Rugby-Pioneers

Creative Commons are good for you !

Legal stuff...

It's my pleasure to share my pictures with people who share my interest in rugby memorabilia ! So far, I have contributed to several books, academic projects, newspaper articles, rugby exhibitions or conferences, menus (yes, a "rugby" pub in South France...) and.... Wikipedia.

Most of my pictures belong to the public domain (basically, because they are old enough - usually 70 years after initial publishing for newspaper prints or 70 after the death of the artist for artworks, under French law). Still, you have to deal with me to clear reproductions rights if you want to use my pictures... as I provide for the scans or the digital sources.

Either this blog or my photo hosting service (Flickr) do promote Creative Commons (check the logo in the right column) as a licencing system that brings both a strict legal framework and a maximum flexbility for the content owner : I can elect whether commercial use is permitted or not, whether modifications are permitted or not, under which conditions if any... For instance, this website is published under a Creative Commons licence "attribution" "share alike" or CC BY SA (cf the pictos in the right column under "legal stuff") which means that there is no restriction to the use of my work, provided that you "attribute" it to me ("BY") and that you share it in return with others ("SA" "Share Alike"... you don't add copyrights on it !)...

One click to get a "human readable" licence as they call it... another click to get a full text "lawyer readabale" licence code ...

 

It also has some technical implications (techo-adverse people can skip to the next paragraph...). All my pictures at Flickr carry this legal information as a metadata, so that online services could determine automatically if pictures are used (copy, print, etc...) in compliance with this CC licence...

Creative Commons framework easily let interested people use my pictures into their own projects... without having to enter into long lasting - and sometimes expensive - copyrights clearances... As long as you respect the CC rules, you don't even have to ask me...

The upper picture is a great example... last year, during the Rugby World Cup, CRDP d'Alsace (Centre Regional de Documentation Pedagogique) - a French public organization that provides documents, pictures, texts, etc... to school and college teachers to help them prepare their lectures - have made available a dozen of my pictures to illustrate some facts about rugby history : it's exactly what Creative Commons licences are aiming for... : sharing, enriching, creating something new... and sharing it again for the benefit of everyone...

And now some French kids know about the Maori Tour in France in October 1926...

Congratulations to the French Ministry of Education for this fair use of Creative Commons licences !

1908-2008 : Paris sera toujours Paris...

Paris sera toujours Paris... Paris will ever be Paris... !

Stade Français likes the "8 years" very much... like the Chineses do !

1908 : Stade Français celebrates its 8th Champion title... and the last one from "pioneers" times before a loooong break...

1998 : Stade Français is back into French Elite and strikes again ! Paris becomes Champion the same year of their comeback in "pro rugby"...

2008 : Great start in French Elite ("Top14")... 6 games played, 6 won, 6 points ahead of runner up Bayonne... (sorry no "8"!)

Here is a postcard showing the guys in 1908, feat. some of the greatest players of French pre-ww1 rugby... standing left is Emile Lesieur, then Jack Muir with the hat, in the middle is Jack Dedet, the coloured guy with a hat is Georges Jérome... sitting in the middle is captain Charles Beaurin, close to "superstar" Marcel Communeau... (I need to come back to my books to name the others... I will edit it later...)

A larger pic here @ Flickr

Edit : arrgggghh just realized that I already posted this postcard last year... I'm getting senile :-(

Sportsmen ? Yes... but citizens !

No time to blog new stories... so, let me just publish nice rugby illustrations...

Here is the cover of "Lectures pour tous" (Reading for all), a French kids magazine dated April 1932.

Great image... but I'am more than puzzled about the caption "Sportifs ? Oui... mais citoyens" (Sportsmen ? Yes... but citizens)

Say, the other headlines are not to bad either... "Baron Gourgaud at the blood drinkers", "The chained up monster" or "The seal war"... (yes, seals... )

(larger pic here @ Flickr)

rugby

"The Captain of the team" Victorian die-cut

King size XIXth century rugger... watching for you...

Fine Victorian die-cut...

And a new avatar for my favorite rugby forum ?

Crowded train to the stadium, Colombes, 1920s

This is one of my very favorite rugby photography... even though there are no ruggers nor balls !

It shows the crowd at the train station, on a day of international rugby at Colombes, 10 km away from Paris... No date, but early 20s, I guess...

A double-decker train which carries a whole society... men and women... middle-class and workers... soldiers and seamen... young men and elder people... in a period when rugby was among the most popular sports in France.

The V Nations tournament resumed in 1920 after the turmoil of the WW1, and rugby met tremendous popularity in France... also because French rugby had proved to be competitive (sometimes...) against Home Nations... People rushing to stadiums in Paris (quite dilapidated Parc des Princes or Colombes stadium) on every appearence of the French side... See this 40,000 attendance in Colombes (France v Scotland 1922)...




Nota : I have an issue with my first picture... I cant find it again in my memorabilia... I'm not even sure that this picture is mine... does someone know where it could come from ?

rugby, colombes

Touring to South Africa, "Currie Cup" 1891

Cape Town rugby ground and Table Mountain 1891 ! a wonderful picture of the first English side to tour to South Africa... (larger pic here)

These days, I am exchanging some mails about old rugby books with a gentleman in South Africa... it led me to re-open this fantastic "Football - The Rugby Union Game" by Rev.F.Marshall published in 1892 (500 pages like this... or that...)

It also gave me the opportunity to learn where the "Currie Cup" comes from (disclaimer : I'm French !) .. I let Rev.F.Marshall explain the whole story... :

"the [English] team sailed from Southampton in the Dunottar Castle on September 20th, 1891, their captain W.E.Maclagan taking with him a handsome silver cup presented by Sir Donald Currie, and entrusted to W.E.Maclagan to be presented by him to the colonial club doing the best against the English team ; the cup to be held by the winning team until the next season, and then to be competed for by the clubs of South Africa"

"The best teams were undoubtedly the Western Provinces, played at Cape Town ; the Griqualand West (to whom the "Currie" Cup was given) at Kimberley"

"On most of the grounds the grass was almost entirely burnt by the sun, this being especially the case at Kimberley, which was very bad, there being absolutely no grass at all."

Middle picture shows The Cape team (larger pic with the name of the players here), whereas lower picture shows the kick off of the game played by the tourist vs South Africa in Kimberley (larger pic here).

The English side was captained by W.E.Maclagan, London Scottish and Scottish international.

19 matches played, 19 won... only one try against (vs Cape Town)

"the South African played a very hard game, espcially forward, and on several occasions taxed the powers of the English forwards to the utmost, but they failed in the science of the game. [...] Towards the end of the tour they had very much improved, and in the course of the year or two will in all probability play a first-class game."

Right ! do my English friends remember last Rugby World Cup...??

rugby, south africa

Fascist or Republican ? lost rugby...

Incredible opposition !

Two of the most antagonist political regimes of pre-ww2 Europe, Italy and Spain, using the same print to promote rugby... !

Left is the original print, by Italian artist Mancioli. This postcard, published by Italian Rugby Union - FIR - in the 30s is complemented by a quote from Archille Starace, a leader of Mussolinian Fascist Party and president of the Italian Olympic Committee - CONI - who states: "il giuoco del rugby, sport da combattimento, deve essere praticato e largamente diffuso tra la gioventu fascita" (the game of rugby, combat sport, must be praticed and widely spread among fascist youth").

Right is a Spanish - sorry, Catalan... - print announcing a fixture between a French team "Seleccio Francesa" and a Catalan team "Seleccio Catalana" in Barcelona, on April 14th, 1936 as part of "Festes de la Republica" (Day of the Republic) under Popular Front government, a couple of months before the civil war broke out in July 1936... the Catalan player was in black...

Striking !

Larger picture available @ Flickr : Italian / Catalan ...

Credit to Serge and Françoise Laget "L'affiche de sport dans le monde" for the Catalan print. Serge, do you still read this blog ?

Edited Sept. 28 : Paco (from Italy - cf his comment below) has spotted that this print from Mancioli is on the home page of Iran Rugby Union website, www.iranrugby.com ... can't believe it !!

Travel guides for RWC 2011 in New Zealand...

I'd want to travel to New Zealand in 2011 for next Rugby World Cup...

In the meantime, I'm digging into the rich history of kiwi rugby... I bought some nice books this summer... my travel books, say...

Here we have :

"History of new Zealand Rugby Football 1870-1945" by A.Swan, 1945... tons of stories, hundreds of pictures...

"All Blacks in Springbokland" by M.F.Nicholls, 1928

"The triumphant tour of the All Blacks in England, Ireland and Wales 1924-1925" plus an history of the game and memories of 1905

"The tour of third All Blacks 1935" by C.J.Oliver and E.Tindill

"New Zealand rugby football : some hints and criticisms" by I.Hunter

There are some others on my wish list... it's just a matter of money :-)

And also sharing this nice ad on the back of the 1925 "Triumphant tour" ... beware of kiwis !

Louis Le Grand, Paris, c1900

Kids are back to school (in France...) these days after summer break...

This is an opportunity to remember that the development of sports and rugby in France - maybe more than in other countries - was spearheaded by a bunch of active students and teachers in Paris secondary schools at the turn of the century.

Here is a un-dated postcard (c1900) of Lycée Louis Le Grand team, one of the most elitist and prestigious secondary school in Paris, but also the very craddle of Stade Français which was created there in 1883 by a group of local sporting students. The first four "sections" were cycling, tennis, football... and obviously rugby...

I can't name the players, nor find the date... if anybody can help... please do !

(larger pic on Flickr here)

Season V is open... let's play erotic rugby !

Back to the web and introducing Season V (how is that possible ??) of rugby-pioneers.com !

Good news... I still have prints, pictures, trade cards, postcards and rugby memorabilia to share... I hope that many of you will appreciate, comment or contribute... all comments,  feedbacks, wishes (or just "hello"...) are welcome...

Let's start with a not-so-serious topic... French artist Armand Vallée fantasizes about women rugby in this dynamic (and erotic...) poster print published c1930 in Fantasio (a French "Punch-like" magazine)...

As we already discussed, women rugby was fairly active in France in these days...

(large pic @ Flickr)