First International Game

        The First international game was played by England and Scotland at Raeburn Place in Edinburgh 1871. There were twenty players on each team and Scotland won the game, But England got Their revenge the next year at the oval. Although England and Scotland took part in the first rugby union international in 1871, it was not until Ireland and later Wales joined the round-robin of competition in the 1880s that a Home International Championship was established. International matches were being staged in Great Britain before football had hardly been heard of in Europe. This sudden boom of organised football accompanied by staggering crowds of spectators brought with it certain problems with which other countries were not confronted until much later on. Professionalism was one of them. The first moves in this direction came in 1879, when Darwin, a small Lancashire club, twice managed to draw against the supposedly invincible Old Etonians in the FA Cup, before the famous team of London amateurs finally scraped through to win at the third attempt. Two Darwin players, the Scots John Love and Fergus Suter, are reported as being the first players ever to receive remuneration for their football talent. This practice grew rapidly and the Football Association found itself obliged to legalise professionalism as early as 1885. This development predated the formation of any national association outside of Great Britain (namely, in the Netherlands and Denmark) by exactly four years.

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