Since I started this website in 2005, I've been paying regular tributes to David Gallaher, captain of the 1905-06 "Original" All Blacks who died of wounds in Belgium in 1917 during WW1...
As you know, there's now a trophy named after Dave Gallaher which is contested between New Zealand and France to reward the team winning a series of test matches. This year, the Gallaher Trophy flies back to France for the first time... by the narrowest margin (+1 goal average... France b NZ 27-22 and NZ b France 14-10). Here are the Frenchies last Saturday at Wellington... well done & congrats !
(credit : lequipe.fr - thank you!)
French rugby owes a lot to the All Blacks... To make a long story short, France entered the international rugby arena on January 1st, 1906 when a newly formed Equipe de France played an inaugural match in Paris vs Gallaher's All Blacks, at the end of their historical tour in Great Britain. France lost 8-38 (but scoring two tries... i.e. more than Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales together during the other Test Matches...)... and immediately got attention and recognition from Home Countries... leading England to accept an invitation to play in Paris three months later ; the door was ajar... though it took another three years for Ireland, Wales and Scotland to do the same and accept yearly fixtures with France...
Here is a full page photo coverage of that "seminal" game in French magazine "L'Illustration" dated January 6th, 1906. Top corner pictures show captains Henri Amand for France and David Gallaher for New Zealand (picture here : large or king size...)
This being said, I was wondering what kind of reminiscence could that particular game leave in the rich history of kiwi rugby... so I've checked my old books (disclaimer : I don't have all of them... please Santa Claus, help me !) : nada, nitchevo, nothing... the game in Paris is obviously mentionned in the agenda but doesn't deserve a comment...
The only exception on my bookshelves comes from David Gallaher himself... in its fantastic "The Complete Rugby Footballer" written with his vice-captain W.J.Stead. This book gives full coverage of the 1905-1906 tour, as well as All Blacks tactics and training methods...
332 pages, out of which two sentences relate to French rugby "... from London we went straight to Paris, where on Monday we played a French team, who proved to be really good sportsmen. Of course we won the game, for Rugby Football has hardly got going in France yet, but the Frenchmen played up well, and were plucky enough for anything. It delighted them greatly when they crossed our line. Then back to London..."
I love that "of course we won the game"...
