Rugby team
Edinburgh are one of two professional rugby union teams in Scotland, the Glasgow Warriors being the other. They play at Murrayfield Stadium (capacity 67,500, although only the West Stand is open for Edinburgh matches), and their captain is Chris Paterson.
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 Scottish Rugby Union did not believe 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 were merged with the Border Reivers to form a team known as Edinburgh Reivers. From the 2001/2002 season, the Reivers label was dropped and the team simply became Edinburgh Rugby, nicknamed the "Gunners". For the 2005/2006 season, the nickname was incorporated into the team's official name, making them the Edinburgh Gunners. The term Gunners was dropped on 29 September 2006 and the team reverted back to being known as just Edinburgh, one of the reasons for this reversion being 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 plus the two Scottish sides, the Edinburgh Reivers and the Glasgow Caledonians. Edinburgh achieved the highest finish by a Scottish side in the competition, finishing sixth in the 2001/2002 season, the last in which Scottish sides participated. The following season, to coincide with the re-establishment of the Border Reivers, a Scottish League competition modelled on the Tri-Nations was introduced, however this only survived for one season, Edinburgh becoming the only champions.
The Celtic League, begun in the autumn of 2001, has been a more attractive competition for players and public alike.
Edinburgh's best achievements to date came in the 2003/2004 season, when they reached the final of the Celtic Cup and became the first Scottish side to reach the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup.
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]
According to owner Bob Carruthers, The Scottish Rugby Union threatened to pull the plug on funding if Edinburgh went ahead with court action over a six-figure sum in promised revenue. [1]
This led Edinburgh to resign from the Scottish Rugby Union, which means that Edinburgh will be unable to fulfil their Magners League and Heineken Cup fixtures.
Heineken Cup 2006/2007
Edinburgh were drawn in Pool 2 along with fellow Celtic League side Leinster, French side SU Agen and English side Gloucester. Leinster advanced to the quarter finals as pool winners.
Results
Final Pool Table
Key to colours
|
|
Winner of each pool, plus two highest-ranked second-place teams,
advance to quarterfinals
|
| Team
|
Pld
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
TF
|
PF
|
PA
|
+/-
|
BP
|
Pts
|
| Leinster
|
6 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
21 |
174 |
97 |
+77 |
5 |
21
|
| SU Agen
|
6 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
12 |
119 |
119 |
0 |
1 |
17
|
| Gloucester
|
6 |
3 |
0 |
3 |
19 |
152 |
144 |
+8 |
3 |
15
|
| Edinburgh
|
6 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
9 |
95 |
180 |
-85 |
1 |
5
|
