title: Edinburgh Academical Football Club
text: Edinburgh Academical Football Club, also known as Edinburgh Accies, is a rugby union club in Edinburgh, Scotland. The club is currently a member of the Scottish Premiership, the top tier of Scottish club rugby. Its home ground is Raeburn Place, in Stockbridge, Edinburgh. The team is coached by Iain Berthinussen.
  
  The club regularly fields three teams and is also involved with Broughton and Trinity Accies in the Edinburgh BATs initiative, a community amateur sports club providing youth rugby across northern Edinburgh.
  
  History 
  The club was formed in 1857 and is the oldest surviving football club of any code in Scotland,  and the second oldest rugby union club in continuous existence in the world, behind Dublin University Football Club (founded 1854). They were one of the founding members of the Scottish Rugby Union.
  
  In the 1873–74 season, they played ten matches, and won all of them.
  
  In season 2007–08, the club's 1st XV finished second in Premiership Division 2, thereby securing promotion to the Premiership Division 1. That same season they experienced a successful Scottish Cup run, reaching the final with victories over Premiership 1 teams Currie, Hawick and Boroughmuir. The team lost the final 24–13 to the Glasgow Hawks. The club played a match against the Barbarians in April 2008 to mark the club's 150th anniversary. A book was also published that had been commissioned to celebrate the club's 150th anniversary, The Accies: The Cradle of Scottish Rugby.
  
  In season 2009–10 the club's 1st XV was relegated to Scottish Premier Division 2 after they lost to Heriot's FP in the last game of the season and on the same day Watsonian's beat Melrose.
  
  In season 2010–11 the club were Premier 2 League champions and returned to the top level of Scottish club rugby, the Premier 1 League, for the 2011–12 season. They remained in the Scottish Premiership after the restructure of the Scottish league system.
  
  Ground
  
  The Accies' home ground, Raeburn Place, is the location of the first rugby international. Seven players of the original Scotland side were Academicals, including the captain, FJ Moncrieff.
  
  Honours
  
  Men
   Scottish Unofficial Championship
   Champions (16 + 4 shared): 1865–66, 1866–67, 1867–68, 1868–69, 1870–71, 1874–75, 1876–77 (with Glasgow Academicals), 1877–78, 1878–79 (with Glasgow Academicals), 1879–80 (with Glasgow Academicals), 1885–86, 1886–87, 1887–88, 1897–98, 1898–99, 1899–1900 (with Edinburgh University and Hawick), 1905–06, 1929–30, 1955–56
   Scottish National League Division One
   Champions (3): 1996–97, 2010–11, 2017–18
   Runners–Up (2): 2007–08, 2016–17
   Scottish National League Division Two
   Champions (2): 1999–00, 2003–04
   Scottish Cup
   Runners–Up (1): 2006–07
   Langholm Sevens
   Champions (1): 1929
   Melrose Sevens
   Champions (3): 1928, 1930, 1949
   Hawick Sevens
   Champions (3): 1929, 1936, 1946 (jointly fielded team with Edinburgh Wanderers)
   Gala Sevens
   Champions (1): 2019
   Peebles Sevens
   Champions (3): 1947 (jointly fielded team with Edinburgh Wanderers), 1984, 1989
   Edinburgh Charity Sevens
   Champions (5): 1929, 1932, 1933, 1942 (jointly fielded team with Edinburgh Wanderers), 1945 (jointly fielded team with Edinburgh Wanderers)
   Highland Sevens
   Champions (9): 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1954, 1970, 1998
   Edinburgh Borderers Sevens
   Champions (1): 1966
   Broughton Sevens
   Champions (1): 2007
   Lismore Sevens
   Champions (4): 1975, 1982, 1986, 1991
   Haddington Sevens
   Champions (1): 1989
   Edinburgh Northern Sevens
   Champions (1): 2015
   Musselburgh Sevens
   Champions (2): 1979, 1992
   Berwick Sevens
   Champions (1): 2023
  
  Women
   Mull Sevens
   Champions (4): 1992, 1994, 1996, 1997
   Edinburgh Northern Sevens
   Champions (1): 2001
  
  Notable players
  
  British and Irish Lions
  The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented the British and Irish Lions.
  
    Rodger Arneil
    Mike Blair
    Alf Bucher
    Stan Coughtrie
    Jimmy Gillespie
    Scott Murray
    Robert Miln Neill
    David Sole
    Rob Wainwright
  
  Scotland internationalists
  The following (not previously listed above) former Edinburgh Academical players have represented Scotland at full international level in rugby union.
  
    John Allan
    Lewis Bell
    Dave Callam
    Alexander Clay
    Jack Crabbie
    George Crabbie
    David Denton
    Francis Dods
    John Dods
    Cornell du Preez
    Douglas Elliot
    Arthur Finlay
    James Finlay
    Ninian Finlay
    George Gallie
    John Gordon
    Ian Graham
    Gussie Graham
    Chris Gray
    Ian Henderson
    Mac Henderson
    Hamish Inglis
    Bulldog Irvine
    Duncan Irvine
    Walter Irvine
    William Lyall
    Donnie Macfadyen
    John Macphail
    George Macleod
    Arthur Marshall
    William Marshall
    Hugh Martin
    George Maxwell
    Tommy McClung
    John McCrow
    Bill McEwan
    Saxon McEwan
    Dave McIvor
    James Mein
    Stuart Moffat
    Alex Moore
    William Morrison
    Scott Murray
    Brian Neill
    George Paterson
    Tom Philip
    Charles Reid
    James Reid
    Jeremy Richardson
   
    Duncan Robertson
    Ernest Roland
    Graham Ross
    William Roughead
    James Sanderson
    Jock Scott
    Hamish Shaw
    Allen Sloan
    Donald Sloan
    Pat Smeaton
    Errol Smith
    Archibald Stewart
    Barry Stewart
    Jock Stewart
    John Guthrie Tait
    Thomas Torrie
    Phipps Turnbull
    Alexander Watt
    Tom White
    Francis Wright
    Arthur Young
  
  Other internationalists
  
  The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented their nations at full international level.
    Bill McEwan
    Alastair Reed
  
  Cross-Sporting internationalists
  
  Cricket
  The following former Edinburgh Academical players have represented both the Scotland rugby union team and the Scotland cricket team.
  
    Leslie Balfour-Melville 
    Edward Bannerman
    Bill Maclagan
    Kenneth Marshall
    Thomas Marshall
    Henry Stevenson
    Ben Tod
  
  Rugby league
  The following have represented Scotland at full international level.
    P. J. Solomon
  
  References
   Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 )
   Massie, Allan A Portrait of Scottish Rugby (Polygon, Edinburgh; )
  
  External links
   
   'The Accies - The Cradle of Scottish Rugby' - Club history written by David Barnes
  
  Rugby clubs established in 1857
  Rugby union teams in Scotland
  Rugby union in Edinburgh
  1857 establishments in Scotland
  Sports clubs and teams in Edinburgh