Rugby-Pioneers

Heart and Soule, 1852

Here is a French print "La Soule en Basse Normandie" ("Soule in Lower-Normandy") published in 1852 in weekly magazine L'Illustration.

Soule was a ancient rural game, mostly played in the Northern / Northwestern part of France, where all valid young men from two villages were fighting to bring a ball (the so-called "soule") to a designated place in the opposing village... legends recall of numerous crushed bones or young men found dead... the article (here, in French) supporting this print however explains that these brutal days were gone and that the "soule" game was far less passionate than before, but still violent enough to be banned by authorities...

When I was younger, "soule" was regularly evoked as the ancestor of rugby game ... a historical and sporting non-sense... but very typical of a chauvinist way to re-write history... (disclaimer : I'm French !)

(full size picture available here)

Sorry for the title of this post... let's call it a private joke !

Champagne !

Nice rugby action... full of movement and colours... heading an early 1900 French menu...

This kind of printed papers was provided by advertisers to have restaurant owners promote their brands... French champagne Moët & Chandon here...

I am wondering whether this menu was aimed for French or English market... why an English policeman watching the game ? is it just "anglophilia" or did this illustration mean to be "local" ?

Here is the full page (hi res pic here)

And in case you can't read the tag on the bottle... Santé !

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, menu, Moët & Chandon, champagne

Wales : Headlines in French news !

Congratulations Wales !

This morning, the "Red Devils" hit the headlines of French daily newspaper L'Equipe after their well deserved win over France for a 2008 Grand Slam... But, say, it's far from being the first time !

Here is an issue of French sports magazine "Le Plein Air", dated January 21 1910, showing W.Trew, captain of Swansea and Wales (larger pic here) who led his team to a smashing 49 - 14 victory over the French side... Actually 1910 was the very first "V nations Tournament" (as we call it in France...), as it was the first time that Scotland agreed to play France...

My copy of this old newspaper is not very clean... so here is a better photography of W.Trew, out of a wonderful series of postcards portraying famous Welsh ruggers at the beginning of the century. You could find a dozen of other portrays in this album.

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, wales, trew

The Tournament is back !

Scotland - France, next Sunday at Murrayfield.... !

95 years earlier, in 1913, France was welcoming Scotland in Paris, Parc des Princes... it was only their second encounter in Paris, as Scotland had waited until 1910 to agree to play France...

The French side ,captained by Gaston Lane (RCF), was unable to rival against a strong Scottish side, led by F.Tume, thus heaviliy losing 5 tries to 1 (21-3, thanks to a late try by Sebedio - below)



Caledonians were certainly eager to wipe out their previous defeat (16-15 in 1911) in Paris, actually France very first international victory (cf here and there)...

On the other side, French crowd, an all-time best of 25 000 people at the Parc de Princes, was high on expectations and started to yell at the referee J.M.Baxter (mostly because the rules weren't known or understood in the audience...) as things were getting more and more difficult for France on the ground.... After the final whistle, things got worse as part of the crowd started to chase after Mr Baxter... forcing him to be protected by the mounted police back to his hotel. After that incident, Scotland decided to ban France...but, relationship resumed after WW1... let's call that "brotherhood of war"...

French sports newspaper "Le Plein Air" (Jan.13,1913) where I have scanned these pictures, doesn't say anything about this violent incident... just could I find this cartoon by W.Van Hasselt highliting some key moments of the match... (larger picture here)

BTW last week, I was introducing a great rugby artwork by W.Van Hasselt... but Van Hasselt was also a rugby cartoonist...

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, france, scotland

The smallest rugby poster print in the World ?

My picture here is far larger than the original one... that I picked up in a sports catalogue from the mid 20s... (hi res scans can do miracles ... here is a large one on Flickr...)

This kind of poster prints come with a blank area, where Rugby Clubs advertise for the next fixture...

(French collectors call that "une affiche passe-partout"... what about in English ?)

This print was drawn by Louis de Fleurac, an artist but also a true sportsman (mostly a "miler", Bronze medal at 1908 Olympics in London... at "3 mile team"...)... co-author of a book about running and track & field with rugger Pierre Faillot...

In the mid 20s, De Fleurac was also publishing sports sketches for French magazine "Tous les Sports" ... I've got a couple of ruggers to show another time...

Today print comes from "Mestre et Blatgé Football catalogue"... that brings everything a sportsman could dream of... again, I'll show that soon...

   

A very small print, indeed !   I am now chasing for the original one....

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, fleurac, mestre & blatgé

Sports Auction in Paris yesterday... and a shortcut to 1912 rugby in Bordeaux...

There was a sport auction yesterday in Paris, where some nice rugby memorabilia was presented (thank you, Pierre, for the catalogue).

I took a wise decision (for my personal finances, I mean...)... and decided NOT to attend the sale.

I only have limited regrets, as the finest rugby item of the auction, i.e. this pre-WW1 poster print by Van Hasselt on the cover page of the catalogue, is already at home...

It's a large poster print (120 x 160 cm) first printed in 1907, mostly used in the region of Bordeaux where Dutch artist W.Van Hasselt was established (Arcachon to be precised, if Jacques is reading me...).

This print was also used on this nice "one page" programme for the semi-finals of 1912 French championship, with the name of the players and a scorecard printed on the back  (Bordeaux vs Racing Club de France, on March 17, 1912).... too bad that the original owner cut it into two parts to save the picture only... (large pic here : front / back )

Many "big" names on the field that day... Lane, Burgun, Faillot for RCF... Bruneau, Boyau, Leuvielle for Bordeaux... And a surprising 8-4 victory for the visiting side ...

My Welsh friends will also appreciate the presence of "Billy Bordeaux" on the local side, as Willie Morgan was nicknamed in France... W.Morgan was an international Welsh player, brother of Teddy Morgan, the man who scored THE try against the All Blacks on THAT famous December 16, 1905..

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, van hasselt, bordeaux, RCF, morgan

International rugby in Spain, "mystery test" feat. Yves du Manoir, 1927

This morning, I spotted an unusual number of visitors from Catalonia (Benvinguts a tots !)... I digged a little into my scans but was unable to retrieve anything from there (say.. I do have pictures of Perpignan...)... and eventually found out this strange picture...

The kind of pictures that brings tons of questions (to me, at least...)

The picture shows fly-half Yves du Manoir playing a "mysterious" France - Spain match in May 1927, apparently played in Madrid. I say "mysterious" as it is not recorded as a test match in French official stats, and none of my rugby books even mention it (a very fast reading, I admit...)...

Questions, then...: what is this fixture ? who organized it ? why ? where ? how was rugby in Spain in the 20s ? Was it part of the efforts of French Rugby Union to promote rugby outside of Home Unions, i.e. towards Germany, Italy, Romania... but also Marocco, Senegal... (btw I've recently found some documents about the latter ones...) ? Why isn't there any record of that game ?

By the way, this picture comes from a very interesting biography of Yves du Manoir, one of the most brilliant and talented French players of the 20s, who sadly died in 1928, aged 24, in a plane crash - he was a pilot in the Air Force. (his biography was written and published by his relative Réné Pelley du Manoir in the early 30s and includes dozens of fine pictures ; some of them being scanned @ Flickr)

I will surely post some notes about this great player later this year...

Edit 21/01/08 : a knowledgeable reader, John, has found the missing information for us in a French rugby book from the 70s ("Histoire Générale du Rugby - Les capes du matin" by Georges Pastre, p206)

"Le 26 mai [1927], jour de l'Ascension, une bonne selection francaise joua a Madrid contre l'Espagne qui comptait douze clubs. Le score fut de 66-6.".

Or in English, as John put it in his comment below :

"A French XV (caps not awarded) beat Spain 66-6 in Madrid on 26 May 1927. The French side was: Piquemal; Jardel, H Behoteguy, Pascot, Nouhaud; Du Manoir, Dupont; Loury, Camicas, Etcjeberry, Bousquet, Galia, Bonamy, Cazenave and Ribere ... a full-strength team."

Thank you John !

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, Spain, du Manoir

Stade Français : La Faisanderie

In my previous post, I was explaining that Stade Français had difficulties to find a "home" stadium in the late XIXth. It became really critical, and not only for rugby practice, as the omnisport club was constantly growing. In 1901, Stade Français managed to get a 6 ha lease in the wonderful Parc de St Cloud (West of Paris, Google maps here) to build its first infrastructures, ie a club house, two rugby / football grounds and 5 tennis courts. The place, named "La Faisanderie", still is the heart of the club today (some pictures here on SF website) and a training facility for the "pro" rugby.

Here are the folks in 1905 in an un-identified game (in Les Sports Modernes Illustrés, Larousse, 1905). I can just tell that the coloured gentleman in the middle of the line-out is André Verges, who will earn an international cap against the All Blacks the following year.



"La Faisanderie" also enjoyed the venue of the first Tennis World Championship in 1912, the predecessor of Roland Garros French Open (1928)

More annecdotically, I also have some "evidences" that cricket was once played on "La Faisanderie" rugby grounds... a couple of British expatriates, I assume... as French sportsmen never managed to capture the essence of cricket...



The guys are playing at the same place as my previous rugby picture... Please check the posts in the back !



Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, stade français, faisanderie, andré verges

Stade Français : searching for a stadium...

Did you know that the words "Stadium" or "Stade" were litterally "re-invented" by the young sportsmen of Stade Français - students from Lycée St Louis in Paris, most of them being very well educated in ancient Greek... - when they were searching for a name for their newly formed sports club in 1883... ? Stade Toulousain, Stade Bordelais, Stade de France and all "stadiums" in France (in the world ?) owe something to the Stade Français...

That was just a foreword to discuss past and present stadiums of my favorite team...

Before "Jean Bouin" - our current stadium close to the Parc des Princes in Paris - , before "La Faisanderie" - headquarters of Stade Français omnisports club in Parc de St Cloud - , the ruggers of Stade Français struggled a lot to find a place "of their own" and wandered a lot among various areas in Western Paris : Paris (Parc des Princes... too expensive !), Bécon, Levallois, Bagatelle or Courbevoie... as in the picture dated 1897, showing part of a 1500 people crowd celebrating an easy victory over Stade Bordelais 5 tries to nil... (in Le Sport Universel Illustré, 13 nov. 1897 - article by Frantz Reichel from rival Racing Club de France...)

It looks a little like a Sunday picnic with all these bikes along the pitch... it sounds rudimentary, but there is a refreshment bar (cf the sign between the flags...)...

Here are the teams of the day posing... I recognize Louis Dedet and Henri Amand (sitting) in the middle of the picture... Two years later, Bordeaux will defeat Paris for a first championship title... opening a decade of undisputed domination over French rugby...





Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, stade français

A Game for boys... a Game for men...

This morning, I received this boys' book c1930... You know that I like rugby illustrations from youth litterature (nice drawings, vivid colors etc...), but this one is too much ! The smiles.. the haircuts... even the sunshine... too much !

I can't resist to draw a parallel with this image from the same period showing basically the same thing, i.e. a ball holder running from two opponents... Back to French championship (CASG vs Quillan) : the Parisian 3/4 (yes, with a beret...) is trying to escape these two terrrrrible forwards from Quillan (many "r" in "terrible"... as they say in the very deep south of France....)... You could almost feel his fear... he running for his life... (hardly a joke : French rugby was so violent in these days...)



A game for boys... a game for men... not the same game !

(in Le Miroir des Sports, Oct.8 1929)

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, Quillan, CASG

Stade Français "Hall of fame" : P. de PARANHOS DELIO BRANCO... from Brazil ! and a quizz !

"Stade Français : Champion de Paris" in La Vie Au Grand Air, January 28th 1900 (larger picture here)


"Internes" Hopital Lariboisière, Paris, 1903 - larger picture here, credit to www.leplaisirdes dieux.com

If Stade Français is now proud of its strong Argentinian squad (J.M. Hernandez, I.Corleto, P.Ledesma, R.Roncero), let's not forget that Paris team has been welcoming South American players since the very first day of French rugby championship, back in 1892.

I recently exchanged some mails with Nico, a Frenchman expatriated in Brazil, who drew my attention on the extraordinary story of Senhor P. DE PARANHOS DELIO BRANCO, a Brazilian sportsman from Stade Français who earned one of the most impressive trackrecord of French rugby history (if not any sports... or any country...) : 6 times Champion in 1893, 1894, 1895, 1897 (*), 1898 (*), 1901 and twice finalist in 1896, 1899. He also participated to all international campaigns of Stade Français, including the first victory ever of a Continental team against a British team vs Rosslyn Park in 1894.

PARANHOS played most of his career as a fullback, even though some stats records him as a hooker in 1893 final...

(*) some "official" stats often forget 1897 and 1898 as the Championship was played in pool rounds.

PARANHOS was the son of a Brazilian diplomat and a Belgian ballerina. He studied in France and became a M.D. Like many other sportsmen from this time, he died on the battlefield during WW1.

Nico is willing to draft an article about PARANHOS and is asking me for some pictures of him... which is not easy he never explicitely appears in any of my pictures from this era. I have done some searches and I would like your opinion...

Nico has provided the lower picture, showing PARANHOS and fellow doctors in 1903. He is sitting, first one from the right, wearing a bow-tie.

In my opinion, PARANHOS could be the gentleman sitting, first from the left, wearing cap and scarf, in this 1899 picture of Stade Français...

Do you agree ?


Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, stade français, paranhos

You could also meet rugby memorabilia fans on Flickr...

For those who don't know, Flickr is a photo-hosting service (I mean, my photo hosting service...) that comes with so-called "social" functionalities, i.e. the ability to comment, share, join groups of interest etc... I was very happy to recently "meet" there with Mando Maniac, from Canada (err... not her real name!). Mando is not exactly a rugby fan, but she has a strong interest - among other... - in cigarette cards (check her "cigarette cards" group) and vintage children illustrations... like me !

Today, Mando is sharing with us this wonderful cover from a 1920s "Bumper book for boys"

She has posted some 30 rugby pictures (mostly cigarette cards) on Flickr here. All her other pictures are there...

Thank you Mando !

(again, all contributors are welcome... )


Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, book, flickr

International rugby at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh

Untill tonight, I never paid attention to the similarities between these two prints...

The upper one is a chromo-litho dated 1893 which was cut off from an unknown Vicorian book (unknown to me, at least...)

The lower one is a two-pages newspaper print, dated March 1892, from Black & White newspaper (already posted here last February with a few words about the history of the Calcutta Cup)

Both of them show a Scotland-England fixture at Raeburn Place, Edinburgh

The lower one, by artist Stewart Browne, shows the actual players and crowd and captures all the rugby action... the gentleman rushing with the ball is England captain Frederick Alderson... (final score : 5-0 for England)

The upper one, unsigned, shows an unlikely international game between young schoolboys in the same stadium... a young boy's dream ? or just artist imagination ? This fine colouful print had not been copied after the other one, but it makes no doubt to me that one had clearly inspired the other... Don't you think so ?



Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, calcutta cup, raeburn place, print

Colourful rugby...

Yet another youth magazine with a colourful rugby cover ! It comes from Chums, September 1931... Jonh and wife Elizabeth kindly offered it to me when they came across to Paris during the RWC... Thanks a lot ! (and don't forget to visit John's memorabilia website @ ovalballs.com)

Vivid purple indeed... which does not appear in my "repository" of college colours... artist's imagination, then...



Discussing about jersey colours... have you seen the new kit of Stade Français ? an awful blend of khaki and pink that let me think that my favorite players are covered with mud and dust... I have opened a Facebook group to protest against it !!

(picture : credit to Stade Français www.stade.fr)

Technorati Tags : rugby, chums, ovalballs, stade français, facebook

Springboks in Paris 1907-2007... part II

Last Sunday, I was mentionning that the Springboks played against a French team on January 3rd, 1907 at the Parc des Princes, and that this match wasn't recorded as a Test match... Here is a French newspaper (Sports Universel Illustrés, Jan.1907) which gives the whole story...

The funny thing (or not so funny....) is that the "official" Equipe de France was already en route to London to play against England two days later. This fixture was France third official match in our short internationnal rugby history... and the only one played in 1907... (lost 13-41 to England, cf a recently published picture here). French best players (Communeau, Beaurin, Vareilles, Muhr, Mauriat, Lacassagne...) were away, thus the Boks were proposed to play a selection of Paris teams (9 players from Stade Français : Combe, Lesieur, Sagot, Jérome etc... and 6 from RCF : Maullman, Dupré, etc...)... Final score 54-6 for the Boks...

It seems that the stands of Parc des Princes were fairly crowded... :



Follow the link to access to the newspaper page (in French) (at least the first page...). The "Springboks" name, recently adopted by British commentators during SA tour in 1906 hasn't crossed the Channel yet... French journalist only refers to the "Afrikanders"...

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, springboks, equipe de france

Springboks first victory in Paris... 100 years ago !

Well done Springboks ! their victory is well deserved... and I am sure that my English friends will agree with me...

As a coincidence, we are celebrating in 2007 the 100th anniversary of the first visit of a South African team in Paris, as in January 1907 Paul Roos' Springboks made a stop over in Paris on their way back home after their fantastic tour in Great Britain end 1906.

This picture is the cover page of French sports weekly magazine "La Vie Au Grand Air", January 1907, showing Boks' captain Roos holding the ball for his kicker Morkel.

This fixture is not recorded as a test match (at least in French records), as French officials only selected a Parisian team (Stade Français + Racing Club de France... as usual...)... I don't remember the exact score (my books are not with me....) but an easy victory for the Springboks...


(the same team during its tour in UK, end 1906)




Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, springboks

Celebrating 100 years of "Les Bleus"... and a quizz!

We celebrated last year the 100th anniversary of "Equipe de France" but I realized only last Sunday that we could now celebrate the introduction of our - now traditional - blue jersey...

France played its two first international fixtures in January 1906 against the All Blacks (check it here and there), then in March 1906 against England (here)... wearing white colours that were terribly similar to English colours... and moved the following year to a blue jersey / white short / red stockings kit that has remained fairly unchanged ... until recent years and the involvement of sports manufacturers into "rugby circus"...

So... French blue jerseys were first introduced in January 1907 to play England in Richmond, i.e. the second ever meeting of the two countries and the first in Enland - with the home side winning 41 -13.

French players on the image were (from left to right) Mauriat, Vergès, Lacassagne and Muhr.

I am afraid that I don't have any picture of this match in my collection... this one comes from "L'Encyclopédie du Rugby" by Jean-Pierre Bodis - out of press... please hurry to reprint ! - (and thanks Pierre V. for the scan)

And now, a quizz ! Simon droped me a mail some days ago asking for assistance to identify this jersey... and I must admit that I don't know (that's why I was searching among old French rugby jerseys...). Could somebody help ?



And for something completely different ...
RWC Semi-finals - France vs England : H - 4 days...



Identificateurs Technorati : rugby

France and England made it !

Yesterday, against all odds (France was 1:5 and England 1:4... suggesting 1:20 for a combined victory...), France and England found their way to the Semi-Finals next week in Paris.. another classical "Crunch" ! Just say "yeah !" ... and sorry for my friends in Australia and NZ...

Some of you, dear readers, will be jealous... as I have a ticket for this match... (thanks Jérome)

"Special bonus" : two vids from New Zealand... from the talented guys @ "Alternative Rugby Commentary"... the first video "the Periodic Tables" is a teaser for RWC Quarter-Finals... the other one "The French Test" was introducing French tour in NZ last June... hilarious !

(cover page from L'Illustration - April 3rd, 1921)

Technorati Tags: rugby, illustration, france, new zealand, alternative rugby commentary

Philippe Struxiano, "Très Sport", 1922

I am afraid that I don't have much time these days... so, let's just share this fine picture, actually the cover page of French magazine "Très Sport", November 1st 1922, portaying Philippe Struxiano in action...

"Très Sport" was published in the 20s by editor Pierre Lafitte, also editor of "La Vie Au Grand Air". Its baseline was "Le seul magazine sportif technique et pratique" ("the only pratical and technical sports magazine")... in this issue, Philippe Struxiano - then captain of Toulouse and Equipe de France - gives a 20 pages "lecture" about how a rugby team should train and play... I will detail that another time ... as well as Struxiano's bio...

BTW I recently published a (poor but interesting) picture of Stuxiano a couple of days ago... and here is a better one (somehow posing...)

Identificateurs Technorati : rugby, très sport, stuxiano, pierre lafitte

Why bore the New Zealanders' Full-Back ?

"Why bore the New Zealanders' Full-Back ?" asked this full page cartoon published by British weekly newspaper The Sketch, November 1st, 1905.

According to illustrator Harry Rowntree (a New Zealander, I admit...), it seemed that All Blacks fullback Billy Wallace, Leon MacDonald and Mils Muliaina predecessor in the famous 1905 "Colonial" squad, was so easy during the games that he could rest in a deckchair and have tea while his teammates were outrageously dominating their opponents...

Full caption reads :

A hint to the opponents of the "All Blacks"

If you will not let the New Zealanders' full back take part of the game, why not entertain him in this fashion until the end of the match ?

To put the things back in their historical context, Rowntree and all rugby commentators were utterly impressed by the first results of these newly named All Blacks in this loooong tour (September 1905- February 1906 ! 35 games played... 34 won and 1 lost to Wales... 976 points "for" 59 points "against"....). As of November 1st 1905, the Blacks had already played 13 games against serious regional teams (Cornwall, Midlands, Leicester, Gloucester...) with an impressive series of stats : 100% won... 450 points "for" and 15 points "against"... 107 tries "for" (8 per game... !!) and only 2 tries "against"...

But if one can imagine that Billy Wallace could have been pretty idle "defensively" during these games, just consider that his personnal "offensive" stats are as impressive as the "defensive" ones.... 30 games played (out of 35.... no turnover for him...), 27 tries, 74 conversions and 3 penalty kicks... hardly no time to rest in a deckchair...

Here is a portrait of Billy Wallace, from The Sketch, November 29, 1905 (strong press coverage, indeed....)

edited Sept.27 : Sean Fagan of RL1908 fame is referring this link to the New Zealand Rugby Museum where you could read Wallace's full bio. Sean also suggest that my stats are misleading because they include many games where Wallace was not playing fullback... Sean has it right, as usual !

"Yet Wallace was never more than a reluctant fullback. His personal preference was as a wing and of the 11 tests he played only three, his debut in 1903, against Ireland in 1905 and the Anglo Welsh in 1908, were as a fullback. Of his 51 All Black games only 19 were as a fullback."

 

Technorati Tags : rugby, all blacks , wallace, harry rowntree