First International Rugby Match: Scotland Beats England

Twenty players per side crashed into each other for two forty-minute halves, and nobody scored a single point. Scotland beat England anyway — they crossed the goal line once, which counted for a "try" worth zero points, but earned them the right to attempt a conversion kick. They missed. Final score: 1-0. The match happened because five Scottish football clubs got tired of English players claiming superiority and published a challenge in the newspapers. 4,000 spectators showed up at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh, paying a shilling each to watch mud-covered men in knickerbockers prove that rugby wasn't just an English schoolboy game. The Scottish captain, Francis Moncreiff, played barefoot for better grip. That single unconverted try sparked a rivalry that's now played 141 times — and created the template for every international team sport that followed.