Tom MacDonald was voted in as captain and Fraser Gillies still in the 6 th form voted in as vice captain. At this stage of the season Tom was hoping to play Flanker but in typical Tom fashion put himself forward to play hooker and led from the front throughout the season. Fraser had played centre the previous season for the XV but was our obvious choice at fly half. After last year’s much fancied side it was difficult to see how the XV with only two players with any real 1st XV experience would be successful. How wrong!

Our usual visit to Tynedale (our last while the SRU age group guidelines are under review) resulted in a very encouraging days rugby with a number of close results against some of the top English schools in fifteen minute games. Despite being the youngest and smallest team at the competition we managed to come 4th out of the ten schools competing, winning a splendid plate for the trophy cabinet. (V Newcastle RGS: won 7-0, V Yarm: won 19-0, V Lancaster RGS: won 3-0,V Filton College Lost 0-12, V Barnard Castle Lost 0-10. )

Our first match against Dollar proved to be a very positive start to the season with a 20-3 win over Dollar Academy. Edinburgh Academy dominated the forward exchanges and played some excellent rugby despite the wet conditions. The defence was solid and Dollar could not cope with our “go forward” up front and clever kicking from Fraser Gillies at ten.

Against Fettes The Academy had a player sent off after five minutes but yet still managed to produce a tremendous performance to beat a much fancied Fettes team by a good margin.It is thirteen years since the 1st XV last lost a player with a red card, and with the new laws in theory creating more space behind from the set piece it seemed likely that Fettes would be able to exploit this one man advantage. However with typical Academy guts and determination it was impossible to see from the match who had this advantage as all the remaining fourteen players tore into the opposition, preventing them from dictating any pattern on the game. Indeed it was Fraser Gillies at ten who controlled the game exceptionally well, but, as he would admit, it is easy playing behind a pack with so much “go forward”: Luke Haidinger, Roddy Campbell and Tom Macdonald dominated the scrum and George Neep, Murray Graham, Nas Plevris and John Soulsby were everywhere in the loose. It was Adam Simpson’s second game at full back and he looked as if he had been playing there for years.

Our next two matches were won in contrasting styles. Against Loretto the XV made numerous mistakes, made wrong options, and played with tiredness in their stride to record a win - but not one that they could be particularly pleased about. The contrast on the following Saturday versus the High School of Dundee was huge as the side defended with enormous pride and then ran with confidence and skill. They scored five excellent tries, two each from Alex Murray and Tom Whittle.

Stewarts Melville were odds on favourites to win this match but The Academy were now on a role and produced yet another top performance victory. The victory against this Stewart’s Melville team was the most pleasing of the season thus far. After 10 seconds of the match Nas Plevris had to leave the pitch for the match duration with a very nasty eye cut. This was a huge blow for the side as Nas had been a key player all season. However, back-up in the shape of Henry Binnian and then Greig Blackie proved to be very affective. The Academy had a strong wind in their favour for the first half and most of the early pressure was from the Academy with Fraser Gillies kicking a goal. Murray Graham applying constant pressure then swooped on a loose pass and raced to the try line to give us an 8-0 lead. Stewart’s then played some good handling rugby to score under the posts, but the Academy, not to be outdone, did the same a few minutes later to leave the score at 15-7 at half time. Stewart’s then had the wind for the second half so it was to be difficult to hold onto the lead. However with typical Academy grit and guts the XV tackled and defended superbly to deservedly win 15-10.

The 1st XV completed a memorable first half of term with an 11-8 victory away at Durham. In the first five minutes the XV scored a good try after the ball had been through a number of pairs of hands with Ben Brown finishing the move off, stepping the full back. The rest of the half was a little lacklustre with the forwards coming off second best at the break down and the team making far too many unforced errors. However Tomas MacDonald leading from the front upped his team’s effort at half time, and as the line out started to function and the error count was lessened the XV started to  dominate phases of the game. Fraser Gillies dropped a goal with ten minutes to go and we were unfortunate not to score with five minutes left on the clock.

The 1 st XV remained unbeaten going into their 150th match against Merchiston. A report of the 150 th celebration and match is below a very memorable match but a narrow defeat for The Academy

After the occasion the week before the match against Hutchesons was always going to be a difficult match for the team to motivate themselves. The XV stuck to their task with some well-worked tries, Ben Brown running particularly strongly in the centre. The XV were 19-0 ahead at half time. however, the second half belonged to Hutcheson’s after The Academy tired, and once again it was only resolute defence that saved us from a tight finish.

Our next match turned out to be the only cup match of the season. We had already beaten Dollar at home, but we we were well aware that an away trip in front of their whole school was going to be a stern test. Dollar were back to full strength after a dismal run of injuries.

The match was very evenly poised with play at both ends of the field, and it was Dollar who had to scramble defence more often than the Academy. However Dollar scored first through a forward drive, but the Academy, after an excellent off load from Ben Brown onto Rory Paterson, scored on the stroke of half time to leave the score tied. In the second half defences were on top. With ten minutes to go  Dollar dropped a goal to leave a nail-biting finish. With a minute on the clock Fraser Gillies had a kick at goal to tie which would have seen the Academy go through as the away side; but it agonisingly drifted wide of the post.

The XV didn’t play to their best, but they were not bad; this was a good cup game with all the excitement that the Cup brings to schoolboy rugby. There is little doubt that we were affected by injury, but those who came in acquitted themselves well.

Against a weaker than usual Strathallan side we returned to winning ways

Despite a poor first ten minutes when the Academy fell off tackles and could not get hold of the ball, this was a convincing victory for the 1st XV. In parts there was some excellent rugby played, although in the second half players became rather selfish and missed numerous scoring opportunities when overlaps existed. The rucking was rather static and the ball rather slow but there was plenty of running rugby on show .

We were well beaten by a good Watson’s team, although up until the last ten minutes of the match we were always in with a chance of a possible win. For the first ten minutes Watson’s didn’t see the ball and Fraser Gillies kicked a goal for us to go 3-0.  However, Watson’s  threatened from then on every time they got the ball, particularly in the mid field, and we fell off tackles far too easily to give away a number of soft tries. We had just as much possession but could not penetrate their defence as easily as they did ours. We looked forward to our return match after Christmas.

One of the highlights of the season was beating the fancied Glenalmond team. Glenalmond came to New Field unbeaten; they had drawn with Merchiston and were convincing winners over Watson’s. They were looking for their first unbeaten season for many many years.

The Academy XV were determined to put the Watson’s defeat behind them and produce a top performance. They didn’t start well with Glenalmond going 3-0 up but were soon in their stride and camped in Glenalmond’s half. There were two excellent tries. The best from James Munro, who in his first season as a scrum half had come on exceptionally well; . Glenalmond came back well in the second half but the defence was resolute: despite one missed tackle, which resulted in a Glenalmond try, the Academy came back strongly in the last ten minutes and held on to an excellent victory. As Glenalmond sank to their knees there were plenty of smiles on the Academy XV.

It was a difficult decision at 6.00am on this Saturday morning whether we should keep the match on against Glasgow High. In the end it turned out to be the correct decision with three playable pitches without any of the hard icy patches that were dotted around other parts of New Field. The 1st XV got off to an excellent start with Luke Haidinger running well off Fraser Gillies to set up most of our forward movement. 14 –0 up at half time and well on top, we hoped to go on to win the game by a large margin. However, despite some excellent 15-man rugby being played, passes were dropped on two occasions when we were about to flop over the line. Luke Haidinger will remember the game for coughing up the easiest of chances but apart from this mistake got the vote as man of the match.

Against Kelvinside apart from a twenty-minute period at the end of the second half when we sat back and gave our opposition too much space, followed by a soft try, the match was dominated by the Edinburgh Academy. With Angus Normand and Jamie Farndale away representing Scotland in the U17 home nations pentathlon championship and even more injuries the week before, other squad members had a chance to start. A clash of heads between Haidinger and Plevris after thirty minutes, resulting in stitches for both, saw us even further disrupted, but all the replacements did a fine job. Angus Alexander, who had been playing very well for the 2nd XV, scored four tries on his first outing at 1st XV level for a number of weeks, and debutants Henry Binnian and Mark McWilliam also scored a try each. Fraser Gillies once again controlled proceedings, but it was all fifteen players on the pitch who worked together and produced a solid team performance

Against Heriots The XV played some excellent fast-paced rugby to go 15 points up in as many minutes. The very windy conditions, our lack of discipline and the careless errors from both sides then rather stagnated the game. However, the last fifteen minutes once again saw the Academy getting on top and two further scores with one being converted left the final score at 27 to a very pleasing nil.

George Watson’s were favourites for the schools cup; they had lost only once in the season up at Glenalmond and no doubt thought that they would come to New Field to secure another victory against the Academy.The Academy dominated the early exchanges. The first try came from the training ground: a good line out drive, a blind side peel and then a blind side break from Luke Haidinger who broke through the tackle to score in the corner. It was expected that Watson’s would immediately fight back but excellent tackling from the whole side and particularly from Ben Brown and Alex Murray in the centre prevented any gain in ground from Watson’s. Ten minutes later the Academy scored again. This was not a training move but excellent vision from fly half Fraser Gillies who noticed space behind the maul, and a delicate chip executed to perfection and a good chase and gather from Tom Whittle saw us go ten points ahead. More good decision making by Gillies saw him drop a goal when the side could not breach the Watson’s line, and a penalty kicked in the dying seconds of the first half gave the Academy a 16-0 lead at half time. No change in tactics for the second half. We looked after the ball well and tackled ferociously. Watson’s crossed our line once through pick and drive, and then some good hands from our backs and strong running from Angus Normand saw him touch down on the try line. This was converted by Gillies, and gave the Academy a convincing win. There had been many good Saturday mornings in my fifteen years at the Academy, but this was right at the top!

After the victory last week this result was not expected but St Aloysius certainly deserved their win. St Aloysius defended as well as any side we have played against in the year and seemed to have more determination and spirit than the Academy XV, who didn’t play badly but lacked the passion of last week. The Academy were 7-0 up at half time when Tom Whittle crossed in the corner after some good handling, but the Academy lost ball in procession at crucial moments and could not break through a resolute St Aloysius defence. Poor tackling around the fringes from us and good running from the St Aloysius full back led to the St Aloysius try and two penalties from our indiscipline.  The morning was put in perspective by seeing Connor Docherty, who was very badly injured against the Academy last year, walking around the touch line and making excellent progress.

After the week before disappointing result the side needed a confident performance before the match against Stewarts Melville the following Saturday .The XV started rather slowly and there were times in the first half when too many errors were made and decision making was poor. However as we started to control the ball the performance improved and the XV scored a number of excellent tries with slick handling from backs and forwards.

It was very disappointing to finish off the 1st XV season with the cancellation of the Stewart’s Melville match due to the weather. However the XV had one last run out at the start of the summer term against The BATS . It was very flattering to us that the BATS choose to bring in a number of Scottish Under 18 players to strengthen their side, and it was a huge compliment to the strength of Tom MacDonalds team.The game was extremely competitive despite our narrow loss. Murray Graham typified his season with trying to play on despite a cruciate ligament rupture.

It has been an excellent season, with the XV winning 14 of their 18 games, scoring 407 points to 139 against. The XV beat Fettes, Watson’s, Stewart’s Melville and Heriot’s - the four semi-finalists of the Scottish Schools Cup; and were unbeaten at New Field. Tom Macdonald was an outstanding leader on and off the park, and the squad have been a delight to work with on the training field. Surprisingly the Academy had no representatives in the Edinburgh Under 18s, but Fraser Gillies, Ben Brown, Lawrie Seydak, James Munro, Angus Normand and Roddy Campbell were selected for the Edinburgh Under 17 preliminary squad. Fraser Gillies was placed at fly half in Rugby World’s Schools UK team, and Luke Haidinger was watched by Manchester Sale Academy. We reached a high point of 13th place in the unofficial Rugby UK Canterbury Rankings in association with schoolssports.com.

To celebrate the longest running continual rugby fixture in the world over 900 people attended a celebration dinner at Murrayfield stadium on Friday 31st October. Many in attendance had played themselves for the Academy in the fixture in times gone by and the night gave them the opportunity to meet old friends and to reminisce about their playing days and the time they played against Merchiston. There were a total of 17 players, Academicals or Merchistonians, in attendance who had played in the centenary fixture in 1958 which also took place at Raeburn Place.

On such a special rugby occasion the organising group had felt it fitting that any money raised at the event should go towards those players who have been seriously injured playing rugby. With some fantastic auction prizes and many raffle prizes, generously denoted by the Academy community, the night raised £32000 for “Hearts and Balls” charity.

The entertainment for the night was provided by Fran Cotton ( England and the British Lions ) who spoke for rugby, Roger Baird ( Merchistonion, Scotland and The British Lions ) who toasted the Edinburgh Academy and Jeremy Richardson ( Edinburgh Academy, Scotland) who toasted Merchiston Castle. The night was pulled together by Chairman John Beattie ( Scotland, British Lions) who also hosted his BBC radio Scotland show from Murrayfield. During the night interviews were broadcast live on the show from Tomas MacDonald the Academy Captain 2008, G H Crombie representating the 1958 side, the Academy coach, and Jeremy Richardson the Academy speaker. Chris Tau from the IRB and his “Total Rugby” team were also on hand interviewing former players and recording the night for his rugby show on satellite TV and the IRB web site.

A night such as this does not run well without an enormous amount of work behind the scenes and my thanks go to Alan Fyfe who got the ball rolling with invitations; to John Evans, the energy behind Hearts and Balls; and very special thanks must go to Susan Stewart and David Standley who have worked tirelessly for many hours to sort out the detail required for an event as large as this to run so smoothly.

Finally, thanks must go to our sponsors on the night: Newton-Barr plc, and Charlotte Square Investments.

150th: The match

With the kind permission of the Accies the match took place at Raeburn Place, the ground of the first ever rugby International and the ground where the 100th year celebration of this match had taken place in 1958. The Accies had also donated a splendid trophy at the dinner to be played for by the two schools which will be awarded in all future matches.

Frank Spratt, Sasha Spratt and John Wright were duty managers for the day and many thanks go to them for having the pitch and facilities ready to go. Mike Allingham and his team of stewards also did a splendid job in controlling the crowd of at least 2500. It was a pleasure to have the joint Merchiston and Academy pipe band open the proceeding, controlled so well by Mr Michael Gray.

At 2.00pm the match kicked off.  Match report written by David Barnes (The Scotsman):

“ Merchiston Castle survived a late Edinburgh Academy onslaught to hold out for a hard-earned victory in the oldest fixture in world rugby at Raeburn Place on Saturday.

A crowd in the region of 2,500 made their way to Stockbridge on a crisp November afternoon to watch this 150th anniversary match, many nursing hangovers from the celebratory dinner at Murrayfield the night before, and although the match never quite opened up as anticipated, there was enough tension and admirable graft to keep everyone entertained.

Merchiston were quickest out of the blocks, and drew first blood with an unconverted Lewis Johnston try, but just before the break Academy stand-off Fraser Gillies squared things with a wonderful solo score – which more than made up for a couple of earlier missed penalties.

The Academy dominated possession in the second half, but did not have quite enough firepower to break down Merchiston's resolute defence. After Glenn Leslie and Gillies had exchanged penalties, Merchiston were reduced to 14 men when Luke Morrow was sin-binned, but despite being at a numerical disadvantage they were able to squeeze back into the lead with another Leslie three-pointer.

With time running out, the Academy launched one final attack, and after several phases they were eventually awarded a penalty just outside the 22 and 15 metres in from the touchline – but Gillies pulled his kick to square the match to the left of the posts and Merchiston could afford to celebrate.

Scorers – Edinburgh Academy: Try: Gillies, Pen: Gillies. Merchiston Castle: Try: Johnston, Pens: Leslie 2.

Edinburgh Academy team: A Simpson; P Whittle, B Brown, A Murray, A Normand; F Gillies, J Munro; R Campbell, T Macdonald, L Haidinger, E Fisher, G Neep, J Soulsby, M Graham, N Plevris. Subs  S Murphy, G Blackie, L Seydak, F Salter, N Hunt, R Cumming, R Paterson.”

The Academy defended as if their lives depended upon it and can count themselves unfortunate not to have come away with a draw. Fraser Gillies was given the man of the match award for his all round play but the whole team deserved an award. Murray Graham epitomised the Academy effort; with his back in pieces and his arm half hanging off he left the field with five minutes to go having given absolutely everything - he just couldn’t run another step. Post-match a huge amount of praise was heaped upon the players from Academicals players who know what they are talking about.

Pictures of the anniversary game