Caledonia Reds
| Full name | Caledonia Reds |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Reds |
| Founded | 1996 (Merged 1998) |
| Location | Aberdeen and Perth |
Caledonia Reds were a Scottish rugby union professional district team who participated in the Scottish Inter-District Championship and in two seasons of the Heineken Cup. They evolved from one of the traditional four amateur districts of Scotland, North and Midlands, in 1996.
Their home games were shared between Aberdeen and Perth. Previous Scottish national coach Frank Hadden once held the assistant coaching position with the Caledonia Reds.
In 1998, the SRU took the decision to merge the side with the Glasgow Rugby team, who today are known as the Glasgow Warriors.
The Caledonia district still exists: it does not field a side in the Pro12 league, but it does have competitive age grade teams in Inter-District Championships.
In 1995 with the arrival of professionalism in rugby union, the Scottish Rugby Union (SRU) realised their existing clubs would not be able to compete in the modern era alongside their English and French counterparts. After a year of debate of how to deal with professionalism, in 1996 they decided the best solution would be to create four professional provincial clubs based on the existing traditional amateur district sides of Scotland.
The amateur Edinburgh District was professionalised as Edinburgh Rugby; the amateur Glasgow District became Glasgow Rugby; the amateur South district became Border Reivers. The largest district by area covering north and central Scotland was represented by the amateur district side North and Midlands - and this was professionalised to become Caledonia Reds.
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