That the initial international in 1872 was pivotal to the Scottish and therefore the World game is beyond doubt. It, as number one of the eight, was the first to have an obvious defined defence, the two full-back, two half-back box - 2-2 - that was to epitomise for a decade and half football North of the Border and much of Northern England as well. Indeed for half a dozen seasons it was ubiquitous in the game everywhere before new thinking in the form of 2-3-5 emerged from Wales in regularly applied, albeit at club level only, rather than the simply experimental form of elsewhere.