England and Scotland have been playing each other at rugby union since 1871 when Scotland beat England in the first ever rugby union international. A total of 142 matches have been played, with England having won 76 times, Scotland 47 times and nineteen matches have been drawn.
Apart from fixtures played in the Home/Five/Six Nations Championship competitions, two games have been played at the Rugby World Cup: the 1991 Semi-final and the 2011 Pool B fixture, both of which England were victorious. The sides also met in 1971 in a match to commemorate the centenary of the first match between the sides, which Scotland were victorious in both fixtures.
The 1938 Calcutta Cup match was the first live televised rugby international. It was broadcast by BBC Television.[1][2]
The first two international sides to play against each other, the England–Scotland fixture is the second most-played international rugby union match as of 2023. Behind the Australia–New Zealand rivalry by some thirty-plus matches (not including XV results), it is one match ahead of the England–Ireland match-up and the Ireland–Scotland match-up.
- ^ "Television: Monday, March 7, to Saturday, March 12 – Sporting Events On The Screen" (PDF). Radio Times. BBC Magazines. 4 March 1938.
- ^ Cockroft, Honor (19 March 2021). "Rugby's TV debut – 83 years on from the first televised Calcutta Cup". swlondoner.co.uk.