Rugby-Pioneers

Natives vs Show-Bizz : it's a matter of tie...

 

I started to play rugby in 1986 when I was 20... At the time, French rugby was revigorated by a gang of 5 talented players from Racing Club de France, self-named the "Show-Bizz" aka Franck Mesnel, Jean-Ba Laffont, Eric Blanc, Yvon Rousset and Philippe Guillard... These gentlemen brought to the highest point the rugby values of fun, flair, friendship, eccentricity... together with performances and hard work... culminating in 1987 when Racing three-quarters played (but lost...) the final of French Championship wearing a pink bow-tie... or in 1990 sipping Champagne in crystal glasses (served by Yvon Rousset...) at half-time of their their second (and winning!) Champional final...

At the end of their "rugby years",  the "Show-bizz" five founded Eden Park, a tremendous sucess story in sportswear and fashion, which brand logo couldn't be anything else than a pink bow-tie... This 20 years adventure is commemorated in a richly illustrated book published last year, "Rugby Papillon" (on sale here ; some sample pages available).

So what ??

"Show-Bizz" and Eden Park is not exactly rugby history (yet...) ??

The point is that I was recently sorting out some pictures about the New Zealand Maori team that toured to England in 1888-1889 - please read that former post about it - and suddendly realised that some of the "Natives" were also wearing ties with their rugby kit !

I can't determine from this b&w picture if the ties were also pink (doubtful....), but I am now sure that the "Show-bizz" Racingmen have something to share with their Maoris elders !!

Let's also caption my pictures :

Portrays are W.Anderson and G.A. Williams from the New Zealand Natives team in 1888 - I have found these pictures in "Football : Rugby Union Game" by Rev. F.Marshall, published in 1892, an fantastic archive of XIXth century rugby.

Below is RCF center Eric Blanc (now RCF Manager...) during 1987 final ; credit to "Rugby Papillon"

Rugby in French army, Lyon, 1905

Rugby in the army... propagating the game in France in the early XXth century... nice scrum indeed... everybody freezing for the photographer... it could be a bit tough to distinguish the white side from... the other white side...

Caption reads : Lyon - 98e Régiment d'Infanterie - Football. - Une mélée (a scrum)

(larger picture here)

"Le Bon Point Amusant", 1922

French children magazine, 1922... colourful rugby cover to introduce an inside story called "l'As de l'Equipe" (the Ace of the Team)...

Rugby players... and football posts ! Yet another artist who didn't know much about sports...

Technorati Tags : rugby, print

Colonial rugby... China, 1929

Let's travel back to Shanghai, 1929... the golden years of International Settlement (ok, not really a colony...)

It's also my first rugby picture from China... (*)

Rugby in the Army, then, as here are the Shanghai Volunteer Corps - Scots Guards (full size pic)

Shanghai in the 20s-30s... a myth... ;-)

(c) Hergé - Tintin et le Lotus Bleu

(*) Should I consider this exotic and curious Baines card to be Chinese ?

I am back from the seaside...

I am back... I was away for a week in Britany...

Difficult to find rugby pictures with a seaside theme... here is a WW1 postcard from Belgium "une partie de football" ("a football game") showing soldiers playing on the beach (large pic on Flickr)

Yes, soccer... I am afraid... say it's also an eye blink to a recent football game with blog-friends in Paris (picture here ; I am the guy with a rugby jersey...)

So, back to work ! and I have plenty of nice new things to display in the coming days !