Rugby-Pioneers

E.T.Morgan, Wales, 1905

John "Ovalballs" and I recently joined forces to purchase a fantastic set of real photos postcards featuring the heroes of that Welsh team who defeated the All Blacks back in December 1905... Wales victory 3 - 0 was one of the most controversial ever... as the Blacks were denied a try that some claimed to be valid... full story here at the Welsh Rugby Union  . I can also encourage you to read this great article about the 1905 tour at the New Zealand Rugby Museum.

So, here is Wales winger E.T.Morgan a.k.a. the gentleman who scored the winning try !

A (very) hi res pic is available for download here.

More to come....


Technorati Tags: rugby, postcard, E.T.Morgan, Wales, 1905, All Blacks

Louis Wain : cats playing rugby

This is a repost as I have realized that my former picture hosting service is now down most of the time... I will display again from time to time what I published in 2005 at http://phlog.net/user/frederic (my former blog... R.I.P.)

This is a famous rugby postcard (1907 I believe... I need to check in my album...) illustrated by Louis Wain, an artist who made his living by painting cats, drawing cats, cheering cats... According to his bio, the guy ended up schizophrenic and incarcerated within a Victorian mental assylum... no kidding... beware of cats...!

You could find everything about Louis Wain's work on Mr Paul Hussey website. Thank you, Paul, for the link and your comment :

"Just a quick message concerning Louis wain 1860-1939. At my website I have the world's largest collection of Louis Wain Art including Louis Wain FunnyCats playing various sports including Rugby,Golf,Table tennis etc. What I have started to do is sell modern artprints of all my collection which is on display at my website.

Louis Wain himself died in 1939 and is buried in the same buriel plot as his mother and sisters in Kensel Green cemetary in London. The plot is very neglected alas."

Technorati Tags: rugby, postcard, louis wain

Great Britain touring NZ and Australia, 1904

Here is another menu... a wonderfully illustrated piece of memorabilia... that doesn't belong to me...

This is the menu for an official dinner held at the Coffee Palace, Dunedin, New Zealand, to celebrate Great Britain tour of Australia & New Zealand in summer 1904

Front caption reads "Dinner in honour of the British Footballl team" whereas the back cover is an image of a Great Britain player dragging a tanned kangaroo (Australia) and a scared looking emu (New Zealand) with caption "Much would have Moa"

Great Britain played Otago & Southland in a tour match at Dunedin on the 10th August 1904 and beat them 14 to 8

This menu was auctionned last February at www.knights.co.uk and these pictures are kindly referred to us by Sean from Sydney (www.rl1908.com)

Technorati Tags: rugby, menu, British Lions, Otago, Dunedin

VI Nations 2007 highlights....

No memorabilia today... just a cool video about VI nations 2007 highlights...

Credit to kevok85.

The Franco-Scottish Rugby match, May 5.1897

Tomorrow France and Scotland will play in Paris the last round of the 2007 Tournament... and this is what I believe to be the second Franco-Scottish confrontation to be organised in Paris... 110 years ago...

In 1896, 1897 and 1898, the Stade Français invited a selection from Edinburg to play against a team from Paris (say, mostly Stade Français ... 9 players in the team in 1896... I don't know after...). These games were organised thanks to the efforts and the personnal contacts of Mr Gerald Le Texier, vice president of the Stade Français, a former teacher at London Trinity College and former player of Clapham Common rugby team... all travel and accomodations expenses of the Scots were paid by the Stade Français... It seems that Scottish Rugby Union disagreed to have these games organised outside of its control, opening the way to a long period of difficult relationships between French and Scottish Unions... As a matter of fact, these confrontations stopped in 1898 and Scotland was the last nation to agree to play against France in the Tournament in 1910 (whereas England started in 1906..).

My regular readers will recognize Stade Français captain Louis Dedet, in dark, standing second from the right (full size pic here)

Please also follow this link to read this interesting article describing the context of the match, published by The Sketch.

Let me excerpt a few words " 'Nos chers voisins' continue to make great progress in the scientific intricacies of modern football" .... "All sporting Paris seemed to be there. The flags of Scotland and of France, of Paris and of Edinburgh, the pennants of the Stade Français and of the Olympique, the gaily appointed pavilion, with its mass of flowers, and, above all, the party-coloured costumes of the ladies, added greatly to the general picturesqueness. The blaze of colours, indeed, reminded one of the bull-ring at Madrid"... "A hard-fought battle ended in favour of Scotland by eleven points to three"... "... at the great banquet given to the Scots by the French Union."...



Technorati Tags: rugby, france, scotland

Banquet in Bordeaux... 1911

This is the menu of a banquet held in Bordeaux on May 27th, 1911 to celebrate the players of Stade Bordelais after winning French Championship... their 7th title since 1899... and the last one in their history... (full stats - in French - here @ finalesrugby.com )

The 1911 team, lead by third-row Maurice Leuvielle, outrageously dominated French Championship that year... undefeated in 22 games, 511 points pro and only 83 against...crushing in final Jules Cadenat's S.C.U.F. 14 to nil...

The whole team is gathered again on this menu... top-notch wine list, indeed !

Hi-res picture available here.

Technorati Tags: rugby, stade bordelais, scuf, menu

The Game at Rugby, 1859

OK, I admit... I was about to post something about the history of England v France "crunches"... and finally decide not to do so... Congrats to England who defeated France 26 - 18 this afternoon : it was well deserved !

As a nice way to hide my disappointment, let's share this XIXth century painting showing the Game at Rugby School in 1859. There are something like 200 hundred players on the pitch... I guess you could be playing for hours without even seeing the ball...

This painting belongs to Rugby School and it's referred to us by www.rugbyfootballhistory.com

Full size pic available here.



Technorati Tags: rugby

Skull and crossbones, again... Rugby College, 1880

As a follow-up on my previous post, let's share this fine print dated 1880 showing "The Rugby Boys at Football".

You can identify Rugby college in the backyards... same skulls and crossbones on the jerseys... a strange big round ball, but little doubt about the game that the boys are playing...

Full size picture is available here at Flickr.



Technorati Tags: rugby, rugby college, crossbones

XIXth century Rugby kit : Skull & crossbones...

A modern print showing a great XIXth century rugby kit... Skull & crossbones are impressive ! does somebody know which college or university used to wear such colours ?

Full size pic is available here.

edited March 6th :

John (www.ovalballs.com) is helping me (cf comments below) indicating the 1st team at Rugby School used to wear such skull and crossbones....  according to this story , this goes back to @1864..... he understands that they are still in use today at the school.

John is also referring this post about "Pirates" by Sean Fagan at rl1908.com

Technorati Tags: rugby, kit, crossbones