150th Anniversary Rugby Match: MCS v The Edinburgh Academy

The Match was played at Raeburn Place on Saturday 1st November 2008: Merchiston won 11-8

The origins of rugby football at Merchiston are a little obscure but it is clear that the boys were playing a game that at least resembled rugby by 1856. In fact, it is often erroneously thought that Merchiston’s first rugby match that was not purely an internal affair was against Edinburgh Academy. In fact, Merchiston’s first ever inter-school fixture was in 1857-58 when the School XX, captained by AP Van der Byl, “for the first time engaged with a foreign foe, playing a drawn game with the Royal H.S.” This quote, which comes from the Rugby Notes in the Merchiston Castle School Register 1833-1903, continues: “The Rugby School game had just been introduced into Merchiston, and when the match in question was played, they did not fully understand all its rather complex rules.”

Accordingly, in the following season, and now under the captaincy of JC Campbell, Merchiston played several matches, the most historically significant being the first game with Edinburgh Academy on their ground on Saturday 11 December 1858. Since this time, 150 years in all, the two schools have competed once or twice a season, although no records for 1861-1864 survive, making this the oldest continuous inter-school fixture in Britain.

Andrew Hunter