THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
GARETH BLACK

THE Kirkcaldy takeover of Edinburgh Rugby is continuing apace, after new principal shareholder Bob Carruthers appointed his schoolfriend Graeme Stirling as managing director of the professional team.

Earlier this week, Carruthers and his younger brother Alex were announced as the new owners of the Edinburgh team in a five-year franchise arrangement with the Scottish Rugby Union.

Stirling, who takes up the post on Monday, attended Kirkcaldy High School with the Carruthers brothers from the mid to late 1970s, and is a graduate of Heriot Watt University.

For the past four years he has been site director for Scottish & Newcastle at Fountain Brewery in Edinburgh, and he is said to offer "a wealth of operations and human resources experience, gained with blue chip organisations based in Scotland".

A life-long rugby player, he has lived in Glasgow for the past 11 years, where he has been a member of GHA Rugby Club.

"This is an exciting opportunity for me to get involved with Edinburgh Rugby and continue my love for the sport with a top class side," said Stirling, 46.

The Langtonian revolution may not stop there. According to a report yesterday, former Kirkcaldy coach Ian Rankin - who coached Alex Carruthers as a player at the Fife club - could re-join the professional team, where he was deemed surplus to requirements three years ago

This article was posted on 15-Jul-2006, 06:42 by Hugh Barrow.