Rugby-Pioneers

Farewell South Africa...

From a European perspective, 2009 rugby season will end tomorrow with the third and final test match between British & Irish Lions vs SA Springboks in Jo'burg... then waiting for 2009-2010 big circus domestic championship (Top14 in France) to start again mid August... And also waiting for South Africa to play in Paris next November (ok, that's way ahead...)... Time to say "goodbye" !

So, here is another tribute to South African rugby, displaying a colourful series of cigarette cards issued in 1933 by United Tobacco. There are 65 cards in total, showing all kind of different teams (local teams, provinces... and the Boks...).Too bad, I only have 20 of them (hey, I'm not a serious cigarette card collector...). Below is sample and a Flickr diaporama... maybe you'll find your favorite team there...

Lion taming...

Here is one of my favorite comic postcards, published in New Zealand in 1905 after that historical 9-3 win over British Lions in Wellington...

Caption reads : New Zealand footballers at home kicking the 'Lion' over his own goal !... not to forget an Australian wallaby ready to hit him back...

There's a lot in this cartoon... the distress of British Lions after their last minute defeat yesterday in South Africa, the supremacy of Southern Hemisphere rugby, a Wallaby to recall how disapointing was French squad yesterday in Sydney... and an All Black (sorry, no Springbock available in my library...) to explain the art of kicking to Ronan O'Gara...

This being said, if you really want to laugh about Lion taming, there's nothing better than this 5 minutes Monty Python classic starring John Cleese and Michael Palin... no rugby inside, I'm afraid, just a larch...

The pleasure of Catalan wine...

Hummm... shared some fine wine at lunch time with two sports afficionados... Red wine from the French side of lovely Catalonia, country of French 2009 Champion USA Perpignan... and country of this "Trilles" - a blend of red wine, quinine and tonic water -... a popular "aperitif" drink in these 20s and 30s... from a time when advertisers were very keen to associate rugby and alcoholic beverages...

Caption reads, in English "There's nothing better than Trilles after physical efforts!"...

This lunch was also an opportunity to discover Benoit's last masterpiece... I'am just teasing... this red "rooster" is a sample of a future jersey developed by Sport d'Epoque and available later this year... This jersey is a landmark in the history of French rugby and sports... no less !

"Of course we won the game"

Since I started this website in 2005, I've been paying regular tributes to David Gallaher, captain of the 1905-06 "Original" All Blacks who died of wounds in Belgium in 1917 during WW1...

As you know, there's now a trophy named after Dave Gallaher which is contested between New Zealand and France to reward the team winning a series of test matches. This year, the Gallaher Trophy flies back to France for the first time... by the narrowest margin (+1 goal average... France b NZ 27-22 and NZ b France 14-10). Here are the Frenchies last Saturday at Wellington... well done & congrats !

(credit : lequipe.fr - thank you!)

French rugby owes a lot to the All Blacks... To make a long story short, France entered the international rugby arena on January 1st, 1906 when a newly formed Equipe de France played an inaugural match in Paris vs Gallaher's All Blacks, at the end of their historical tour in Great Britain. France lost 8-38 (but scoring two tries... i.e. more than Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales together during the other Test Matches...)... and immediately got attention and recognition from Home Countries... leading England to accept an invitation to play in Paris three months later ; the door was ajar... though it took another three years for Ireland, Wales and Scotland to do the same and accept yearly fixtures with France...


Here is a full page photo coverage of that "seminal" game in French magazine "L'Illustration" dated January 6th, 1906. Top corner pictures show captains Henri Amand for France and David Gallaher for New Zealand (picture here : large or king size...)

This being said, I was wondering what kind of reminiscence could that particular game leave in the rich history of kiwi rugby... so I've checked my old books (disclaimer : I don't have all of them... please Santa Claus, help me !) : nada, nitchevo, nothing... the game in Paris is obviously mentionned in the agenda but doesn't deserve a comment...

The only exception on my bookshelves comes from David Gallaher himself... in its fantastic "The Complete Rugby Footballer" written with his vice-captain W.J.Stead. This book gives full coverage of the 1905-1906 tour, as well as All Blacks tactics and training methods...



332 pages, out of which two sentences relate to French rugby "... from London we went straight to Paris, where on Monday we played a French team, who proved to be really good sportsmen. Of course we won the game, for Rugby Football has hardly got going in France yet, but the Frenchmen played up well, and were plucky enough for anything. It delighted them greatly when they crossed our line. Then back to London..."

I love that  "of course we won the game"...

rugby, All Blacks, Gallaher

Private Joke...

Cartoonist Fougasse knew it already... posing for a team rugby picture could require years of intense practice... and so do these 1920s ruggers (published in Punch Magazine)...

Captions read (larger picture here) :
- On the Command "Prepare to be photographied"
- Tenge the legs in order to provide an exaggerated impression of their muscular development
- Raise the soulders to increase the apparent width of the chest
- And fold the arms so that the muscles of each are forced into prominence by the hands judiciously placed behind them...

Well, that's basically what some members of this Crazy Ruck are intending to demonstrate... full story (in French...) here !

Thank you Richard, and all folks, for this nice lunch !

The Great Rugby Match at Wellington

"The Great Rugby Match at Wellington" ... could be the newspaper headlines for the second test match between All Blacks and France next Saturday, but actually relates to the British Lions touring to New Zealand in 1904.

Title (not on my picture) reads "Popular Interest in the Rugby Game"... 20,000 people gathering at the stadium (the total population of New Zealand was then around 800,000...) to witness the New Zealanders beat the British team captained by Mr Bedell-Sivright by nine points to three... the rise of colonial rugby... and possibly a trigger to set up the famous 1905 tour in Europe of Gallaher's All Blacks...

The picture above (larger pic available here) comes out of a four pages article published in London some three months later (errr... can't remember the name of the newspaper...) which brings some thoughts about the tour and team pictures as well (page 1 2 3 4 )

This other view of Wellington stadium belongs to John @ ovalballs.com (Thanks, Master !). John has some fine and rare postcards, incl. team pictures, of the 1904 Lions tour on his website - don't miss them...

Many cartoons were also issued after the game... here are two very collectible postcards (and some others in my drawers for future postings...)... from a time when neither the kiwi nor the "All Blacks" brand were established as a New Zealand "trade marks"...

 

(larger postcards here and there)

"Allons Enfants" into the unknown...

Modern history today ! A 30 years flashback to July 14th, 1979 ("Bastille Day") to recall the first victory ever of a French side touring to New Zealand...

Possibly one of my first "rugby" souvenir (I was 12)... that day, Jean-Pierre Rives and his goodfellows (Gallion, Joinel, Dubroca, Paparemborde, Dintrans, Codorniou, Aguirre...) defeated Graham Mourie's All Blacks 24-19 (names of all players here)... Above is the programme of the match, and below is a 10min summary of the game on French TV... You'll hear French commentator Roger Couderc almost dying from heart attack at the end...

This leads us to another classic New Zealand v France test match tomorrow at Carisbrook... French rugby is so desappointing these days that it would be foolish to place a bet on France, but our kiwi friends are our favorite victims of some rare "coup d'éclat" (1979, 1994, 1999, 2007)... "Our test matches are always a trip into the unknown..."

The last sentence isn't mine... It was mailed to me earlier this week by His Blackness Jed "Jedi" Thian... Some of you know that I am a big fan of his Alternative Rugby Commentary (here on the web - here on Facebook)... For those who don't know him yet, please do take three minutes to check these videos (shot in 2007) : the first one will show you Jed "at work" live in a pub and on the web, the second one is an hilarious teaser for the previous (and miserable...) French tour in New Zealand...

Jed has also set up a group on Facebook to cover tomorrow event... when I read the baseline ("Let see what makes these frogs tick...") and see the supporting picture there, I do have some ideas about his views on the game ;-)

Edited June 13th : yes... yes...yes... yes !!!

 

(picture credit to lequipe.fr )

Brennus shield goes to Perpignan ! 1914-2009...

Perpignan - Union Sportive Arlequins Perpignan - is the new French champion !

USAP stroke last Saturday a clear-cut 22-13 victory over Clermont (full story @ scrum.com)... Perpignan seventh "Bouclier de Brennus" (Brennus' Shield), but only the first in the last fifty years... Congratulations to the Catalans, it's well deserved... Perpignan must be the very heartland of French rugby nowadays : a region totally committed to rugby (should it be USAP in Rugby Union or Catalans Dragons in Rugby League), local players (*) finding their way among foreign "mercenaries"... and not a single football club miles away... but FC Barcelona !

Today picture is the cover page of French sports magazine "La Vie Au Grand Air", May 1914, celebrating Perpignan first title in 1914 (Perpignan b. Tarbes 8-7 in Toulouse )  ... A great photowork (larger pic here) that shows the portrays of both captains - Barbe for Perpignan and Dufour for Tarbes - over the famous trophy... the very same that was awarded last Saturday (picture : credit to usap.fr) ...

(*) Saturday MVP was young Perpignan-born Jérôme Porical... fullback like his father (who lost 1977 final with USAP) and grand-father (who won 1938 final with USAP)...

Edited June 8 : it seems that the whole city was down the street to welcome the team back in Perpignan...

rugby, perpignan, brennus

Coffee break !

I've already mentionned a couple of times that there are no French cigarette cards (why ?...). Instead, it's very much about "food & drinks"... I'm not going to list them all (then please check Justin McCullough's reference book...) but we do have a bunch a retailers trade cards, a lot of chocolate trade cards, a few soft cheese trade cards,... and some coffee trade cards, such as this "sports" series issued in the 30s (my guess...) by "Café Gilbert".

Here is the full set ...

 

Credits : the rugby picture is mine... while all the other sporting pictures have been kindly provided by Patricia who is a fan of vintage illustrations (check her blog "Agence Eureka" here, or her Flickr there...

Rugby-Pioneers Remix

I'm regularly asked for permission to use my old rugby pictures in various projects, and I'm always pleased to do so. So far, I've been contributing to several books, illustrations, movies, education or cultural projects... and now, it's about fashion ! Here is a rugby bow-tie, hand-made in England by Ms Lianne Hill @ Fabricraft, a fabric gift business specialised in XMas Stockings, personalised shoe bags... and eccentric bow-ties...

You can buy direct from the website, or visit Fabricraft @ Fairgound Craft & Design Center in Andover, Hampshire.

And now, my two minutes of propaganda!

Indeed, another tiny - but relevant - illustration of the value of "remix" in our economies, i.e. how someone's creativity and work can turn old rugby pictures into a new product...  This bow-tie might not be the most useful product of the XXIth century but I take two facts for granted : a) I'd never had this idea by myself and b) Ms Hill wouldn't have been able to design this nice piece of "rugby" fabric if the usage of my pictures was restricted by copyrights...  Those who regularly follow this website know that I am an active supporter of Creative Commons licencing initiated by Stanford Professor Larry Lessig... whose last book is precisely called... "Remix". If you're not familiar with Lessig's work, I would encourage you to check this 18' talk at TED conference (Nov.2007) on laws that choke creativity... and also to read his former books (some of them are free to download)... it's all about law and culture!

What a wonderful (digital) World...

When I started this website back in 2005, online resources for rugby history were more than scarce, and quite always to be credited to hardworking generous individuals... I'm happy to realize now "serious" institutions like public libraries and newspapers have now joined the (digital) game... 

Getting digital is great... sharing is even greater ! Let's consider for instance this fine comic print - "The Triumph of John Bull Junior - Episodes of Fast and Fancy in the Struggle for Rugby Supremacy" in NZ newspaper The Free Lance, August 20th 1904 - paying tribute to the All Blacks (I know, there weren't called "All Blacks" in 1904....) who defeated British Lions... This print is available in hi resolution thanks to efforts of The National Library of New Zealand... Their archive - PaperPast - contains more than one million pages from various NZ publications and covers the years 1839 to 1920... No need to say : you'll find some rugby treasures there !... I was like a kid in a toy factory during my first visits...

And now the cherry on the cake: The National Library of New Zealand grants permission for the reproduction of its material, the only requirement being that attribution to them is made (basically, same as my Creative Commons licence...). Ladies & Gentlemen from down under: thank you !

I truely believe that sharing knowledge - even the smallest contribution... - is a progress to our society, and it makes me really mad when public institutions behave like if they were business data banks... Example ? French National Library (as public as their kiwi collegues...) is also online: their service - called Gallica - brings a lot of interesting pictures and documents... but the material is restricted for use, and heavily priced even for non-commercial usage... bad!

Sharing this copyrighted picture of the first fixture between France and England at the Parc des Princes in March 1906, could possibly bring me into troubled waters... unless I pay 56€+VAT (almost 80 US$... price list here...). If some "Messieurs from BnF" do read these lines, don't hesitate to give a call to discuss my point...

In that respect, let's welcome "The Commons", an initiative from Flickr: a place where public libraries volunteer to share photographies free of any copyright, and sometimes ask in return for some help to identify the pictures... a few rugby pictures there, notably this team photography of 1908-1909 Kangaroos feat. Dally Messenger and Arthur Hennessy (full team here) provided by the State Library of New South Wales ...

... or the very same National Library of New Zealand (again, thank you... you rule !) which brings that great view of the crowd at Wellington Athletic Park in the 1920s... (Photo by William Hall Raine - king size pic available here)

This note is (too ?) long but doesn't claim to be exhaustive (don't hesitate to share your favorite online resources in the comments below...) Let's however also pay some credit to the "pioneer" of all online resources, i.e. US Library of Congress, which shares some hi res / no copyright rugby pictures, such as this famous WW1 poster published in 1915 by Central London Recruiting Depot... "Rugby Union Footballers are doing their Duty"... claiming that 90% of them have already enlisted and that "every player who represented England in Rugby international matches last year has joined the colours - in The Times, Nov. 30, 1914"...

Enough said ! Let's share !

J.Baines, Master of all rugby cards...

Two similar Baines-like cards... both portraying Hunslet superstar "Ahr" Albert Goldthorpe... (full bio here on Goldthorpe family website)

The left card advertises for Pears Soap, while the right card advertises for St Jacobs Oil, a sports liniment recommended - in bold letters... - by the trainer of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC...

At first, I was thinking that these cards were aiming to compete with "genuine" Baines Cards in school yards... before realizing that these cards were also printed by J.Baines of Manningham... This gentleman must have been a business genius... inventing (maybe ?) and industrialising (for sure... as soon as 1887) a product (the sport collecting cards for kids), defining marketing strategies playing on collectors' addiction (the more you collect, the better reward you can claim) or collectors' inexhaustible thirst for new pictures (more than 1000 known designs) , attracting advertisers to leverage on the popularity of his Baines cards... and possibly somehow megalomaniac, as he regularly portrayed himself on his cards instead of famous sportsmen...

PS : Here is an ongoing project for serious geeks... I once created a Google Map to locate all my Baines cards (94 cards now)... and fellow collectors' cards as well... I will update it from time to time... but feel free to add yours..

View Baines Cards in a larger map