The unique story behind the Calcutta Cup

This weekend sees England take on Scotland in the Calcutta Cup, one of the longest-standing and most celebrated traditions in rugby with an intriguing history behind it.

Although it is played annually within the Six Nations, its existence pre-dates this competition.

In an attempt to introduce rugby to India in 1872, former pupils of Rugby School established the Calcutta Rugby Football Club. However, when the British regiment withdrew their occupation of the area, the interest in maintaining the game waned as sports such as cricket and polo took on more popularity. This led to the eventual disintegration of the club.

However, a few members decided to salvage what they could of the club’s memory by melting down the remaining silver coins (270 rupees) left in the club’s bank account into a trophy.

The trophy is about 45cm tall, resting on a wooden base. Around the sides of said base are engraved, on silver plates, the dates of matches played, winners and captains’ names. The three handles of the trophy are in the shapes of king cobras and a small Indian elephant sits atop the lid.

The trophy was presented to the RFU in 1878 and has endured to this day despite years of mistreatment (most notably, a game of late night, one-on-one football in an Edinburgh street between English player and current Director of Rugby at Newcastle Falcons, Dean Richards, and Scottish player John Jeffry in which the trophy was used as the ball).

Today the trophy resides permanently at the Museum of Rugby in Twickenham.

Since the first meeting of the teams in the Calcutta Cup in 1879, England has won 54% of the games and Scotland 39%.

With Scotland winning the trophy in 2019 and England snatching it back last year, there is sure to be some serious extra bite to the weekend’s encounter with so much history and tradition on the line.