Edinburgh Rugby

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Edinburgh
Full name	Edinburgh Rugby
Nickname(s)	Gunners
Founded	1872
Location	Edinburgh, Scotland
Ground	Murrayfield Stadium
Capacity	12,464 for Edinburgh matches
Coach	Lynn Howells
League	Magners League
Home colours		Away colours

Edinburgh is one of three professional rugby union teams in Scotland, the Border Reivers and Glasgow Warriors being the other two. They play at Murrayfield Stadium (capacity 67,500, although only the West Stand is open for Edinburgh matches), and their captain is Chris Paterson.

Contents 1 History 2 Scotland's first private franchise 3 Notable players 4 Coaches 5 See also 6 Notes and references 7 External links

[edit] History

Edinburgh played in the world's first ever inter-district match against Glasgow in 1872.

In 1996 they were reformed as Edinburgh Rugby to compete in the Heineken Cup as the SRU did not think that Scottish club sides could compete against the best teams from France and England.

Due to the SRU's high debt, partly as a result of the redevelopment of Murrayfield Stadium, retrenchment was called for. After two seasons, Edinburgh merged with the Border Reivers to form a team to be known as Edinburgh Reivers. From the 2001-02 season, the Reivers label was dropped and the team were simply known as Edinburgh Rugby, nicknamed The Gunners. For the 2005-06 season, the team incorporated the nickname into their official name, becoming the Edinburgh Gunners. The term Gunners was dropped on the 29 September 2006 and the team reverted back to being known as just Edinburgh. One of the reasons for this reversion is that the word Gunners is already a registered Trademark of Arsenal Football Club.^[1]

The issue of crowd sizes returned at the 1999 World Cup, by which time a Welsh/Scottish League had been established - essentially the Welsh First Division with the two Scottish sides tacked on.

The Celtic League, begun in the autumn of 2001, has been a more attractive competition for players and public alike.

Edinburgh's best achievement to date has been to make the final of the 2003/4 Celtic Cup and to make it out of the group stages of the 2003/4 Heineken Cup.

[edit] Scotland's first private franchise

In 2006, it was announced that from the end of the 2006/7 season, Edinburgh will become a franchise. Finance will come from a private company headed by businessmen Alex and Bob Carruthers. Previously the Scottish Rugby Union had warned that funding problems could force it to scrap one of its Celtic League sides. The SRU will retain a seat on the new company board and will continue to provide funding and support to the new owners in development.^[2]

[edit] Notable players

• Duncan Hodge
• Nathan Hines - left for Perpignan in 2005
• Brendan Laney - left for Yamaha Jubilo in March 2005
• Scott Murray
• Chris Paterson
• Simon Taylor
• Mike Blair
• Marcus di Rollo
• Ally Hogg
• Hugo Southwell
• Phil Godman

[edit] Coaches

• Iain Rankin - later team manager, left in 2003
• Bob Easson - now with the Scottish Institute of Sport
• Frank Hadden - now the Scotland national team coach
• Todd Blackadder - interim coach, also a former player, left in 2006
• Henry Edwards - interim coach, also formerly forwards coach
• Lynn Howells - took over on 17th September 2006

[edit] See also

• Scottish Rugby Union
• Celtic League
• Heineken Cup
• European Challenge Cup

[edit] Notes and references

1. ^ "Edinburgh drop Gunners from title", BBC News, 2006-09-29. Retrieved on 2006-09-29.
2. ^ "Edinburgh to become a franchise", BBC News, 2006-07-10.

• Edinburgh in dispute with SRU (from the BBC)

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Edinburgh video vault on Channel XV
• Scottish rugby union fans forum