Rugby became professional in 1995. The Scottish rugby was apparently caught in the headlights and took some time to respond to this earthquake. There was a huge debate about whether the existing amateur clubs in the country should become professional or whether the district sides should take responsibility.
Founded Scottish internationals of large forms such as Gavin Hastings, Jim Aitken, David Sole and Finlay Calder all arent that the clubs were ahead.
As a result of this debate, there were no Scottish clubs of both species in the European Cup 1995, which was currently called the Heineken Cup. Lace from Wales, France, Romania and Italy participated that year.
On February 8, 1996, an EGM was held in Murrayfield and what was an icy meeting according to all the bills, the clubs voted for the district races to become professional by 178-24.
The direct result was that a newly formed professional rugby side of Edinburgh was introduced in the Heineken Cup competition of 1996 alongside other Scottish Pro districts, Caledonia and Borders. Glasgow was entered in the Challenge Cup that year.
Edinburgh was in Pool 1 together with Dax, Pontypridd, Benetton and Bath who were our first European opponents ever.
On October 12, 1996, they entered the field at the recreational area to play a bath in the competition. This was apparently the first competitive game of Edinburgh as a professional side.
I say competitive because a match report in the independent of De Tijd reports a warm -up game that Edinburgh played 2 weeks before the bathing competition,
“A one-sided match two weeks ago against the 10th-ride opposition, demolished after just 60 minutes, was miserably inadequate for a match of this standard and opposition of great quality.”
I couldn’t find anything about this ‘game’. Who was the opposition? Why was it broken down?*
In any case, Edinburgh went onto the field to play a bath for a crowd of 6500 and became the leader by Scott Hastings. The rest of the 21 -man team, you can see here in this image from the match program.
The team, with their amateur relationships and CAP numbers from Edinburgh
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 Lucks have all made their Edinburgh debut in this game.
At the time, Hastings was the only current international in the 21 -man team. Another 10 players in the team would eventually achieve international awards, where Derrick Lee and Duncan Hodge are probably the highlights.
Bath, on the other hand, had 12 current internationals, including – Mike Catt, Jason Robinson, Jeremy Guscott and future Edinburgh coach Andy Robinson who played in the day. The Bath Program Team Sheet has conveniently marked them with an I.
It was not an easy introduction to a professional club rugby when Bath raced during the break of 38-9 points. In every respect, Edinburgh was lucky that they had not left behind with Bath who was described differently as dissolute and as ‘missed as many opportunities as they had taken on’.
The second half was better for Edinburgh. They succeeded in keeping Bath to just 17 points and with a last-minute attempt by Duncan Hodge adding to an earlier Derrick Lee attempt that Hodge converted, it was even in that half, although Bath 7 attempts in general scored and the match comfortable, 55-26, secured, 55-26.
Hastings later said: “We were all amateur players who played against boys who had the infrastructure to cope with professional rugby”.
Newspaper reports complained that “before they (the SRU) sent their troops to the front line, they should have ensured at least that they were sufficiently prepared.”
It was certainly not good for the rest of the campaign when Edinburgh ended up at the bottom of Pool 1 without victories.
Bath and Dax progressed, but both fell in the quarter phase and the tournament that year was won by Brive.
It was another year before Edinburgh broke their European duck with a victory against Biarritz in a away game in September 1997 in the Challenge Cup. Our first Heineken Cup victory was against EBBW Vale in 1998, of all places, Easter Road.
*Further investigation has shown that the match in question was probably on 23/9/1996 and was against the British police. The score is said to be 80-5 and although the report I read, nothing said that the game was demolished, the score itself might be why.
** I was told in a reliable way, through Stuart himself, through another contact that despite the fact that he was mentioned in the program, he did not travel to Bath because he was injured in the run -up. His place in the starting XV was taken by David Clarke, who is called on the couch. I don’t know who, if someone, took his place.
#beginning #Bath #Edinburgh