Perthshire Rugby Football Club, formerly known as Perthshire Academicals, is a rugby union

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 club located in the town of Perth

Perth, Scotland

Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. Founded in 1868, it is one of the oldest rugby

Rugby football

Rugby football is a style of football named after Rugby School in the United Kingdom. It is seen most prominently in two current sports, rugby league and rugby union.-History:...

 clubs in Scotland. Perthshire was a consistently successful club in the 3rd Division of the old National League in Scotland until recently. Over the seasons 2003/2004, 2004/2005 and 2005/2006, the club has gained promotion every year. In the 2006/2007 season, the club played in the Scottish Premiership Division 3 for the first time. They have remained there since.

Perthshire has provided Scottish internationalist

Scotland national rugby union team

The Scotland national rugby union team represent Scotland in international rugby union. Rugby union in Scotland is administered by the Scottish Rugby Union. The Scotland rugby union team is currently ranked eighth in the IRB World Rankings as of 19 September 2011...

 with the first being Dr R W Irvine

Bulldog Irvine

Doctor Robert W. Irvine, nicknamed "Bulldog", was a Scottish rugby football player.-Rugby career:He was capped 13 times for between 1871–80, including the first ever rugby international...

 and Dr Charles Reid

Charles Reid

Charles Reid, nicknamed Hippo, was a Scottish international rugby players. He was capped twenty times for between 1881-88. Reid vies with Ninian Finlay for the title of the youngest player ever to be capped for - he was seventeen years and thirty six days old when he was capped against on 19...

 during the 1880s. Welsh captain

Wales national rugby union team

The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

 J A G William played for the club in the early 1950’s. Jimmy Greenwood was the clubs last international cap. He toured South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 with the British and Irish Lions

British and Irish Lions

The British and Irish Lions is a rugby union team made up of players from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales...

 in 1955.

Perthshire also put a lot of emphasis into coaching youth players. The club has a development team who coach the youth teams and make regular visits to schools in the area to promote rugby. Perthshire recently launched its centre of excellence, which was the first in the country.

External links

• www.perthshirerfc.co.uk/ - Official Site