THE SCOTSMAN

A challenge laid down in The Scotsman was catalyst for the birth of international rugby--(and signed by Glasgow Accies)

From Ed--and here it is

Sir,
There is a pretty general feeling among Scotch football players that the football power of the old country was not properly represented in the late so-called International Football Match. Not that we think the play of the gentlemen who represented Scotland otherwise than very good - for that it was so is amply proved by the stout resistance they offered to their opponents and by the fact that they were beaten by only one goal - but that we consider the Association rules, in accordance with which the late game was played, not such as to bring together the best team Scotland could turn out. Almost all the leading clubs play by the Rugby Code, and have no opportunity of practising the Association game even if willing to do so. We therefore feel that a match played in accordance with any rules other than those in general use in Scotland, as was the case in the last match, is not one that would meet with support generally from her players. For our satisfaction, therefore, and with a view of really testing what Scotland can do against an English team we, as representing the football interests of Scotland, hereby challenge any team selected from the whole of England, to play us a match, twenty-a-side, Rugby rules, either in Edinburgh or Glasgow on any day during the present season that might be found suitable to the English players. Let this count as the return to the match played in London on 19th November, or, if preferred, let it be a separate match. If it be entered into we can promise England a hearty welcome and a first-rate match. Any communications addressed to any one of us will be attended to.

We are, etc.
A. H. Robertson, West of Scotland FC
F. J. Moncrieff, Edinburgh Academical FC
B. Hall Blyth, Merchistonian FC
J. W. Arthur, Glasgow Academical FC
J. H. Oatts, St Salvador FC, St Andrews



Published Date: 17 March 2009
By STUART BATHGATE
THE game between Scotland and England – the oldest in international rugby – owes its origins to a letter (right) printed in The Scotsman and the weekly newspaper Bell's Life In London on 8 December, 1870. In it, the captains of five leading Scottish clubs challenged "any team selected from the whole of England to play us a match, 20-a-side, rugby rules either in Edinburgh or Glasgow".
The challenge was taken up, and the game went ahead at Raeburn Place, the home of Edinburgh Accies, on 27 March the following year. Scotland won by a goal and a try to a try, and the annual meeting of the two nations was under way.

Rugby was spreading rapidly at that stage, and the first known games in India, played by members of the British armed forces, took place in the year of that inaugural international, 1871. The Calcutta Football Club, the body which would give its name to the trophy contested by Scotland and England, came into being towards the end of the following year, as its official history records.

"The first match was played on Christmas Day, 1872, England versus Scotland and Ireland with the Welsh thrown in. The game caught on and had to be repeated within the week.

"The game was now established. (In] January 1873 officers were appointed and the club rolls were gave a total of 137 members. The club colours were chosen as red and white, broad stripes.

"In 1876 the Buffs left Calcutta and there was a terrible gap in the game. In 1877 things became more difficult – the rise in lawn tennis and the tremendous boom in polo and ski racing coupled with the gradual dispersal of the original stalwarts made it very difficult to keep the game going, there being no sufficient influx of new material . . .

"By the end of the year the game had practically died out, but the club possessed a good bank balance and GAJ Rothney, who had been acting as captain, honorary secretary and treasurer, proposed that the funds should be devoted to the purchase of a cup of Indian workmanship to be offered to the Rugby Football Union."

Those surplus funds, in the form of silver rupees, were melted down and then transmuted into the Calcutta Cup, that now-familiar old urn-like trophy with snakes as handles and an elephant standing atop the lid. An exchange of letters followed between the club and the RFU, culminating in one from AG Guillemard, the president of the English governing body, to Rothney.

Dated 21 March, 1878, it read: "The committee accept with very great pleasure your generous offer of the cup as an International Challenge Cup to be played for annually by England and Scotland – the cup remaining the property of the Rugby Football Union."

The first match for the new trophy was played just under a year later. Raeburn Place was again the venue, and this time the teams drew, with a drop goal for Scotland cancelling out an English goal. The equalising score came from Ninian Finlay of Edinburgh Accies, a man of remarkable strength if the following account in RJ Phillips's The Story of Scottish Rugby is anything to go by.

"JHS Graham, at the end of a Scottish forward rush, picked up the ball and passed it to Gordon Petrie. The Royal High School man in turn handed it to Ninian Finlay, who made a direct course for the line.

"The way was blocked, but, with a couple of Englishmen hanging onto him, Finlay got in his drop and sent the ball over the bar. Cheering and enthusiasm did not subside, one report says, for fully five minutes."

The Calcutta club actually revived in the spring of 1884 following the arrival in the city of what the club records called "a large quantity of excellent football material", by which was meant soldiers who enjoyed playing rugby. By then, of course, its place in the sport's history was assured.

Six Nations: Oldest international fixture may not have been kind to Scots since the war, but the Calcutta Cup retains a special place in the hearts of fans



Published Date: 17 March 2009
By DAVID FERGUSON
THERE is an over-used newspaper headline that too neatly sums up Scotland's history in the famous oldest fixture in world rugby. It reads "Woe Calcutta."
It is difficult to dispute such a sentiment when we glance back at a record only 17 Scottish victories in 64 Calcutta Cup fixtures since the Second World War. In the 138-year history of the oldest international fixture, there have been 45 Scottish wins from 125 matches. And yet this one match retains an enduring, intoxicating relationship even with Scottish rugby supporters here and across the world.

This week, in the build-up to the conclusion of the 2009 RBS Six Nations Championship, with the 126th meeting of Scotland and England at Twickenham on Saturday, The Scotsman delves into the archives, speaks to players, coaches and other figures close to the action over many Calcutta Cups, from both nations. With the help of Scotsman reports, and the fabled accounts of Scottish rugby historians Sandy Thorburn and John Davidson, we will look at the highs and lows of the famous clash of old enemies.

It seems appropriate to start with one proud Scot who enjoyed a relatively successful record in the fixture, winning four and drawing one from 11 games as a player or coach, and one who, as he celebrates his 69th birthday today, still believes that the Calcutta Cup has a special place in the heart of Scots.

Telfer's association with Scotland began when he scored his first Test try against England and sparked a Murrayfield pitch invasion. "The old rivalry that sets this game apart," he said. "There are a lot of games now in sports that have trophies put up, and they don't have the history of the Calcutta Cup.

"This was the first cup played for, and the game itself goes right back to 1871, which gives it a unique historical context as well as the intrigue of a cup coming from Indian rupees. It is probably the most famous trophy in world rugby, and it is something tangible so Scottish players certainly, and most English players too I think, want to win it.

"And, obviously, from our point of view it's something we have a good chance of winning – or at least a 50-50 chance. The Calcutta Cup is about one game, win it or don't, and that has an attraction for Scots who can rise to the occasion in a one-off, so it's something we really believe in."

In 1964, Telfer had played second row for seven seasons at Melrose and was suddenly picked at flanker for Scotland at the start of that championship.

He was also asked to lead the pack, even though team captain Brian Neill was at hooker.

The team beat France 10-0, then drew a friendly with New Zealand 0-0, before returning to Five Nations duty and losing to Wales, beating Ireland and facing England in the last game, having not won the Calcutta Cup for 14 years.

"I can't remember going to watch a Calcutta Cup match before then," Telfer recalled. "I must have as a student or young teacher around 1960 because Melrose used to play Edinburgh Accies on the morning of the game and would then go to see the game in the afternoon, but I can't remember much about being there, other than fighting through crowds to get in.

"I don't think I'll forget playing in my first Calcutta Cup game though. I remember it vividly, well as vividly as you can 40 years on, but it was a good one and I probably should have retired there and then."

Thorburn, the late SRU historian, described Telfer's involvement in all three scores. "The Borderer picked up at a scrum to feed Ronnie Glasgow for the opening try after 30 minutes; supplied Norman Bruce for the next score before half-time; and finished off a great break by Alec Hastie, the Melrose scrum-half, for the third, clinching try, and the score that brought streams of supporters on to the pitch for the first time."

Telfer was a reserve the following year when Scotland and England drew 3-3 at Twickenham, but was back when the team won again at Murrayfield, in 1966, before his record hit a familiar rocky patch with successive defeats, in 1967, 1968 and 1969.

The Melrose man had lost his place when the team recorded famous back-to-back wins in 1971 and did not return to the Calcutta Cup picture until 1981, when as a coach he lost, drew and won in 1981, 1982 and 1984.

Scotland's last win at Twickenham was in 1983, but his assistant Colin Telfer – no relation – took charge that year as Jim was British and Irish Lions coach.

The 1984 Grand Slam, sealed on his 44th birthday with victory over France at Murrayfield, was Telfer's proudest moment as a Scot, but running it close was the 1990 occasion when he had been persuaded out of coaching exile and assisted Ian McGeechan in landing Scotland's third Grand Slam.

It was another remarkable Calcutta Cup victory at Murrayfield, and, not only was it exactly six years to the day that Scotland had claimed their last Grand Slam, but it was on the day of Telfer's 50th birthday.

"That was definitely the best Calcutta Cup match for me, because it was the last game of the championship and both ourselves and England were going for the Grand Slam," said Telfer. "We had drawn 12-12 at Twickenham the year before, and called 'scavengers', and the game in 1990 was tight. David Sole walked the team out and it felt like the whole of Scotland was behind the team that day.

"It was a unique occasion – over 100 years of rugby and the two old rivals had never met at Murrayfield with both going for a Grand Slam.

"The Calcutta Cup is special for us. The back-to-back wins in 1971 were a great achievement, and Scotland had some of the best players that ever played for Scotland in the 1970s – Andy Irvine, Jim Renwick, Ian McGeechan, Gordon Brown, Ian McLauchlan to name a few – who beat England a few times.

"In 1984 we built something over the previous years and in 1990, also, we had some very good players. At the time you don't think they are special, but when you look back, eight of the 1984 squad went with the Lions in 1983, nine went in 1989 and seven in 1993 – we'll be happy if we get four or five this year.

"But, the best performance in a Calcutta Cup, that I witnessed, was in 1986. I was at Murrayfield as a fan, when we won 33-6. That was a great game. And then Duncan Hodge scoring in 2000. Even when the championship hasn't been great, it gives us something to look forward to."

This article was originally posted on 17-Mar-2009, 15:38 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 18-Mar-2009, 08:20.