1872 Cup

1872 Cup
Sport	Rugby union
Instituted	2007–08
Number of teams	2
Regions	Scotland (Scottish Rugby Union)
Holders	Edinburgh Rugby (2015–16)
Most titles	Glasgow Warriors (6 titles)

The 1872 Cup – also known as the 1872 Challenge Cup – is a men's rugby union tournament contested every year between the two Scottish professional clubs Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby.

Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby use their Pro12 league matches against one another to decide the Cup winners. The highest aggregate score in the home and away ties decides the 1872 Champions.

Not only is the Glasgow – Edinburgh fixture the oldest inter-district rugby match in the world but the derby is classed as one of the biggest in world rugby. Former Edinburgh coach, the South African Alan Solomons states: "These games are massive. For me, this is one of the big derbies of world rugby."

The 1872 Cup marks the history of the world's oldest representative match. On 23 November 1872 a Glasgow District side met an Edinburgh District side at Burnbank, the home ground of Glasgow Academicals RFC. Rugby Union was 20 a side in those days. Edinburgh won the first match. However there was no cup to be won – and no cup was won until 1995.

Scotland was to have 4 District Sides: North and Midlands; South; Glasgow District and Edinburgh District. These sides would regularly play each other and a Scottish Inter-District Championship was introduced in 1953. A Scottish Exiles side was also introduced in the later McEwans District Championship.

The 4 District Sides North and Midlands, South, Glasgow and Edinburgh were to become Caledonia Reds, Border Reivers, Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh Rugby with professionalism. These teams challenged in the Inter-District Championship for European qualification to the Heineken Cup. A Cup was offered by the Sponsors, the estate agents Slater, Hogg and Howison in 1995. In 1997–98 the competition received a new sponsor: Inter-City Trains – and the Cup became known as the Inter-City Cup.

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