Rugby-Pioneers

The adventures of Nosey Parker...

Comic rugby postcard, 1907 or so...

Caption reads : "My dear Sir, you really should not have kicked that man !"

I didn't know what "Nosey Parker" could mean before finding out this postcard... (hey, I am French...!), but googled some explanations here. Sic : "The term nosey for someone inquisitive, figuratively always sticking their nose into other people’s affairs, is a little older, but even that only dates back to the 1880s"

This postcard comes out of a series... (and I don't have the others.. yet) : you'll have to imagine what happened before... but John (www.ovalballs.com) can tell you what's next...

Caption reads "All right, Nosey - I'll kick you instead !"

Actually, this second postcard was auctionned at the same time on eBay, but I can't bid against John... he is my master in collecting !

Technorati Tags: rugby, postcard, ovalballs

Women's RWC ended up last week...

... eventually won by defending champion New Zealand "Black Ferns" (NZ b England 25-17 in final)... Congratulations to the French squad for their 3rd place (France b Canada 17 - 8)



There was some internet coverage from the IRB both on their website, and on a special website dedicated to the Women RWC. I hope that they won't mind me to share some pictures and video clips...

W-RWC France - Canada

Women's RWC - New Zealand v England

Ooops, I forgot to introduce this French rugby print from the late 1920s (by Fabiano, published in Punch-like magazine Fantasio)...

credit : IRB Women's Rugby World Cup

Technorati Tags: rugby, women rugby world cup, video, print, fabiano

Museum of Rugby, Twickenham

A friend of mine recently visited the RFU Museum of Rugby at Twickenham and sent me some pictures in return. It seems to be a great place for memorabilia fans ... and I will surely arrange a visit next time I go to London...

Oddly, one of these pictures - partly dedicated to French memorabilia - provides an answer to a long lasting question : why is this poster print named "Le Football de Salon" ("The drawing room football") ?



And the answer is... because this print is copied from a table game (a kind of early XXth century Subbuteo  ?)  as evidenced in this dipslay proposed by the Rugby Museum !



BTW the French trade card in the bottom left corner of this picture is a wonderful trade card from French department store Le Bon Marché, showing a fine rugby scene inside...


Technorati Tags: rugby, museum

Stade Français has new fancy jerseys...

Here is an early XXth century rugby print from Boy's Own Magazine. This colourful plate shows "some famous rugby football jerseys".

As the caption is difficult to read (I should re-up a hi-res picture very soon...), let me identify them all :

1. England
2. Scotland
3. Ireland
4. Wales
5. France
6. South Africa
7. Australia
8. New Zealand
9. Blackheath
10. Harlequins
11. Richmond
12. Barbarians
13. Cardiff
14. Newport
15. Leicester
16. Gloucester
17. Stade Français (Paris)
18. Racing Club de France (Paris)
19. United Services
20. Birkenhead Park

I have no indication of dates, but the "Equipe de France" jersey, n°5, shows a "flying rooster" holding the Olympic rings that was our emblem in the early '20s.

For ages, Stade Français has been wearing its "classical colours", n°17,  i.e. dark blue and red like in this postcard picture...

More recently, my favorite team has introduced two wonderful, unique and dynamic set of jerseys : a sphisticated dark blue jersey wearing pink flowers of lily (say, the heraldic colours of the City of Paris) to play at home, and a shinning pink outfit to play away... ain't it cool ?

pictures : courtesy of www.stade.fr and leblogrugby
(Ivan, I have" robbed" this picture from your Flicke account...)

Technorati Tags: rugby, jersey, stade français

Cadbury's Cocoa, 1901

A fine rugby print advertising for Cadbury's Cocoa, published in 1901.

Who said that ruggers only drink beer ?


Technorati Tags: rugby, print, cadbury, cocoa

Comic rugby postcard, 1911

Caption reads "Oh Shocking"...

There is of friend of mine who regularly complains that this blog is geting too serious... and that it refrains him from posting stupid comments... please do ! I really like stupid comments... and I am quite sure that you will appreciate this postcard...



Technorati Tags: rugby, postcard

Frankfurt Football team in England, 1894 or so...

Yes, German rugby...

And some of the guys here are recorded to hold a silver medal at Paris Olympics in 1900 ! at least four of them (Heinrich Reitz, August Schmierer - who both socred tries in Paris - Fritz Müller and Adolf Stockhausen)

I have already posted about the 1900 Olympics... Coubertin also included a (small) rugby tournament with 3 teams only : a "not really" Equipe de France (I mean, 15 guys from Paris led by Frantz Reichel), the Moseley Wonderers (renamed Wanderers on this occasion...) representing England, and this Frankfurt Football Club representing Germany (if someone can explain how those teams were selected, please drop a comment...).

Only two matches were organized ("France" b "England" 27 -8 and "France" b "Germany" 27 - 17) as the organisation failed to set up a match between "England" and "Germany"... As a result, "France" won the tournament whereas "Germany" ranked second because of a better "goal average".

Here is a press coverage of that game, showing French famous rugger and sportsman Frantz Reichel.

Obviously, none of the foreign player there knew they were participating to so-called "Olympic Games" as the event was "diluted" into the Paris Universal Exhibition... They didn't get any medals either, as medals only appeared four years later in Saint-Louis...

PS : according to my press clippings,  a "fortunate innovation" was introduced in France on the occasion of this Olympic tournament : the scoreboard...

 

Technorati Tags: rugby, frankfurt, olympic games, reichel

Statistical analysis ... 1907

A great document here, I believe !

Last tuesday, I had an interesting discussion with Mr Jean-François Belhoste, an historian with whom I share a common interest for the history of rugby in Paris before ww1. As we were talking about the fact that rugby was then perceived as a scientific game, played by people with a strong academic background (Mr Belhoste is graduated from Ecole Centrale, like Marcel Communeau, Pierre Faillot and many other Parisian ruggers from that time...), we came across a press coverage from 1907 final of French championship (Bordeaux b Stade Français : 14 - 3).

The article (La Vie Au Grand Air, March 1907) was introducing this full page graphic detailling all the stats of a rugby game : tries, goals, passes, kicks, scrums, line-outs, fouls, etc... a great work by a local journalist, Mr Maurice Martin, that you can see at work on the roof of the stadium... I am surprised to see how "modern" these stats look like... so similar to the computer-assisted analysis that we've got today...

By the way, do you know http://www.finalesrugby.com : Eric and David are gathering as many stats, informations, documents as possible to build a comprehensive database about French championship finals... from 1892 till today... I am pleased that my pictures can somehow modestly contribute to their project, e.g. to portray some of the protagonists of this 1907 final such as Stade Bordelais winger Pascal Laporte or referee Allan Muhr (from RCF... another "pioneer" who deserves a full bio one of these days...).



Technorati Tags: rugby

Pierre Faillot, RCF, "l'Autobus"

This season, I will try - from time to time - to portray one if these "rugby pioneers"... I am not a biograph, neither an historian, and my idea is primiraly to give a face to these gentlemen and recall of their contribution to the Game. For instance, most French players know about Reichel and Crabos as junior championships in France are named after them... some know or guess that they were great players and officials... but hardly none could recognize them on a picture...

Today picture shows Pierre Faillot, from Racing Club de France, a true sportsman - "athlete complet" as we say in French - who was the hero of the first victory of our Equipe de France against Scotland in 1911.

On this print, Faillot is celebrated at the same time as the 400m (flat) French champion, but also as a  long distance runner, long jump, shot putting, halterophily... Under RCF colours, he held the 300m flat (no kidding...) World Record in 1908... As an acclectic sportsman, he also played rugby for RCF and France... as a winger.

Tall, strong, fast... this gentleman was possibly more athletic than any other in the team - including forwards - hence his nickname "l'Autobus" (the Bus...)... Maybe the first "modern" winger in French rugby history (I mean  the "John Kirwan style" of players...).

He enjoyed his first cap (out of 8) in 1911  for this France v Scotland (16-15... you surely rembember...) and nearly won the game alone : two tries and a fantastic "coming out of nowhere at full speed" tackle upon opposite winger at the very last minute of the match...

As many players of this generation, WWI put a hard stop on his sporting career... and on the progresses of French national team, as the second victory of our Equipe de France only happened 9 years later, in 1920, in Dublin. French captain was then Rene Crabos... and I have all the pictures...




Technorati Tags: rugby, rcf, faillot