"6 Nations 2010" is looming ahead ! three more weeks to go, yet squads are being announced these days...
"2010" shouldn't ring any bell for our British and Irish friends, but "2010" will be a special "vintage" for France (hey ! I'm French...): we'll celebrate the 100th anniversary of France being invited to play against all Home Unions, i.e. the start of the "5 Nations Tournament"
France entered into the international arena in January 1906 against Gallaher's All Blacks, and proved to be convincing enough so that (English) Rugby Football Union accepted to play in Paris in March 1906. Then things moved on slowly... England (away in Richmond - first game in Blue jerseys...) again in 1907... Wales (away) and England (home) in 1908... Wales (home), Ireland and England (both away) in 1909... and finally Scotland accepted to join other Home Unions in 1910... The opening game of the 1910 Championship was this Wales - France played on January 1st 1910 in Swansea...
This French side (above, large pic here), captained by Gaston Lane, gathers 9 players from Paris (6 from SCUF, 3 from Racing CF... none from Stade Français!), 3 players from Bordeaux (Bruneau, Massé, Hourdebaight), and young men from Toulouse (Mayssonié) and Lyon (Mauriat, Martin). Left on the picture is Cyril Rutherford, an Englishman, a former RCF player then in charge of international affairs at French Rugby Union.
A pretty unexperienced French side (6 new caps) ... which courageously challenged one the most competitive team from this era... Without any surprise, Billy Trew's team (feat. J.Bancroft, Dick Owen, etc... large pic here) stroke a 49-14 undisputed victory (10 tries to 2!)
Let's be honest... Home Countries paid little - if no... - attention to these new "exotic" games against this new "exotic" guest... In first years, games were often played during the week, in front of limited crowd (i.e. 4000 that day in St Helen's) and not always with the most competive teams... France had to wait until the 1920s (Crabos, Jaureguy, Ribère...) to deserve some sporting respect...
After the match, Wales fullback Jack Bancroft was said to pronounce this cruel - but false... - prophecy "You are good fellows, you
Frenchmen, and your rugby will go on improving. You may some day beat England
at Twickenham and Scotland at Murrayfield and Ireland in Belfast or Dublin, but
never, while there is coal in our mines, will you win in Wales..."... Indeed, Bancroft got it right untill 1948...
My pictures come this newspaper report in "Le Plein Air"... French readers (and others...) could get it here...
