March 27th 1871 . . .
Raeborn Place Academical Field in Edinburgh (opened on May 17th 1854) was on that date in 1871 the “stage” of the first ever World international game in Rugby Football.
Scotland (see Photo 1) won vs. England (see Photo 2) with two tries and one goal against England’s only one try . . .
4.000 spectators (!) enjoyed this 20-a-side game, played for the first time ever under the Laws of Rugby Union.
This was the start of the “rivalry” between two big Rugby nations, followed by Calcutta Cup matches, Five/Six Nations and Rugby World Cup . . .
On 10 March 1879 the first Calcutta Cup match was played also at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh (Scotland) and ended in a draw - Scotland scored a drop goal and England a goal . . .
The Calcutta Cup is the oldest trophy in the World rugby and is competed for annually by Scotland and England.
World Rugby Museum (W R M) at Twickenham Stadium in London is the unique place where valuable memories of Rugby Football can be seen, among them the paintings (see photos 3 and 4) from “these early times” of our Sport.
Following the aim of the promotion of Rugby W R M and E V R A agreed that such paintings can be used for advertising European Veteran Rugby festivals and European Series tournaments/memorials . . .
Beginning with the year 2011 E V R A European rugby veterans are using this opportunity to promote very different “old rugby” events they are yearly organising . . .