Scholarship

Our Vision

With the investment made to infrastructure and coaching, the Club’s focus is now to its current and future rugby players. With sport increasingly professionalising, so does the pressure in time and costs to those wishing to compete at the highest level. This places a tremendous burden on our sports men and women wishing to attain success on the pitch. We believe that Edinburgh offers the best training ground for future stars of rugby and we want to encourage excellence both on and off the pitch. At EURFC we want to play our part in ensuring that every rugby player is given the opportunity to achieve their full sporting potential. 'The Bedell-Sivright Scholarship Fund' is the next step in ensuring that vision.

Passion, Performance, Sportsmanship & Heart
 

David Bedell-Sivright

Named after one of EURFC’s most illustrious alumni, David Bedell-Sivright. 'The Bedell-Sivright Scholarship Fund' will be used to attract the best young talent to study and play rugby for The University of Edinburgh. Our aim is to train, develop and retain some of the finest rugby talent in the country.

One of the main areas 'The Bedell-Sivright Scholarship Fund' will look to do is support up to 5 Performance Rugby Scholarships (£500 to £2000 per year) to attract the best young talent in the UK to play and study at The University of Edinburgh and provide players with the opportunity to train and play in a professional manner whilst studying towards a world class degree.

Whilst it is proudly acknowledged that The University of Edinburgh is, first and foremost, a world class academic institution, we also realise that we have some very fine rugby players choosing to come here to study. So with this in mind, if you have already been accepted to Edinburgh, or are hoping to be, and would like more information on 'The Bedell-Sivright Scholarship Fund', please don't hesitate in getting in touch with our Club Captain - Zak Redgrave who would be happy to go over potential opportunities with you.

David Bedell-Sivright held the reputation as the toughest rugby player of his day, and also took this ferocity into the ring enjoying the status of Scottish Heavyweight Boxing Champion. Outside the sporting arena, he committed himself to saving lives as a doctor and naval surgeon during World War I.

His boxing style was based on raw punching power rather than technique, and his reputation was such that no policeman felt like intervening when he blocked Princes Street for an hour while lying down on the tram rails to celebrate a famous victory. When he got up, he went to a cab rank and reportedly tackled a horse.

Bedell-Sivright's aggression always remained confined within the touchlines and ropes. He captained both Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities and made his Scotland debut aged just 19. By the time he captained the British touring team to Australia and New Zealand four years later, he had already won 12 caps and played in the Lions side that visited South Africa in 1903.

After his second tour, he spent a year stock-rearing in Australia before returning to medicine in the UK, having asked himself: "What was I, with an average amount of brains and rather more of money, doing? Simply prostituting the one in order to increase the other. It wasn't good enough."

Bedell-Sivright joined the Royal Navy in January 1915 to fight instead for his country and was posted to the Dardanelles two months later. He died at Gallipoli, of acute septicaemia, on Sept 5, aged 34.

His memory lives on through this club, and we honour his commitment, passion for the game and compassion for humanity through our scholarship fund for talented young rugby players. Even though he was greatly feared in the ring and on the pitch he upheld great sportsmanship, an attribute we regard as most important.