The 1906 South African tourists to Great Britain (and to France on their way back home), were captained by Paul J. Roos (sitting in the middle of my previous team photography).
Here is a cigarette card portraying this severe young man - 26 years old in 1906 - (BTW the card is a kind gift from my fellow collector John "Ovalballs"... don't forget to visit his website...).
I am not going to write down a full bio of this gentleman... His rugby stats are here... and it's also worth mentionning that he later became Headmaster of Victoria College, Stellenbosch, ie the very craddle of South African Rugby (see my previous post here).
"The trivial history of rugby" edited by Past Times (seems to be out of sale now) is a small books full of annecdots about the Game... where I have found this story about the gentleman... : "Roos was a deeply religious man who, when hit by an opponent in the Test against England on the tour, is said to have literally turned the other check. On another occasion, in his native South Africa, he was playing a match some 75 miles away from where he was living at the time. There were no train back home that Saturday night, and on religious principles he refused to travel on a Sunday. So after the game he got on his bike - and cycled all the way home."
Having said that, don't you think that Roos looks pretty much like All Black Dave Gallaher ??...
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