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The Glasgow Academical Football Club is the third oldest rugby football club in Scotland. The club was also a founder member of the Scottish Football Union (the future SRU) in 1873.
In 1997 the decision was made to combine the first XV's of Glasgow Academicals and close rivals Glasgow High Kelvinside (themselves a fairly new club having been formed when the struggling Glasgow High FP and Kelvinside Academicals clubs combined in 1982), something that was predicted would happen only after "hell freezes over".[1] The combined team was named the Glasgow Hawks. The Hawks won the second division championship and the Scottish Cup in their first year and have since continued in the first division - winning the league in 2004, 2005 and 2006, and the Cup again in 2004 and 2007. Glenn Metcalfe together with Derek Stark and Gordon McIlwham became Scottish Internationals while Mike Beckham and Tommy Hayes played for the Cook Islands.
With the advent of the Hawks, the Glasgow Academicals lost many of their strong first XV but made the decision to continue as a league side for the following year - which under SRU rules meant that they had to rejoin the lowest league of Scottish rugby. In 1998 the club competed in Glasgow District division 3.[2] The club raced back up through the leagues, being promoted as league champions five years in succession.[3]
In 2016, their 150th year, they won West Regional League Division One giving them promotion to Scottish National League Division Three for 2016/17, after only losing one league game all season. Of the 157 clubs in the National and Regional leagues in 2015–16, only three had a winning % record which bettered Accies. Success came on the 9 April 2016 with a 26–7 win over Allan Glens at the Bearyards. Days after winning the league, the 150th year of the club was celebrated in April 2016, with a 1st XV match against a team mainly principally from West of Scotland F.C. but including representatives from the other six clubs who, along with Accies and West, had founded the SRU in 1873.
In 2017 the club finished third. They did win 13 games in a row, including a 163–10 defeat of Livingston,[4] followed up by 95–0 against Greenock Wanderers the following week. The final “points for” tally in the league was 930 from 22 games – the highest in the national leagues – with a points difference of 600.
In April 2018, Accies secured promotion to National 2 with an 8-try win at Murrayfield Wanderers.
The club run the Glasgow Academicals Sevens. Their first Sevens tournament was in 1908 to raise funds to pay for their pavilion, but their Sevens was re-started in 1969 as an annual tournament.[5]
Eighty-four players have played for Scotland,[23] with five also playing tests for the British Lions. The team has also provided internationalists for New Zealand and Sweden.
All six of these players played in the first ever rugby international -
on 27 March 1871 - when Scotland beat England by 1 goal (2 tries) to nil (1 try).
James H. McClure (first capped 1872) - with George - the first ever twins to be capped
Robert "Bertie" B. Waddell, uncapped by Scotland, toured in 1910 with the "Combined British" squad to Argentina, retrospectively classed as a British Lions tour.
Max Simmers, (first capped 1926) - 28 caps [23] - SRU President 1956-57
Edward G. Taylor (first capped 1927) - 2 caps for Scotland and 3 tests for British Lions, 1927 "unofficial" tour to Argentina - Argentina's first ever test matches
Brian Simmers (first capped 1965) - 7 caps - scorer of two dropped goals in one international (v Wales, 1965) - a record for Scotland held jointly with, among others, John Rutherford, Craig Chalmers and Dan Parks
John Beattie (first capped 1980) - 25 caps for Scotland and 2 tests for British Lions (NZ 1983, Rest of the World 1986); member of Scotland's 1984 Grand Slam squad
Marty Berry (first capped 1986) - 1 cap - Glasgow Accies' first All Black
Glenn Metcalfe (first capped 1998) - 40 caps - our most-capped internationalist; member of Scotland's 1999 Championship winning XV
Johnnie Beattie (first capped 2006) - 38 caps - our most-capped former pupil; scorer of the 2010 6 Nations Try of the Tournament against Ireland
Andreas Nilserius (first capped 2015) - Swedish cap from Glasgow Accies' 2015-16 Championship-winning squad
Chris Nilserius (first capped 2016) - Swedish cap from 2015 to 2016 Championship-winning XV, currently playing in Glasgow Accies' 2016-17 1st XV
Phillip Axelsson (first capped 2016) - Swedish cap currently playing in Glasgow Accies' 2016-17 1st XV
Robert Beattie (first capped 2016) - won his first cap for Scotland 7s in the Cape Town Sevens in December 2016