Rugby in Paris, 1890

One on my oldest print despicting the French Game !

The print comes out of a French magazine dated 1890 and has been later nicely water-coloured.

From what I have read in my history books (I always have them with me...), this is one one the very first games organised in Paris (Bois de Boulogne) under "football rugby" rules... it involves the boys from Janson de Sailly (a top "college" in West Paris...) and the boys from a  Kensington college visiting Paris.

The game was organised by English sportsmen teaching in Janson... pretty "chic" and "aristocratic" crowd as you can see from the etching...

Actually, Coubertin's USFSA was created in 1890, gathering 14 "Societes Athletiques" (13 in Paris, 1 in Bordeaux - that's for Jacques) (or counting differently : 8 colleges and 4 "independent" clubs including recently created Stade Francais and Racing Club de France). The first competition that USFSA managed to organize was a "football rugby" championship between colleges... (in fact, only three of them...)... It started with boys before USFSA organised the first "senior" championship two years later in 1892 (SF vs RCF as usual....)..

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Having said that, let's also mention that we have had a verly pleasant "RugbyBlogs" dinner yesterday night in Paris, gathering some 15 people (my fellow organizer Julien..., our "guest star" Pierre"..., my blogofriends Rodrigo, Olivier, Jacques, Jeremy... rugby bloggers Brennus, Anne, Joel... ). I highly recommand this "corrida and rugby" place named J'GO (based both in Toulouse and Paris) : good food, nice people, "ambiance"...

Some pictures by Olivier or Jacques...

Strangely enough, our dinner was advertised in last Monday "Midol" (France nbr 1 rugby weekly)...

We'll have another dinner in two months or so... stay tuned....





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