With the news that Coops is managing to field an Accies Development XV an informed source contacted the newsdesk to draw the Editors attention to the fact that this is not exactly a new iniative

Our insider indicated that "for your information I believe Glasgow Accies fielded a development XV against Kilmarnock 3rd XV in season 2008-09. I recall it because I watched the game played on the school pitches along Helensburgh Drive. A 16 yr old Andy Redmayne played for Kilmarnock 3rds, his first senior game, as the u18s had no game that day. In the same season he went on to play for Kilmarnock 2’s and 1’s and the following season he secured a starting place in the 1’s. That was all before the rules on u18s playing in senior rugby were tightened up.

As I recall the Accies development XV were a fairly young squad, while Kilmarnock 3rds were a mixture of old heads and young guns (as they still are). I believe Accies ran away with the first half with some fast pace men on the outside but Kilmarnock did a better job of closing them down in the 2nd half. It was rumoured after the game that it was more like a Hawks Development XV than an Accies one! It is possible that Tom Stevens also played for the Kilmarnock 3rds, his development path followed a similar pattern to Andy Redmayne.

This article was originally posted on 6-Nov-2013, 13:36 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 6-Nov-2013, 13:37.