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Rugby union is a popular team sport in Scotland.
The governing body of the game in Scotland is the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU), who operate the national team, who usually play their home matches at Murrayfield Stadium in the West End of Edinburgh.
Historically rugby union was an amateur sport, but the dawn of professionalism changed the way in which the game was structured. Previously there had been a domestic league that covered the country, the top division of which was essentially the elite of club rugby in Scotland. This league was established in the early 1970s to replace the complicated "unofficial championship" that had been competed for previously. Starting in 1973-74 season, the clubs were organised into a league of six divisions.
This competition remains today, albeit in a different format (there are more divisions now), but the top club sides in Scotland do not participate in it.
When professionalism was introduced, and the Heineken Cup created for clubs across Europe the SRU decided that the existing clubs operating in the Scottish league were not competitive enough. They therefore decided to create professional clubs to compete in the Celtic League, a competition featuring Scottish, Welsh and Irish sides, to ensure that Scotland had fairly competitive sides operating in the European competition and to drive up standards of rugby in the country. Three of these sides are in operation today, the Glasgow Warriors; the Edinburgh Gunners; and the Border Reivers.
The league that was established in the early 1970s does still operate though and is currently sponsored by the BT Group plc, making it known as the BT League Championship, which is split into a Premiership level of three divisions and a National League of ten divisions over five levels. This league contains Scottish rugby union's traditional big name clubs, such as Melrose R.F.C. and Hawick R.F.C..
Beneath the League Championship, there are also a number of District Leagues in operation. These are the Edinburgh and District; Glasgow and District; Caledonia - North District; and Caledonia - Highland District. Scotland is also home to the oldest organised rugby union league in the world, the Southern Reporter Border League, which was formed in 1901.
Unlike in Wales, rugby union is not the national sport in Scotland. It certainly comes second after football, and possibly is lower than that. The sport is more widely played than the sport rugby league which despite being very popular in the North of England, has not found wide popularity north of the border. It is most popular in the border region, where it is played universally. In the rest of the country it tends to be the preserve of private schools, although not exclusively so. Despite not being so popular in the West of Scotland, the domestic league has been dominated in recent years by a Glasgow based club, the Hawks.
Whilst attendances at club matches in Scotland are fairly poor (certainly by comparison to football or to the attendances at club matches in neighbouring England or Wales) the national team draws a sizeable crowd, especially for the Six Nations matches. Indeed, despite football generally being more popular than rugby in Scotland, Murrayfield is considerably larger than Hampden Park, the Scottish national football team's home ground, with space to hold around 15,000 extra spectators.
The first international rugby union match in the world was played between England and Scotland in Edinburgh in 1871. Scotland won 4-1. The national side is considered one of the better sides in international rugby union, although not as competitive as the elite sides such as New Zealand or Australia.