Seventy nine years after the last time that Scotland won a Triple Crown at Twickenham Kevin Ferrie looks back on ‘Wilson Shaw’s match’ with the son of the man who received a regal order to continue leading the visiting pack that day

It is known by rugby aficionados as ‘Wilson Shaw’s match’ and was the first rugby match to be televised, but what is less well known is that it was a Scotland victory by royal command.

The 1938 Calcutta Cup match was dominated by the visitors, yet the outcome was in the balance until the dying moments and it seems it may have been lost but for the woman who would become universally known to later generations as the Queen Mother.

It was the first Twickenham encounter attended by King George VI following his unexpected rise in status on the abdication of his older brother and so the first time that an English monarch and his Queen found themselves supporting rival teams as Scotland faced England.

Scottish superiority was obvious from the outset, Shaw setting up an early score for debutant winger William Renwick and he and centre Charles Dick would register further first half scores, but the scoring system back then meant a try count of 3-1 for the visitors was sufficient only to be level at 9-9, just before half-time, thanks to two English penalties.

Shaw would score the first of two brilliant solo tries to put his side ahead at the break, but another curiosity of those days was that the greatest reward was for a drop goal and the four points consequently registered by English stand off Jeff Reynolds put his side ahead in the second half.

Scotland edged back in front, but when their pack leader hobbled from the field in an era long before replacements were permitted, the portents were not good. Rory Duff, son of Laurie, the No.8 in question, takes up the story from there.

“My father had to go off during the second half with a damaged knee and the King and Queen were there watching,” he records.

“George was English and the Queen was Scottish, so when my father was injured she sent one of her equerries down to the dressing room with the instruction that he had to get back on the field because she didn’t want them to be one man down when they were leading the English. So he went back on.”

Born many years later Duff chuckles happily in the knowledge that there may be an apocryphal element to the tale, but given all that has happened at Twickenham before and since it is evident that there was a fine margin between victory and another gallant defeat that day.

Duff snr seems to have been a natural leader of forwards as a genuine expert in prime many, having taken over the Stirling-based family business MacDuff Beef from his own father and in turn passed it on to his son and while he was among the many members of that side whose rugby careers were fore-shortened by the outbreak of war – only back-row colleague Bill Young would play for Scotland again after it - he would go on to further great achievements in the game.

“Father went on the Lions tour to South Africa on the back of the Triple Crown win,” Rory recounts. “He scored the winning try in the Test they won, but he actually crossed the line four times with the ball in his hands and was hauled back by the South African referee every other time.”

Again the re-telling of family folklore is accompanied by laughter, but there is obvious pride in the memory of a man who was party to what had been, by the standards of the day, assiduous preparation during that 1938 season.

“Father led the forwards and he was (Glasgow) Accies and Wilson Shaw was (Glasgow) High School, so they met in a tea room in Sauchiehall Street on the Tuesday to discuss how they were going to beat England because they were in charge and Wilson Shaw simply said to my father if you get us the ball we will win this match,” said Rory.

“That was the only instruction. ‘Get me the ball and I know we will win,’ because he had so much ability. It turned out exactly that way so he was true to his word.”

After what had been a spectacular first half with those four tries, tension built during a second in which scoring was confined to kicks, two Scottish penalties to one bringing the scoreline to 16-18 with two minutes remaining when Shaw stamped his mark upon the occasion once and for all, gathering a loose ball and setting off on a mazy run that left a trail of Englishmen in his wake before he touched down in the left corner.

Only once before, in 1926 and never since, has Scotland clinched a ‘Triple Crown’ on England’s home ground and lest there be the slightest doubt that Shaw’s attention to detail was a crucial element in setting up that Scotland victory further evidence is provided by the greatest possible authority who witnessed that match first hand.

A callow Bill McLaren was at Twickenham for the second time that day and the occasion would prove so influential in forming his love of the sport that it featured in the opening chapter of his autobiography: “Talking of Rugby.”

In the relevant passage he recounts how his father, clearly determined to instil in his son the love of the sport that would serve it so magnificently over the ensuing sixty years and more, had taken him on a £6 ‘Cook’s Tour’ which involved a return train journey to London, with a bus trip round the English capital thrown in.

“That was some experience for a lad of 14 years of age. It really was something to treasure,” wrote ‘the voice of rugby’ and Hawick’s most famous son then goes on to demonstrated the magnanimous fairness that would become his commentary trademark in paying homage to a man from his town’s great rugby rivals.

“It was a great day but Wilson Shaw and Tommy Dorward were the two that captured my attention because I’d heard a story that Tommy Dorward from Galashiels had travelled all the way through to Glasgow, which in those days was a very long journey indeed, three and a half hours I would think, just to practise his half-back combination with Wilson Shaw; and how well it worked on that day because Shaw scored the two crucial tries that brought Scotland a magnificent victory. That is some memory. Of course, there was no such thing in those days as squad sessions. Players used to meet on the day of the match, so Dorward and Shaw’s practise was a very unusual commitment on the part of two players to hone their partnership,” he recorded.

There it is, then… Scottish preparedness won the day, but it might still have been a different outcome without the intervention of her majesty and so the last word is offered to Scottish rugby royalty in the shape of the son and heir of the man who was subject to that royal command. As Rory Duff notes, then, with modern scoring and goal-kicking, all five Scottish conversion attempts were missed, a very different scoreline would have been registered.

“Wilson Shaw. He was the star,” he muses.

“They scored five tries in total but there were only three points for a try then. They would have won by a barrow-load now.”