Rugby-Pioneers

England to defeat Wales 17-0

 

No, this is not my bet!

It seems that my English friends are not fully confident about the outcome of this appealing England v Wales tomorrow at Twickenham ;-)

Searching for related documents, I stumbled on this brilliant 17-0 (4 tries to nil) victory in Blackheath... on January 2nd, 1892 ! (full stat here)

The teams line-ups remind us that attacking organization was evolving at this time... England was here playing with the "classical" organization consisting in 9 forwards, 2 halves, 3 three-quarters and 1 fullback, whereas Wales - under Arthur Gould's leadership (details here) - was starting to play with 4 three-quarters (thus 8 forwards) to promote the passing game.

120 years later, the rugby world is universally playing under Gould's organization... even if, ironically, the Welsh method was far from being successful that day... 

The teams line-ups also show great names from XIXth century rugby... Billy Bancroft, Franck Mills and Arthur Gould on the Welsh side... Frederick Alderston, Dicky Lockwood and W.B.Thomson on the English side...

I've outlined these players because they all appear (with others... I'm not listing them all...) either in this fantastic "Famous Footballers" (preview here) or in these no less fantastic Baines cards displayed in my previous post... Rugby Stars!

Centre Arthur "Monkey" Gould from Newport and Fullback Billy Bancroft from Swansea

Fullback H.B.Thomson from Balckheath (proud French-style moustaches actually....)

Centre Richard "Dickey" Lockwood... aka "The Worlds Wonder" in this Baines cards... Lockwood was one of these players who started his career in Rugby Union and then "naturally" switched to Rugby League as his club elected to join the Northern Union in 1895... 

Enjoy the game tomorrow !

 

Bonus: I like this "New England" advertising video... 

I love Baines Cards !!

 

+100 Baines Cards... late XIXth - early XXth c. ... for serious rugby collectors !

Some great teams... some famous players (Stoddart, Goldthorpe, Vassall...)...

Also include some Sharpe and related cards...

I've started to place these pictures on a map but there's still a lot of work to do! 

View Baines Cards in a larger map

BTW, this map is an open projet... don't hesitate to add your own cards ;-)

 

International Football Caps

Just pick yours...

In Boy's Own Paper c1920.

Preview: "The Roses Match" (1893) by W.B.Wollen

Just a quick snapshot... a quality reproduction of one of the most famous English (*) rugby artwork: the "Roses Match" by William Barnes Wollen, showing action from a match Yorkshire (in white jerseys) vs Lancashire (in red and white hoops) played at Park Avenue in Bradford in November 1893.

It has yet to be framed!

Sean Fagan (rugbeia.com) has written a well researched article to bring this artwork into context... and to help you find the hidden "Ghost Player" in the painting... ! Please, don't wait to read "The Ghost in the Rugby Painting"...

"The Roses Match" now hangs on the wall of the Presidents Suite in the West Stand of Twickenham Stadium... limited access I'm afraid...

(*) possibly less famous than Robert Delaunay's "Equipe de Cardiff" or André Lhote's "Joueurs de Rugby"... Hey! I'm French ;-)

Edit : the World Rugby Museum at Twickenham also brings a very detailed story (yet unsigned... ) about the painting, its history and the controversy about the "Ghost Player"... another must-read! 

Gallaher Rugby Cigarette Cards 1912

Rule #33 : When you have no spare time, just post some nice pictures ;-)

I once declared to a friend - a fellow rugby memorabilia collector - that I will never start collecting cigarette cards... Indeed, it appears to be an endless task and some of the rarest (and most beautiful...) cards could cost an arm and a leg...

Yet... cigarette cards regularly bring nice rugby illustrations, quality portaits of players, vivid colours among B&W photographs and a good understanding of what rugby was about in the 1900s...

Say, I don't collect rugby cigarette cards... but do have a few hundreds of them now...

So... here is a series of 10 rugby cigarette cards published in 1912 by Gallaher (London and Dublin), part of "100 designs Sports Series"

Back of the cards are self-explanatory like "slow and lob passes are useless" or "tackling must not be mild and half-hearted"...

And I've also packed the cards into a 1min video... Enjoy!