Scottish League Championship

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For the earlier rugby union League Championship from 1865 - 1973, see Scottish Unofficial Championship. For the second-tier football league, see Scottish Championship. For the champions of the Scottish top football tiers, see List of Scottish football champions.
Scottish League Championship
Organising bodySRU
Founded1973; 51 years ago (1973)
RegionScotland
Number of teams10
Domestic cup(s)Scottish Cup
Current championsHawick (2022–23)
Most successful club(s)Hawick (13 titles)
Websitefixtures.scottishrugby.org
2023–24 Scottish League Championship

The Scottish League Championship is the domestic

home nations country.[1]

The new six division championship replaced the haphazard

Scottish Premiership
.

Traditionally the championship has been dominated by teams from the Borders region, the sport's hotbed of popularity in Scotland. This is illustrated by the most successful clubs in the championships history, with Hawick RFC possessing 13 titles and Melrose RFC currently holding eight titles.

History

For the history of the League championship before the 1973–74 season see:

Main article: Scottish Unofficial Championship

The

home nations country. The union's full member clubs were allocated into the new divisions, an arrangement that suited some of the 'open' clubs but many of the older former pupils clubs found it difficult to compete successfully and were forced into going 'open' themselves in an attempt to attract the better players. The new open clubs retained their FP or Academical names and continued to play on school owned grounds whilst those who persisted with their founding membership rules declined or disappeared altogether. The Championship's impact on the national team was quickly apparent; with fewer players being selected from English clubs to represent Scotland. For the first time since the First World War
, the domestic game was strong enough to produce an adequate number of players of genuine international class.

The early decades of Championship rugby were dominated by

Glasgow Hawks and Ayr RFC
.

During the Championships forty-year history the Scottish Rugby Union and its member clubs have re-organised the competition several times, usually revolving around the number of participants in certain divisions. A complementary knock-out cup competition was introduced from 1995 with Border clubs again dominating the competition, starting with Hawick defeating Watsonians in the inaugural final.

Championship and Cup winners

Ed. Season Championship Winners Cup Winners
1
 1973–74 Hawick (1)
2
 1974–75 Hawick (2)
3
 1975–76 Hawick (3)
4
 1976–77 Hawick (4)
5
 1977–78 Hawick (5)
6
 1978–79 Heriot's (1)
7
 1979–80 Gala (1)
8
 1980–81 Gala (2)
9
 1981–82 Hawick (6)
10
 1982–83 Gala (3)
11
 1983–84 Hawick (7)
12
 1984–85 Hawick (8)
13
 1985–86 Hawick (9)
14
 1986–87 Hawick (10)
15
 1987–88 Kelso (1)
16
 1988–89 Kelso ()
17
 1989–90 Melrose (1)
18
 1990–91 Boroughmuir (1)
19
 1991–92 Melrose (2)
20
 1992–93 Melrose (3)
21
 1993–94 Melrose (4)
22
 1994–95
Stirling County
23
 1995–96 Melrose (5) Hawick
24
 1996–97 Melrose (6) Melrose
25
 1997–98
Watsonians
Glasgow Hawks
26
 1998–99 Heriot's (2) Gala
27
 1999–00 Heriot's (3) Boroughmuir
28
 2000–01 Hawick (11) Boroughmuir
29
 2001–02 Hawick (12) Hawick
30
 2002–03 Boroughmuir (2) Heriot's
31
 2003–04
Glasgow Hawks
(1) 		Glasgow Hawks
32
 2004–05 Glasgow Hawks (2) Boroughmuir
33
 2005–06 Glasgow Hawks (3)
Watsonians
34
 2006–07 Currie (1) Glasgow Hawks
35
 2007–08 Boroughmuir (3) Melrose
36
 2008–09 Ayr (1) Heriot's
37
 2009–10 Currie (2) Ayr
38
 2010–11 Melrose (7) Ayr
39
 2011–12 Melrose (8) Gala
40
 2012–13 Ayr (2) Ayr
41
 2013–14 Melrose (9) Heriot's
42
 2014–15 Heriot's (4) Boroughmuir
43
 2015–16 Heriot's (5) Heriot's
44
 2016–17 Ayr (3) Melrose
45
 2017–18 Melrose (10) Melrose
46
 2018–19 Ayr (4) Ayr
–
 2019–20 (cancelled) (cancelled)
–
 2020–21 (cancelled) (cancelled)
47
 2021–22 Marr (cancelled)
48
 2022–23 Hawick (13) Hawick

Championship titles by club

Rank Club Titles
1
 Hawick
13
2
 Melrose
10
3
 Heriot's
5
4
 Ayr
3
Boroughmuir
3
Gala
3
Glasgow Hawks
3
5
 Currie
2
Kelso
2
6
 Stirling County
1
Watsonians
1

Scottish Cup titles by club

Rank Club Titles
1
 Ayr
4
Boroughmuir
4
Heriot's
4
Melrose
4
2
 Glasgow Hawks
3
3
 Gala
2
Hawick
2
4
 Watsonians
1

Leagues not part of the Scottish League Championship

Certain leagues are not included in the system:

In addition, competitive rugby at universities, and rugby for 2nd and 3rd XVs, is organised separately, and in the case of 2nd and 3rd XVs on something of an ad-hoc basis (there having been a number of splits from

The Scottish 2nd XV League
in recent years). Note that the larger universities run their first teams in both the Scottish Championship, and in the university leagues.

See

University Leagues in Scotland and 2nd XV Leagues in Scotland
for further details.

References

  1. ^ "Rugby | Sports Heritage Scotland". sportsheritagescotland.co.uk.
  2. ISBN 9781785302855
    – via Google Books.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scottish_League_Championship&oldid=1174067274"