The birth of rugby in Edinburgh

Andy, as usual, a fascinating article. I was particularly interested in the reference to Abbey Park School in St Andrews being one of the schools playing Rugby before 1870. I have researched the life of (John) Campbell Orr who became an influential association football administrator in Birmingham. He attended Abbey Park School before moving on the University of St Andrews in 1868. He played rugby at St Andrews and so may have started at Abbey Park? He moved to Birmingham in 1872. I know that he was a modest man but he later said: “Perhaps I may without self-gratification say that I was unlucky not to get my international [rugby] cap for Scotland”. I found a report of him playing for St Andrews against Edinburgh Academical on 5 February 1870 at Raeburn Place. Just over a year later six of the players involved were to represent Scotland in that first rugby international match. Unfortunately, family financial troubles forced him to leave St Andrews but not before he had been elected to succeed Robert Munro as the university captain for the following season. Both Robert Munro and John Macfarlane, probably a schoolmate from Abbey Mount, played in that first international game.

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