Olympic Games 1920 : France vs USA

A rugby postcard sent from Antwerp (Anvers) in 1920 by an American guy who thought he was attending a soccer match with the American team... (that's what he wrote on the back of the card...)

Nope, it's rugby !... as you can see the French and American teams fighting for the ball after a throw-in... (and actually USA did not participate to the the soccer championship... )

The US team - basically, Stanford University - surprisingly defeated 8-0 an (over-confident ?)  French team... in an early rehearsal of the 1924 tournament...

Strange story indeed... rugby was not officially part of the 1920 Olympic Games but the USA, however, sent a rugby team abroad to Belgium. The Olympic committee quickly set up a match against France... but with so short notice, only Parisian players could attend... only 4 French players from this squad were "true" internationals (i.e. Rene Crabos for instance)... This match is not recorded as a "cap" in French rugby statistics...

No Bronze medal in the tournament as only two teams took part of it...



Technorati Tags: rugby, france, usa, olympic games