Shortly after passing a line of bombed out buses and trucks serving as a barricade, the reporters were intercepted by a small group of fighters, who covered their faces once they spotted cameras.
Edinburgh dominated the early possession but failed to make much headway, with their passing across the line being too flat to fox the English side's defence.
And, while senior officials are entitled to make decisions about which of the countless number of memos generated every day they deem worthy of passing up the line and when, Secretaries of State generally rely as much on direct contacts with their counterparts as staff memoranda to keep them apprized of allied views about pending issues .