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Edinburgh Rugby were created to compete in the Heineken Cup as the SFU did not think that Scottish club sides could compete against the best teams from France and England.
Due to the SRU’s high debt, partly as a result of the redevelopment of Murrayfield - called for retrenchment. After two seasons, Edinburgh merged with the Border Reivers to form a team to be known as Edinburgh Reivers. From the 2002/3 season the Reivers label was dropped and the team were simply known as Edinburgh Rugby.
The issue of crowd sizes returned at the 1999 World Cup, by which time a Welsh/Scottish League had been established - essentially the Welsh First Division with the two Scottish sides tacked on.
The Celtic League, begun in the autumn of 2001, has been a more attractive competition for players and public alike.
Edinburgh's best achievement to date has been to make the final of the 2003/4 Celtic Cup and to make it out of the group stages of the 2003/4 Heineken Cup.