Barbour and Blondes gather to celebrate Accies' 150th birthday

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Even if it failed to offer a spectacle of rugby worthy of the occasion, the 150th anniversary of the founding of Edinburgh Academicals RFC, marked by an exhibition match between the club’s First XV and the equally venerable Barbarians, presented a rich tableau of all the best qualities of the sport in Scotland.

The capacity crowd at the club’s Raeburn Gardens home in Stockbridge boasted the full spectrum of the club’s wide support within the community, and beyond. The concentration of Accies old boys – thickest on the approaches to the beer tent – made for a tapestry of tweed and Barbour, seasoned with salt-and-pepper beards, poor comb-overs and flat caps.

Almost as numerous were the genuine ruggers – overlarge lads whose youth, fitness and tracksuits seemed in contempt of the old men trying to remember match days gone by over third and fourth pints.

The real colour in the crowd, however, was offered by the girlfriends. They were easy enough to spot – peroxide blonde, tans fresh from the chemist, giant sunglasses in spite of the unbroken covering of cloud, and tight-fitting jeans topped by fur-trimmed jackets; the ease with which they glided over the soft ground in their four-inch heels betraying a wealth of sideline experience.

Most heartening was the number of youngsters present – Edinburgh Academy students in ties and jackets recalling the club’s links to the school from which its founders hailed rubbing shoulder with local kids in tracksuits and trainers. One day, not far in the future, they’ll meet on a pitch and class won’t matter; sporting competition will, as it always has been, serve as the ultimate equaliser.

There was, unfortunately, little equality to be had on the field of play. Despite the Barbarians side being tailored to be representative both of local rugby heritage and the youth of the opposition, the all-star team ran their hosts ragged from the starting whistle.

The first half was all one-way traffic, with a disorganised Accies defence frequently being caught out of position, allowing the sprightly Baa-baas flanker Gennaro Fessia – a prospect for both Argentina and Sale Sharks – to run in two virtually unopposed tries with a handy overlap.

Faced with insurmountable odds and playing only for pride, the Academicals came out for the second half clearly determined to at least entertain, if not thrill their massed supporters. Their defensive display was vastly improved, with brave and desperate tackles preventing their more gifted opponents taking route one down the middle of the pitch.

The hosts were nonetheless physically outmatched; at the breakdown the Baa-baas forwards, led by former Scotland captain Gordon Bulloch and backed up by the quick hands of Worcester scum-half Nick Runciman, repeatedly turned over Accies ball, and the Barbarians’ attacking rucks were impregnable.

In the loose, too, the visitors stamped their authority, with Accies lock Edward Stuart paying the price for his willing carries as he was repeatedly upended by vicious tackling; the sympathetic gasps from the crowd can’t have done much to lessen the pain of his numerous impacts with the ground.

Nonetheless, what the Scottish side lacked in impact they made up for in industry, and by the end of the match they were able to string together long periods of possession thanks to daring handling which at times owed more to luck than intent. Never can so many behind-the-back and between-the-legs passed have found their mark; when you’ve played every home game in your 150 year history at the same ground, you must come to expect a certain amount of good karma.

Whatever the reason for it, the limited pressure the Accies brought to bear on their opponents proved fruitless, winger David Rattray’s held-up drive over the line being their best effort. The 43-nil scoreline against the hosts did little to dampen the spirits of those watching – not least those of Scotland head coach Frank Hadden.

“This is a great day for the Accies,” he told The Journal; “they’ve got an illustrious history and are celebrating it well today – I just hope they get a try!

“My sons have played rugby for Boroughmuir, so I often find myself at games at this level – all flights of rugby in Scotland are equally important to the game in this country.

“Rugby really is the best team game in the world – there really should be more people involved,” Hadden concluded. He has a point.

When it is played by local lads in front a crowd drawn from the local community, on a ragged pitch bounded by rickety stands packed with baying supporters, rugby is quite simply the greatest game on earth. Despite the best efforts of the beancounters at Murrayfield and Twickenham, the sport retains an authenticity and earthiness that owes as much to the those that stay clean on the sidelines as it does to the boys getting their faces shoved into the cold mud.

“For the love of the game” is one of the clichés of sport which retains the least truth in today’s era of professionalism – the start of which brought to an end the competitive relevance of matches involving Scotland’s local club sides.

Yet it is precisely because Scotland’s struggling professional teams and players have largely abandoned the passion and loyalty which lives on in clubs such as the Edinburgh Academicals that this country’s surviving franchises will continue to labour on in front of small crowds scattered sparsely within cavernous stadia.

Meanwhile, the Accies – on the evidence of this month’s festivities – can count on generations of vocal support to prop up Raeburn Gardens’ ramshackle stands, not to mention its bar.

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