The Rugby Football Union celebrates its 150th birthday and the Six Nations champions will want to deliver a fitting tribute
Candle manufacturers in the Twickenham area have never had it so good. The Rugby Football Union, the oldest international rugby body in the world, is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its formation this year and the big birthday will be marked by the wearing of a special-edition vintage kit against Scotland early next month.
It was the Scots who provided the opposition for the first international fixture ever played, on the cricket field at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh on 27 March 1871, which also produced England’s first defeat. In those days games were played on a Monday and the teams consisted of 20 players apiece. Some things, though, never change: Scotland’s winning try was hotly disputed by their English opponents and two years later, in 1873, the visiting side cried foul when their boots were mysteriously mislaid by a local cobbler on the eve of the game.
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