Scottish Hydro Electric League Championship

Infobox sports league
current_season=2007-08 Scottish Hydro Electric League Championship
logo=
caption=
sport=Rugby union
founded=1973
teams=157
country=SCO
champion= Boroughmuir RFC

The Scottish Hydro Electric League Championship is the national rugby union league for Scotland. Operated by the Scottish Rugby Union, and presently sponsored by energy provider Scottish Hydro Electric, it was formed as a league of six divisions in 1973 to replace the haphazard "unofficial championship" system that had been in operation until then. Traditionally dominated by teams from the Scottish Borders, the area of Scotland where the sport is most popular, it currently is split into two sections; the "Premiership", which has three "nationwide" divisions; and the "National League" which has three "nationwide" and varying "regional" levels. Direct promotion and relegation operate throughout.

Following some years of 'pool' systems in the regional levels (where clubs played in small groups of say 4 or 6 teams before Christmas, with new groups formed with the pool winners in one group, 2nd placed clubs in another group etc. after Christmas), a standard system has now been adopted nationwide. This seeks to ensure that every division consists of 12 clubs, with the exception of the top level in each region which shall each be of 10 clubs.

With thirteen championships, Hawick R.F.C. have won the league the most times, followed by Melrose R.F.C. with six titles.

The format of the league system had been up for much debate recently, due to the arduous nature of the competition. As of 2007-2008, all 6 nationwide divisions consist of 12 teams, meaning all 72 clubs in these divisions have to be able to finance 11 trips across Scotland each year. Calls for fewer nationwide divisions have been made, or a reduction in the size of each division, to 10 clubs.

History

Up to season 1972-73, Scotland's rugby union clubs participated in what was known as an '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, 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 the schools. In the first 14 seasons of league rugby the Division I championship was won by Hawick on 10 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 a national league before England, Wales or Ireland.

In the first 14 seasons of league rugby the Division I championship was won by Hawick on 10 occasions. 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 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 2003/4 and 2005/6.

Since the advent of the leagues, the Scottish Rugby Union and its member clubs have re-organised the competition several times, usually to change the number of teams. In 1995 they added a knock-out cup competition, with Hawick again the inaugural winners, defeating Watsonians in the final.

Promotion and relegation

At the end of each season, the top two clubs in each division are promoted, and the bottom two clubs are relegated. The exception is between National League Division Three and the three Regional League Division Ones, where three clubs are relegated and the three regional champions promoted. The committees in charge of the regional leagues have powers to alter promotion and relegation rules.

Leagues not part of the Scottish Hydro Electric League Championship

Certain leagues are not included in the system:

*The Border League, a historic and now supplementary competition involving clubs competing in the Championship
*The Grampian Alliance League, independent of the Championship (involving some 2nd XVs)
*The Highland Alliance League, also independent of the Championship (involving some 2nd XVs)

In addition, competitive rugby at universities, and rugby for 2nd and 3rd XVs, is organised separately, and in the case of 2nd and 3rd XVs on something of an ad-hoc basis (there having been a number of splits from The Scottish 2nd XV League in recent years). Note that the larger universities run their first teams in both the Scottish Hydro Electric Championship, and in the university leagues.

See University Leagues in Scotland and 2nd XV Leagues in Scotland for further details.

Cup competitions

There is one major cup competition, the Scottish Hydro Electric Cup which has offshoot competitions of Bowl, Shield and Plate for teams knocked out in the early rounds. This competition has existed in one form or another since 1995. The cup is regionalised in the early rounds.

Some SRU member clubs which do not participate in the league system, do nevertheless form teams especially to play in the cup. This has however become less common in recent years.

In season 2006-2007, Premiership One consisted of only 10 clubs, and a supplementary competition, the Scottish Hydro Electric SuperCup, involving two groups of 5 clubs and a Final, was played to make up for the lost fixtures. With Premiership One reverting to 12 clubs again for 2007-2008, it was abandoned.

The Scottish Hydro Electric Cup final, and the offshoot finals, are scheduled to take place on Saturday May 3rd 2008. The finals day has always traditionally been held at Murrayfield, home of the national team. The SuperCup final in 2007 was played at Myreside (Watsonians RFC).

Previous Winners of Premiership One

*1973 Hawick
*1974 Hawick
*1975 Hawick
*1976 Hawick
*1977 Hawick
*1978 Hawick
*1979 Heriot's FP
*1980 Gala
*1981 Gala
*1982 Hawick
*1983 Gala
*1984 Hawick
*1985 Hawick
*1986 Hawick
*1987 Hawick
*1988 Kelso
*1989 Kelso
*1990 Melrose
*1991 Boroughmuir
*1992 Melrose
*1993 Melrose
*1994 Melrose
*1995 Stirling County
*1996 Melrose
*1997 Melrose
*1998 Watsonians
*1999 Heriot's FP
*2000 Heriot's FP
*2001 Hawick
*2002 Hawick
*2003 Boroughmuir
*2004 Glasgow Hawks
*2005 Glasgow Hawks
*2006 Glasgow Hawks
*2007 Currie
*2008 Boroughmuir

=Scottish Hydro Electric Premiership, 2007-2008=

=Scottish Hydro Electric National League, East, 2007-2008=

=Scottish Hydro Electric National League, Caledonia, 2007-2008=