As part of the 2023 Six Nations Championship, Scotland take on France for the Auld Alliance Trophy in Paris this weekend.
Sunday's showdown will be contested in honour of the brave French and Scottish international rugby players who were killed in action during the First World War.
In competing, the French and Scottish rugby assossiations pay special tribute to the captains of the two nations who played in the last matches before the outbreak of war – Eric Milroy (Scotland) and Marcel Burgun (France), both of whom were tragically killed in the conflict.
As scrum-half and captain of the Scottish Rugby team, Eric Milroy was not one for keeping back, despite his mother’s instruction.
On 1st January 1913, he led Scotland out at Parc de Princes for their match against France. This, it turned out, would be his and the French Captain, Marcel Burgun’s last rugby match against each other.
With the outbreak of war in 1914, both men were called up for service and subsequently killed in the conflict.
Milroy, of the Black Watch (now The Royal Regiment of Scotland), wrote to his mother on the eve of his ‘going over the top’ during the Battle of the Somme.
“We are in some slight trouble tomorrow so I am just warning you that there is to be no ‘keeping well back.’”
The Edinburgh man died on 18th July 1916, aged just 28.
Following his death, Milroy’s mother presented the Eric Milroy Trophy for Kicking to George Watson’s College. This trophy continues to be awarded today, having been won by names such as Douglas Kinloch Anderson (former CEO and great-nephew of Eric Milroy), Gavin Hastings and Scott Hastings.
To commemorate the sacrifice of Allied soldiers during the First World War, the Auld Alliance Trophy is awarded to the winners of the Scotland v France international rugby match every year. The names of Eric Milroy and Marcel Burgun are inscribed on the trophy.
It was first presented to the winners of the Six Nations match between Scotland and France on February 11th, 2018 and was carried onto the pitch at Murrayfield, Edinburgh, by descendants of the two captains.
There exists, to this day, an “Entente Cordiale” between the Scottish and the French people.
Find out more in Tailored for Scotland by Deirdre Kinloch Anderson.
(Eric Milroy: back row, second in from the right)