All Blacks - France 1906... again...

Again, a newspaper coverage of this match between France (the very first match of Equipe de France as all my readers surely know it...) and New Zealand, held in Paris on a cold and rainy January 1st, 1906 while the All Blacks were returning home after their looong tour in Great Britain.

This is a full page taken from French weekly newspaper L'Illustration, dated January 6 1906, showing a line out, a scrum (a permanent weakness of French rugby at that time...) and portraying the two captains Henri Amand (Stade Français) and Dave Gallaher. The guys are also here.

Something strange in the main picture... it seems to me that French forwards are taller than the Blacks...

PS : the line referee (wearing johdpurs and checking out the scrum) was a key player of RCF in the 1890s. And he's an Englishman... Mr Cyril Rutherford... my next post...

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