Glasgow Warriors

The Glasgow Warriors, formerly Glasgow Rugby, are one of two professional rugby union teams in Scotland, Edinburgh being the other. They play in the RaboDirect Pro12 League; their home ground is Firhill Stadium, also the home of Partick Thistle Football Club.

History

Glasgow Rugby were created to compete in the Heineken Cup as the SRU did not think that Scottish club sides could compete against the best teams from France and England. Glasgow, however, did not compete in the Heineken Cup until the 1997–98 season.

Due to the SRU's high debt, partly as a result of the redevelopment of Murrayfield – called for retrenchment. After two seasons, Glasgow merged with the Caledonia Reds to form a team to be known as Glasgow Caledonians.

The issue of crowd sizes returned at the 1999 World Cup, by which time a Welsh/Scottish League had been announced – essentially the Welsh First Division with the two Scottish sides added on.

The Celtic League began in the autumn of 2001; Glasgow reached the semi-finals of the inaugural competition but struggled thereafter. From the 2002–03 season the Caledonian label was dropped and the team were simply known as Glasgow Rugby. Starting with the 2005–06 season, the team were yet again rebranded as the Glasgow Warriors.

The enforced merger came just after Glasgow had shown some signs of progress...
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