
30 March 2020
In 1870 football
enthusiast and administrator Charles W Alcock arranged an
international football match between Scotland and England
in London. It ended in a tie so another game was arranged which
England won. Scotland was incensed. Not by the result but by the
nature of the contest. Their frustration was two-fold. Firstly the
players representing Scotland were in fact drawn almost
exclusively from the London area and didn't reflect the burgeoning
football culture that was developing in the north. Secondly, and
perhaps most pertinently, Alcock's men were playing the
wrong football.
A challenge was subsequently issued and signed by the captains of
five leading Scottish football clubs, that a representative English
side meet them to contest a football match. If accepted they would
convene at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh where the contest would take
place. Crucially the game would be played in accordance with the
rules of Rugby School. In response representatives of the Richmond
and Blackheath clubs wrote a letter to the Times newspaper inviting
representatives to a meeting in which a 'code of practice' would be
established to bring unity to the handling code. Representatives of
22 clubs assembled at the Pall Mall restaurant on the
26th January 1871 and the Rugby Football Union (RFU) was
born. Having established the laws, one of the next points of
business was to select a side capable of meeting the challenge of
the Scots.
The world's first
representative international football match subsequently took place
at Raeburn Place in Scotland on the 27th March 1871.
The contest would be noted for the vigour of the forwards and the
gentlemanly conduct of all but few seriously expected the Scots to
mount a credible challenge, after all the game had been invented at
Rugby School and most of the school's alumni were eligible for the
English side. Half of the first English Twenty to take part in the
match were former pupils of the school, including captain Fred
Stokes. For fifty minutes the Scottish forwards matched the
visitors with neither side gaining an advantage in what became a
steady war of attrition. In the latter stages however it was the
Scots' superior fitness that allowed them to make inroads. Angus
Buchanan became the game's first international try scorer before
William Cross converted into a goal. Reg Birkett then became
England's first try scorer, but Stokes couldn't convert. In the
latter stages Cross settled matters with another try for Scotland.
Eyebrows were raised at Scotland's unexpected achievement but
nobody south of the border was overly concerned, after all it was
the taking part and not the winning that counted. Read Rugby's
Greatest Upsets
,
Part 3,Part 4
and
Part 5.
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