A bit of history - 128 years old ...

for a list of honours won click here

After 120 years playing rugby among the elite, London Scottish went into administration in 1999, when those who backed the early days of professional rugby pulled out. The original club began anew in 2000, with the goal to return to National League rugby.

After a year out of the league structure the club rejoined at the bottom of the pyramid. In seven seasons, the club secured five promotions to rise from the Herts-Middlesex Leagues and win London One last season.

The origins

The club styled itself FC, though strictly all purely rugby clubs formed after 1864 should be RFCs.

The club played its first matches in the 1878-79 season - 15 in all against mainly local sides of whom only Wasps still exists.

The teams

The club runs seven senior amateur teams

1st XV: National League Three South
2nd XV: Canterbury Merit Table Division 1
3rd XV:  Canterbury Merit Table Division 4
4th XV:  Middlesex Merit Table Division 1
5th XV:  Middlesex Merit Table Division 2
6th XV:  the Middlesex Merit Table Division 4
Picts: our occasional Veterans side

we also field Sevens sides in the Middlesex Sevens, Rosslyn Park Sevens and occasionally in Sevens tournaments in Scotland.

Head coach Terry O'Connor
Assistant coaches Jim Kelly (forwards), Rory Greenslade-Jones (backs) Tony Robinson (2nd XV), Adrian Johnson (3rd XV)
Fitness coach Dean Sutton
Head Physio Niamh Miles
Academy Director Rowly Williams
Community Sports coaches Bryan Milne and Charles Broughton
Youth coaches Ben Pegner, David Box, Magnus MacDonald, Jerry Goldie, Adam Friel, Tom Williams

From this beginning the club has gone on to great things; it has produced more international players for Scotland and more Scotland and Lions captains than any other club.

London Scottish won the Middlesex 7s several times in the 1960s, and was high in the old Merit Tables before leagues were introduced.

The club formed a professional side in 1995, won promotion and for a brief season enjoyed premiership rugby before the professional club was disbanded in 1999 for financial reasons when the Premiership was reduced from 14 to 12 teams

Nominally the club merged with Richmond and London Irish, but in practice the old "amateur" club had never died and it is this club which has regained its place in the national leagues.

In 2005 we launched a community sports programme and with the help of London Active Partnership we have funded coaches to go into schools on a regular schedule.

In addition to this work which we hope will enable us to unearth local talent, we launched a club academy in the autumn of 2006, with funding from the Scottish Rugby Union and the Friends of Scottish Rugby and generous private donors.

The aim is to identify players aged 14 up who have the potential to play professional and international rugby, and place them on a tailored development pathway. We work closely with the SRU and the national age group selectors and the pathway coaches, as well using guest coaches to deliver specific training and development.

We also run minis, youth and colts at every age group.  Our minis start art age 5 or so.

Various youth sides have won Middlesex or Surrey Leagues or both and in the past few years the Under 19 Colts were plate finalists in the National Colts Cup, Quarter Finalists in the main Cup and twice Middlesex Cup winners.

The club is open to players of Scottish descent although in reality we will welcome anyone with an interest in Rugby Union, and all our sides are mix of Scots, people with southern hemisphere accents and Scottish grannies, people who love Scotland, not a few Englishmen, Welshmen and the odd Irishman and internationalists who have played for Sweden and Cyprus!... and people who just want to play good rugby and have fun!

London Scottish teams play in a mainly blue jersey with a red lion badge, white shorts and red socks. (As a concession to the parents who have to wash them, our minis have navy shorts, not white!)

Training for senior sides takes place at Richmond Athletic Ground on Monday and Wednesday nights from 7 30pm,

Colts and Youth sides on Wednesdays at 7pm