In 1995 rugby became professional. Scottish Rugby was seemingly caught in the headlights and took some time to react to this earthquake. There was huge debate on whether the existing amateur clubs in the country should become professional or if the district sides should take on that responsibility.
Established Scottish Internationals of great stature such as Gavin Hastings, Jim Aitken, David Sole and FInlay Calder all argued that the clubs were the way forward.
As a result of this debate there were no Scottish clubs of either kind in the 1995 European Cup which was called the Heineken Cup at that time. Sides from Wales, France, Romania and Italy took part that year.
On 8 February 1996 an EGM was held at Murrayfield and at what was by all accounts a frosty meeting the clubs voted for the district sides to become professional by 178-24.
The immediate result was that a newly formed professional Edinburgh Rugby side was entered into the 1996 Heineken Cup competition alongside other Scottish Pro districts, Caledonia and Borders. Glasgow were entered into the Challenge Cup that year.
Edinburgh were in pool 1 along with Dax, Pontypridd, Benetton and Bath who were our first ever European opponents.
On October 12th 1996 they took to the field at the Recreation Ground to play Bath in the competition. This, ostensibly, was Edinburgh’s first competitive game as a professional side.
I say competitive because a match report in The Independent from the time makes mention of a warm up game that Edinburgh played 2 weeks before the Bath match,
“A one-sided match two weeks ago against 10th-rate opposition, aborted after just 60 minutes, was woefully inadequate for a competition of this standard and opposition of vast quality.”
I have been unable to find out anything about this ‘game’. Who was the opposition? Why was it aborted?
In any case Edinburgh took to the field to play Bath in front of a crowd of 6500 and were captained by Scott Hastings. The rest of the 21 man squad, you can see here in this graphic from the match programme.
The squad, with their amateur affiliations and Edinburgh cap numbers-
Derrick Lee (Watsonians); 954
Steven Reed (Boroughmuir), 956
Scott Hastings (Watsonians, capt), 871
Chris Simmers (Edinburgh Accies), 948
Stuart Lang (Heriots FP); 944
Duncan Hodge (Watsonians), 924
Graeme Burns (Watsonians); 931
Alan Watt (Currie), 957
Graham Ellis (Currie), 667
Barry Stewart (Edinburgh Accies), 953
Paul Jennings (Boroughmuir), 925
Andrew Lucking (Currie), 955
Bruce Ward (Currie), 915
Stuart Reid (Boroughmuir), 895
Graham Dall (Heriots FP), 932
David Laird (Boroughmuir), 926
Ally Donaldson (Currie), 911
Graeme Beveridge (Boroughmuir), 936
David Clarke (Currie), 943
Ross McNulty (Boroughmuir), 940
Grant McKelvey (Watsonians), 906
Derrick Lee, Steven Reed, Alan Watt, and Andrew Lucking all made their Edinburgh debuts in this game.
At the time Hastings was the only current international in the 21 man squad. A further 10 players in the squad would eventually gain international honours with probably Derrick Lee and Duncan Hodge being the standouts.
Bath on the other hand boasted 12 current internationals including - Mike Catt, Jason Robinson, Jeremy Guscott and future Edinburgh coach Andy Robinson playing on the day. The Bath programme team sheet has handily marked them with an I.
It was not an easy introduction to professional club rugby as Bath raced into a 38-9 point lead at the break. By all accounts Edinburgh were lucky to not to have been further behind with Bath being described variously as profligate and as ‘having missed as many opportunities as they had taken.’
The second half was better for Edinburgh. They managed to keep Bath to just 17 points and with a last minute try by Duncan Hodge adding to an earlier Derrick Lee try that Hodge converted it was honours even in that half although Bath did score 7 tries overall and secured the match comfortably, 55-26.
Hastings said later that, “We were all amateur players playing against guys who had the infrastructure in place to cope with professional rugby”.
Newspaper reports lamented that “before they (the SRU) dispatched their troops to the front line they should at least have ensured that they were adequately prepared.”
It certainly didn’t augur well for the rest of the campaign as Edinburgh finished up bottom of pool 1 with no wins to their name.
Bath and Dax progressed but both fell at the quarter final stage and the tournament that year was won by Brive.
It was another year before Edinburgh broke their European duck with a win against Biarritz in a away game in September 1997 in the Challenge Cup. Our first Heineken Cup win was in 1998 against Ebbw Vale at, of all places, Easter Road.
I have been unable to find out anything about this ‘game’. Who was the opposition? Why was it aborted?
In any case Edinburgh took to the field to play Bath in front of a crowd of 6500 and were captained by Scott Hastings. The rest of the 21 man squad, you can see here in this graphic from the match programme.
The squad, with their amateur affiliations and Edinburgh cap numbers-
Derrick Lee (Watsonians); 954
Steven Reed (Boroughmuir), 956
Scott Hastings (Watsonians, capt), 871
Chris Simmers (Edinburgh Accies), 948
Stuart Lang (Heriots FP); 944
Duncan Hodge (Watsonians), 924
Graeme Burns (Watsonians); 931
Alan Watt (Currie), 957
Graham Ellis (Currie), 667
Barry Stewart (Edinburgh Accies), 953
Paul Jennings (Boroughmuir), 925
Andrew Lucking (Currie), 955
Bruce Ward (Currie), 915
Stuart Reid (Boroughmuir), 895
Graham Dall (Heriots FP), 932
David Laird (Boroughmuir), 926
Ally Donaldson (Currie), 911
Graeme Beveridge (Boroughmuir), 936
David Clarke (Currie), 943
Ross McNulty (Boroughmuir), 940
Grant McKelvey (Watsonians), 906
Derrick Lee, Steven Reed, Alan Watt, and Andrew Lucking all made their Edinburgh debuts in this game.
At the time Hastings was the only current international in the 21 man squad. A further 10 players in the squad would eventually gain international honours with probably Derrick Lee and Duncan Hodge being the standouts.
Bath on the other hand boasted 12 current internationals including - Mike Catt, Jason Robinson, Jeremy Guscott and future Edinburgh coach Andy Robinson playing on the day. The Bath programme team sheet has handily marked them with an I.
It was not an easy introduction to professional club rugby as Bath raced into a 38-9 point lead at the break. By all accounts Edinburgh were lucky to not to have been further behind with Bath being described variously as profligate and as ‘having missed as many opportunities as they had taken.’
The second half was better for Edinburgh. They managed to keep Bath to just 17 points and with a last minute try by Duncan Hodge adding to an earlier Derrick Lee try that Hodge converted it was honours even in that half although Bath did score 7 tries overall and secured the match comfortably, 55-26.
Hastings said later that, “We were all amateur players playing against guys who had the infrastructure in place to cope with professional rugby”.
Newspaper reports lamented that “before they (the SRU) dispatched their troops to the front line they should at least have ensured that they were adequately prepared.”
It certainly didn’t augur well for the rest of the campaign as Edinburgh finished up bottom of pool 1 with no wins to their name.
Bath and Dax progressed but both fell at the quarter final stage and the tournament that year was won by Brive.
It was another year before Edinburgh broke their European duck with a win against Biarritz in a away game in September 1997 in the Challenge Cup. Our first Heineken Cup win was in 1998 against Ebbw Vale at, of all places, Easter Road.
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