Musselburgh Rugby Football Club is a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club based in

Musselburgh Musselburgh (; ; ) is the largest settlement in East Lothian, Scotland, on the coast of the Firth of Forth, east of Edinburgh city centre. It had a population of as of . History The name Musselburgh is Old English language, Old English in ...

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. The team play their home games at Stoneyhill and currently compete in the , the top tier of Scottish club rugby. Musselburgh RFC first applied to join the Edinburgh & District League in 1921 but it is believed that the town had a team for at least 20 years before that.

History

The club was formed in 1921 as a section of the Musselburgh Sports Club. They initially played their games at Shirehaugh which is now a practice green at The Musselburgh Golf Club in Monktonhall. During the 1930s The Musselburgh Sports Club changed its name to become Musselburgh Rugby Football Club in its entirety. During 1951, the club moved from its home at Shirehaugh to a new pitch at Stoneyhill where the club currently resides. A clubhouse was built on the site and opened in 1971, with changing rooms added in 1984 and a gym added in 2021. After the creation of the new leagues in Scotland the club were placed in the third division, ultimately falling to fifth division in 1975. However they bounced back and continued to climb up the leagues where they were promoted to the Premiership for the first time in 1987, lasting one season before being relegated. The club continued to stay around the second and third tiers before a sharp fall to the regional leagues in the late 2000s. The team slowly climbed their way back up to the National leagues before winning National 2 in 2015. With the formation of the Super6 in 2018, the top six teams from National 1 had the chance to be promoted to the Premiership to join the remaining four teams. Musselburgh claimed a bonus point on the final day of the season to win the final spot.

Musselburgh Sevens

The club runs the Musselburgh Sevens tournament.

Honours

Scottish National League Division Two The Scottish National League Division Two (known as Tennent's National League Division 2 for sponsorship reasons) is the third tier of the Scottish League Championship for amateur rugby union clubs in Scotland. The division was established in it ...

** Champions (2): 1984–85, 2014–15 *Musselburgh Sevens ** Champions: 1949, 1950, 1951, 1957, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1997, 2003, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2019 *Highland Sevens **Champions: 1956, 1958, 1963, 1978, 1979 * Preston Lodge Sevens ** Champions: 1992, 1993 * Glasgow University Sevens ** Champions: 1957 * Kelso Harlequins Sevens ** Champions: 1990 * Haddington Sevens ** Champions: 1993, 1995 * North Berwick Sevens ** Champions: 2002, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2023,2024,2025 * Scottish Rugby Shield ** Runners-Up: (1) 2011-12 * Kelso Sevens ** Champions (1): 1955 * Peebles Sevens ** Champions (3): 1986, 1988, 1997 *

Walkerburn Sevens Walkerburn Sevens is an annual rugby sevens event held by Walkerburn RFC, in Walkerburn, Scotland. The Walkerburn Sevens was the sixth of the Border Sevens tournaments to be instated, in 1911, after the bigger events of the Border Sevens spring ...

** Champions (9): 1951, 1952, 1956, 1957, 1960, 1990, 1993, 2002, 2003 *

Edinburgh Northern Sevens Edinburgh Northern Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held by Edinburgh Northern, in the Inverleith district of Edinburgh, Scotland. History The first rugby sevens tournament took place in 1955 and it has been played in all subsequent ...

** Champions (1): 2013 * Portobello Sevens ** Champions (1): 2023

Notable former players

Ireland internationalists

Glasgow Warriors players

Edinburgh District

The following former Musselburgh players have represented Edinburgh District at provincial level.

References

* Massie, Allan ''A Portrait of Scottish Rugby'' (Polygon, Edinburgh; )

External links

* Rugby union in East Lothian Rugby union teams in Scotland Musselburgh Rugby clubs established in 1921 1921 establishments in Scotland {{Scotland-rugbyunion-team-stub