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22-739: The division was established in its current format in 2014, with the creation of three national leagues below the Premiership. For the 2023–24 season, the division was reduced from 12 to 10 teams. The winners are promoted to the Scottish Premiership , with the runners-up entering a play-off at a neutral venue against the 9th-placed team in the Premiership. The bottom two teams are relegated to Scottish National League Division Two . Promoted from 2022–23 National League Division 2 Relegated from 2022–23 Scottish Premiership The Super 6 clubs were also allowed to run 2XV sides in this league for

44-583: A 'football' club they only ever played rugby union football and never association football . Rugby Union Football is now generally referred to as rugby, but at the time it was still commonly regarded as a code of football, as it technically still is. In 1883, the club took part in the first ever Sevens tournament in Melrose and competed in the final with the hosts. Within a year they (and many other Border clubs) had started their own Sevens, also known as 'Sports'. In 1994, these separate tournaments were organized into

66-486: A 26-24 victory away to Hawick in May 2024. Winning their third premiership title as a result. Each of the 10 clubs play each other at home and away between August and January, resulting in 18 games played by each club. Four points are awarded for a win, two for a draw and zero for a loss. Bonus points are also on offer in each game – one for scoring four or more tries and the other for the losing club finishing within seven points of

88-454: A national league before England, Wales or Ireland. Heriot's FP became the first city club to win the championship, they had already attracted "outsiders"; their leading try-scorer was Bill Gammell , a Fettesian already capped for the Scotland national rugby union team while playing for Edinburgh Wanderers . League rugby drew the crowds, and the 20 years that followed its introduction were

110-512: A title each during that time period. Although the Super 6 was above the Premiership in the national hierarchy and its clubs were selected directly from the existing members, from 2021 until the final season, its format was a 'closed shop' with no movement of teams between the Super 6 and the Premiership. The 50th anniversary season of the competition was won by the Currie Chieftains, who recorded

132-811: Is relegated to Scottish National League Division One and replaced by the winners of National League Division One. The 9th-placed club takes part in a play-off match at a neutral venue with the 2nd-placed club in National League Division One. Relegated to National 1 Promoted from National 1 Gala RFC Gala Rugby Football Club is a rugby union team based in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders . Founded in 1875, it plays its home games at Netherdale . The team currently competes in Scottish National League Division One ,

154-465: The Scottish Rugby Union organised the full member clubs into six leagues. This 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 to try to recruit some of the better players. Those that didn't declined. Open clubs kept their old FP or Academical name, and still played on grounds owned by

176-629: The Tennents Premiership for sponsorship reasons) is the highest level of amateur league competition for Scottish rugby union clubs. First held in 1973, it is the top division of the Scottish League Championship . The most recent (2024) champions are the Currie Chieftains , who are also the youngest club to win the competition. The most successful club is Hawick , who have won the competition thirteen times. Ten clubs contest

198-446: The 2019–20 season (not shown on map). Winners of the second tier competition – includes National League Division Two (1973–1995), Premiership Division Two (1996–2012), National League (2013–2014) and National League Division One (2015–present) National League Division Two Premiership Division Two National League National League Division 1 Scottish Premiership (rugby) The Scottish Premiership (referred to as

220-640: The Borders Sevens Circuit league structure, the winners are crowned as the "Kings of the Sevens". Gala has been 'the Kings' on two occasions, in 2004 and the first ever winners in 1994. In 1912 the club moved from Mossilee to a new ground at Netherdale, the new pavilion and grandstand built at a cost of 1150. 1931–32 saw Gala's first and only success in the Scottish Unofficial Championship under

242-622: The Captaincy of Jimmy Ferguson. From 1979, with Scottish internationalists Derek White and Peter Dods in the team, Gala won the Division 1 title three consecutive seasons. In 1995, Gala was one of eight teams to play in the new Scottish Premier League. In 1999, inspired by a young Chris Patterson at Stand-off, Gala won a treble of medals, the Division 2 title, the Scottish Cup, and Melrose Sevens. The lowest point in modern history came in 2007, when Gala

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264-497: The best in the history of Scottish club rugby. In that period the title of champions rarely went out of the Borders : with Hawick , Gala and Melrose enjoying long periods of ascendancy. Recently, however, the Borders domination has faded and Glasgow Hawks won the title three times in successive years between 2003 and 2004 and 2005–06. Since the advent of the leagues, the Scottish Rugby Union and its member clubs have re-organised

286-426: The club launched a rugby academy, despite the realisation that they would be relegated from the premiership at the end of the season. The following former Gala players have represented Scotland at full international level. The following is a list of notable non-Scottish international representative former Gala players: The following former Gala players have represented South at provincial level. The following

308-576: The competition several times, usually to change the number of teams. The top Scottish clubs qualified to the British and Irish Cup from 2009 to 2014. From season 2019–20 a semi-professional championship in Scotland, known as the Super 6 , was introduced – its teams no longer took part in the Premiership competition, however this was changed when the Super 6 was discontinued after the 2023/24 season. The Super 6 format

330-473: The league, with the bottom club relegated to the Scottish National League Division One and second-bottom club involved in a play-off. The top level of club rugby in Scotland are the two professional teams – Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby – that play in the United Rugby Championship . They assign their players to the clubs below in a Pro-Draft; so that they can still play when not used by

352-451: The professional sides. Up to season 1972–73, Scotland's rugby union clubs participated in what was known as the Scottish Unofficial Championship . It provided very unbalanced competition: some clubs played more fixtures than others and some fixture lists provided stiffer opposition than others. The resulting league table at the end of each season gave a very unbalanced and difficult-to-comprehend set of results. Starting in season 1973–74,

374-561: The schools. In the first 14 seasons of league rugby the Division I championship was won by Hawick on ten occasions. One consequence was soon apparent: fewer players were selected from English clubs to represent Scotland. For the first time since before the First World War , the domestic game was producing an adequate number of players of genuine international class. Though the SRU's administrators were often seen as backward looking, Scotland had

396-529: The second tier of Scottish club rugby, and the Border League (the oldest established rugby union league in the world). The club was formed at a time of change in Galashiels, and the Borders in general, with the increasingly industrial textile industry. Cricket was played by the new influx of workers (particularly Yorkshire) and a winter alternate was needed, so a 'Football club' was formed in 1876. Although named

418-506: The second time. Gala finished 2012–13 as both Premier Division and Scottish cup runners-up. 2013–14 saw Gala finish runners-up in the Premiership again. This was a painful result as they were leading for much of the season only to lose out on the final match of the season to local rivals Melrose. They also reached the semi-finals of the Scottish cup and won the Border League. In February 2017

440-399: The winning club. From season 2014–15 an end of season play-off was introduced for the top four clubs in the table. These clubs take part in a knock-out competition, with first playing third and second playing fourth in a semi-final match at the home venue of the highest finishing clubs. The winners then face each other in the final to determine the Premiership champion. The 10th-placed club

462-413: Was intended to bridge the gap between the amateur grade and the professional United Rugby Championship teams. A new set of dominant clubs arose after the members of the Super 6 broke off from the premiership. Currie Chieftains , Marr and a rejuvenated Hawick team became regular finishers in the playoff spots on the table from between the 2019/20 season and the present one (2023/24). All 3 sides winning

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484-409: Was relegated to Division 3 for the first time in its history. Worse was that it was only points difference of 2 over the whole season. This gave the club the chance to clear out the dead wood and the team bounced back into Division 2 at the first time of asking. The 2010–11 season saw promotion back into the top flight, its first full season back. 2011–12, saw a 3rd-place finish and the Scottish cup for

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