problems. Some efforts were made to find private investors for the teams, which only succeeded for the Edinburgh team. The SRU had sold the club to the businessman Bob Carruthers, but this cooperation was not without complications. The association was dissatisfied with some of the decisions made by the new owners. For example, some players have not been released for national team training camps. As a result, the federation decided to buy back Edinburgh Rugby and has since owned two professional teams again.

National team

Scotland - Ireland, Six Nations 2007

The Scottish national team has won the Six Nations title 22 times, the Triple Crown ten times and the Grand Slam three times . This puts it in fourth place in the statistics behind England , Wales and France . She plays every year against England for the Calcutta Cup as part of the tournament .

Scotland has participated in all world championships so far and achieved their best result in 1991 with fourth place. The home games are played in front of over 60,000 spectators at the Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. In the run-up to the games, the unofficial national anthem " Flower of Scotland " is played, which was first sung by Scottish rugby fans with particular enthusiasm during games against England in the 1970s. The song refers to the Scots' victory against the outnumbered army of the English King Edward II during the Scottish Wars of Independence .

Some Scottish players have also had the honor of being nominated for the British and Irish Lions national team, which travels to Australia , New Zealand and South Africa every four years to play against the three strongest national rugby union teams in the southern hemisphere.

popularity

Murrayfield Stadium

Rugby Union may not be Scotland's national sport, but it is the most popular sport in the country after football . Rugby League, on the other hand, only plays a very subordinate role. Rugby is traditionally particularly popular in the Scottish Borders . The number of spectators at club matches is rather modest across the country compared to England or Wales. However, the national team regularly attracts more than 60,000 people to home games at Murrayfield Stadium.

There are only a few rugby stadiums besides Murrayfield Stadium. Many clubs in the Scottish Borders have seats with grandstands, while Edinburgh and Glasgow have smaller stadiums where rugby is played. Only a few places have been modernized since the Second World War and have neither floodlights nor lawn heating.

There are approximately 25,000 registered players and 242 clubs in Scotland.

See also

References and comments

  1. Museum of Rugby Twickenham: Crossing the Divide  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rfu.com  
  2. BBC: First Scottish Grand Slam
  3. ^ The Scotsman: Rugby's Great Leap Forward
  4. Scrum.com: Edinburgh back under SRU control
  5. IRB: IRB statistics ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.irb.com
  6. According to the IRB, slightly more than 7,000 players are registered in Germany and there are 99 clubs. There are 1645 players and 20 clubs in Switzerland. In Austria there are 985 players and 9 clubs.

Web links

Commons : Rugby union in Scotland  - Collection of images, videos and audio files