Heriots

George Heriot's School gave the club its first players, and the door opened later, and Heriot's now takes anyone who wants to play. That start in 1890 still shows in the name, kept even after the club stopped being a school reunion and became a community side in its own right.

What sets Heriot's apart in Scottish rugby is a line that has never been crossed: no other club in the country has stayed in the top division without a single relegation. Blue shirts with white hoops earned the side its "Blues" nickname, and matches against Watsonians, played as the Capital Derby, carry the weight of two Edinburgh clubs that have never needed a season preview to explain why the fixture matters.

The honours board leans toward the 2010s: two of the five Premiership titles came in 2014-15 and 2015-16, either side of a Scottish Cup win, a run that briefly made Heriot's the team every Edinburgh derby was measured against. The club also built a habit of the shorter game, collecting sevens titles at Hawick, Jed-Forest, Melrose and Peebles across decades, a strand of the club's history that runs almost as long as the fifteen-a-side one. Struan Cessford came through the club to Scotland's Club XV setup, one name among the players Heriot's has sent on to Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors as a feeder club.

The Super 6 project, which Heriot's joined in 2019, folded after the 2023-24 season, and with it went the clearest route the club had toward a fully professional level above domestic rugby.