THE world's oldest continuous rugby fixture turned the clock back to celebrate its 150th anniversary yesterday with a game that almost ended as it had begun all those years ago, in a draw.
Merchiston Castle School won 11-8 against their old rivals Edinburgh Academy at Raeburn Place, where two of Scotland's most prestigious private schools had drawn their first goal-less match at football played under rugby rules, following a two-and-a-half hour game without a half-time break on December 11, 1858.
Following an anniversary star- studded dinner hosted by the former Scotland player John Beattie at Murrayfield on Friday - which raised £32,000 for Hearts and Balls, a charity which helps people paralysed while playing rugby - there were more than a few hangovers among the record 2500 crowd for the fixture.
The fixture which has been graced in the past by Scotland captain and former Academy player Mike Blair, and national coach Frank Hadden, who trained Merchiston for 15 years, attracts average crowds of 500.
"The players were undoubtedly affected by the emotion of the anniversary," said Merchiston coach Mark Appleson, who is also the 180-year-old boarding school's rugby director.
"The number of fans who turned out made it a very special occasion, but it also made it difficult for the players who are not used to such crowds. It was magnificent that so many people turned up because it was the anniversary game and a draw would have been a fair result.
"Their forwards were strong and our backs were too. It was a very good, open and exciting game and Edinburgh had a chance to draw late on, which would have been fitting."
According to the original match report, the 1858 fixture kicked-off at 11.30am on a rainy day which soon left the players on the muddy pitch the "colour of mother earth".
Yesterday's Academy captain Tom Macdonald had more reasons than most to be proud of playing after his great-great-great grandfather helped found the original Accies football club in 1858.
He said: "I am sure that he would be really proud to see the match against Merchiston still going strong. It was certainly a great honour for me to take part."
Fortunately, the game didn't take as long as it did 150 years ago to see a score. The Academy took an hour to cross the line back in 1858 after their captain, Lyall - no first name was given - controversially made a rush and ran into touch behind the Merchiston goal, leading to complaints that it broke the rules.
Both sets of players debated the point of law because the game didn't have a referee, delaying the game further. Merchiston were "obliged to yield" on the point and "Accies took it upon themselves to try for a goal, which they missed because the ball was so slippery".
Neither side had another goal attempt until 1pm, when Merchiston kicked a goal which didn't count because the ball was "off side."
Then, at 2pm, when "Accies missed again, full-time was called by the frustrated teams".
Nobody could have forseen the much loved fixture would go onto survive two world wars.
Merchiston coach Appleson reflected last night: "Thankfully, yesterday we had a half-time break."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article