Glenn Metcalfe together with Derek Stark and Gordon McIlwham became Scottish Internationals while Mike Beckham and Tommy Hayes played for the Cook Islands.

With the advent of the Hawks, the Glasgow Academicals lost many of their strong first XV but made the decision to continue as a league side for the following year - which under SRU rules meant that they had to rejoin the lowest league of Scottish rugby.

Days after winning the league, the 150th year of the club was celebrated in April 2016, with a 1st XV match against a team mainly principally from West of Scotland F.C.

They did win 13 games in a row, including a 163–10 defeat of Livingston,[4] followed up by 95–0 against Greenock Wanderers the following week.

All six of these players played in the first ever rugby international - on 27 March 1871 - when Scotland beat England by 1 goal (2 tries) to nil (1 try).