Rugby-Pioneers

This V(I) Nations Tournament sounds like 1930...

After two games, it seems that this 2011 VI Nations Tournament sounds like 1930 Tournament, at least from a French perspective... 2011 and 1930 calendar were the same for the French side... and so were results after two games : as this postcard reads, 1930 French team had a good start first defeating Scotland (7-3) in Paris (Stade de Colombes) and then managing a 5-0 away victory in Belfast... two victories in a row for the first time in French rugby history, before challenging England in Twickenham for the third game...

This team picture shows the French line-up before playing the Scots : standing (from l to r) Bioussa, Bigot, Ambert, Camel, Choy, Majerus, Gallia - sitting : Houdet, Gérald, Serin, Piquemal, Ribère cap, Magnanou, Baillette, Samatan.

Here is a snapshot of the game (in "Miroir des Sports")... Jean Gallia leading French forwards... (btw pls check that other interesting picture of Gallia at half-time)

Second victory in Ireland was celebrated in Paris, not only because it was France best start ever in the Tournament, but also because French coach Jules Cadenat - a famous prop in pre WW1 era, and also a wine merchant by occupation - had had the weird idea of bringing a barrel of red wine at half time... O tempora, O mores... This great illustration by André Galland in "Le Petit Journal Illustré" - actually not a sports newspaper- captures it all...

Bad omen for 2011 Frogs ? they've then played a serious game in Twickenham but lost  5-11 to England, which will eventually win the Tournament...

As a teaser... a fantastic view on the dense crowd in Twickenham South Terrace attending the game...

In fact, I'm not sure about the date (I can't remember from which old book this pic comes from... sorry for the credit...) but no doubt about "France"...

Here is one of the many photographies published by Illustrated London News after the game : French scrumhalf L.Serin scoring the first try of the game... more pictures in a fortnight after the 2011 game is played !

Haute Couture

Vivid colours.
Blue sky and blossoming trees
Pretty girl and handsome ruggers.
Spring 1914, the end of an era.

pre-WW1 documents are always sweet and sour... you can't detach them from the tragedy looming ahead...

This being said, this artwork is a great hand made "art deco" pochoir by artist Georges Barbier, published in April 1914 in "Gazette du Bon ton", a French classy and elistist fashion magazine. Quoting Wikipedia "The magazine [...] was available only to subscribers and was priced at a steep 100 francs per year, or $425.61 in today's money. [...] The magazine signed exclusive contracts with seven of Paris's top couture houses  so that the designers' fashions were shown only in the pages of the Gazette. The magazine's title was derived from the French concept of bon ton, or timeless good taste and refinement"

Full caption reads "Rugby - Costume tailleur de Redfern".

My two cents of fashion of "couture" history (Google is my friend...) : John Redfern from London is credited to have created the "tailor-made" - a lady's suit composed of a tailored jacket and skirt - by the middle of the XIXth Century. Later on, Redfern's couture house established branches in Paris and in the US.

QED ! Only an Englishman could name his work after our favorite sport !

And to "close the loop" with my previous comment about WW1, you'll be happy to know that Redfern designed the first women's uniform for the Red Cross in 1916... maybe this one below ?



(a Belgian postcard by artist James Thiriar, in favour of "Asile des Soldats Invalides Belges")

2011: Year of the All Blacks

My (rugby) predictions for 2011 are easy and simple: 2011 will be the year of the All Blacks!

The All Blacks have "rendez-vous" with the History of Rugby World Cup on Sunday October 23 in Auckland... and to tell you everything, I've just placed a bet on England as runner-up...

Well, we'll just have to wait for nine months ! In the meantime, let me share this "Rugby Almanack of New Zealand". Here is the 1935 issue, the very first of a long series... as this New Zealand rugby's book of records is now in its 76th edition. This first Almanack was edited by A.H.Carman, NZ rugby historian and prolific writer (and former referee) Arthur.C.Swan (cf that former post) and former 1924-25 All Black Read Masters (photo).

Inside pages show all possible records and stats about NZ rugby in 1934, along with fine illustrations such as this map of New Zealand with the portrays of the five players of the year, namely W.E.Hadley (Auckland), R.L.Clarke (Taranaki), H.T.Lilburne (Wellington), G.F.Hart (Canterbury) and J.Hore (Otago).



This Almanack had been regularly published with the same cover and different colours until 1965... when someone decided to change for a modern photographic cover of little interest... I've "borrowed" the following "patchwork" from rugbyrelics.com fame where you can also purchase some copies of this fine book (I'm quite sure that Dai won't mind this free advertising...)

(NB: I've got some memorabilia about 1935 All Blacks tour in Great Britain to share... another time...)

Father & Son (and some French cinema)

Rugby Trivia : could you name a family where father and son both were rugby internationals before WW2 ?

I knew about George Travers (25 caps for Wales 1903-1911) and his son William "Bunner" Travers (12 caps for Wales 1937-1949 and 2 caps for British Lions 1938), two outstanding Welsh hookers portrayed above (in J.B.G.Thomas' "Great Rugger Players 1900-1954" published in 1955). 

George Travers (left) was in this famous Welsh squad who defeated the All Blacks in Cardiff in 1905. He is seen to be one of the first specialist hookers, transitioning from a time when forward positions were not very much differentiated (cf these old c1900 "Mitchell & Kenyon" videos: forwards gather pretty instantly after a scrum is called, on a "first ready - first in" basis... )

Sean (now at rugbeia.com) also reminds us of George (1 cap, 1905) and Walter (4 caps 1938-39) Vickery. Interestingly, father and son both played in the same Welsh club (Aberavon) but were respectively capped for England (George) and Wales (Walter)...

Do you know of other such rugby families ?

And now for something completely (not that) different...

Actually this "Father & Son" trivia was meant to digress... and to draw a parallel with "Le Fils à Jo", a French movie released earlier this week in France... lot of rugby inside ! "Le Fils à Jo" written and directed by Philippe "La Guille" Guillard after his own novel brings us the story of Jo, widower and father of a boy aged 13 in beautiful south-west France (Gaillac). Jo was a local rugby hero, son and grand-son of famous local ruggers... and Jo doesn't understand why his son has little interest in rugby and doesn't want to follow the same route. This comedy will not compete for Golden Palm at Cannes (understatement...) but is funny, sympathetic and will please all fans of grassroot rugby... And it's not so often (if not ever...) that you'll find a movie directed by a rugger ("La Guille" French champion 1990 with Racing Club de France - do you remember these "Show-Bizz" guys with the pink bow ties ??) starring another rugger (hooker Vincent Moscato, French Champion 1991 et 1998 with Bègles and Paris, 4 caps...) now showing solid acting talents. Congrats !

Here is the teaser (in French only).

PS : it's not my first note titled "father and son"... the previous was here showing one of my favorite postcards (also teasing...)

edit Jan.17th : John G. is sending us this impressive list of 19 new names. Thanks a lot ! I believe that all "Northern Hemisphere" families are here...

ENGLAND

R H Birkett (1871 - 1877) and son J G G (1906 - 1912)

W H Milton (1874 - 1875) and sons C H (1906) and J G (1904 - 1907)

H J Wilkinson (1889) and son H (1929 - 1930)

G C Hubbard (1892) and son J C (1930)

W E Tucker (1894 - 1895) and son W E (1926 - 1930)

R F A Hobbs (1899 - 1903) and son R G S (1932)

H T F Weston (1903) and son W H (1933 - 1938)

 

SCOTLAND

H T S Gedge (1894 - 1899) and son P M S (1933)

J B Waters (1904) and son F H (1930 - 1932)

J H Bruce Lockhart (1913 - 1920) and son R B (1937 - 1939)

R A Gallie (1920 - 1921) and son G H (1939)

 

IRELAND

F Schute (1878 - 1879) and son F G (1912 - 1913)

W S Collis (1884) and son W R F (1924 - 1926)

"R O N Hall" (1884) and son C F G T Hallaran (1921 - 1926)

G Collopy (1891 - 1892) and sons W P (1914 - 1924) and R (1923 - 1925)

A D Clinch (1892 - 1897) and son J D (1923 - 1931)

S T Irwin (1900 - 1903) and son J W S (1938 - 1939)

 

"R O N Hall" was the nom-de-guerre of the Leinster player William Hallaran, father of C F G T. Hallaran senior played under pseudonym so that his family did not know that he was "wasting his time while studying medicine at Trinity playing rugby."

 

WALES

T Baker Jones (1882 - 1885) and son P E R "Baker" (1921)

Howell Jones (1904) and son E H (1930)

 

There will be Flood...

From  Australia, 2011 to France, 1910...

Like many people around, I've been impressed by this recent gigantic flooding in Australia.

There might be little to compare, but I'd like to draw a parallel with a similar drama that happend 100 years ago in Paris when river Seine rose 20 feet above normal level during a whole week, infiltrating buildings and streets throughout the city and suburbs... So far, the greatest flood in the history of Paris... (cf Great Flood of Paris on Wikipedia)

My first postcards show how Stade de Colombes (host of the 1924 Olympics, former home of Equipe de France until the 70s and now home of the Racing Club de France, then known as Stade du Matin, after the name of its owner i.e. "Le Matin" newspaper) was flooded after the river rose above its banks... bad time for rugby... good time for rowing...

If you're interested to see more about this Great Flood, you could browse hundreds of pictures on these two websites :

"crue1910", in French only, developped by French Ministry of Ecology, brings tons of old postcards on a "kind of" Google map.

Pictures below (and many others here) are supplied courtesy of the Historic Cities Center, a joint project between the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jewish National and University Library . Let me thank the original poster, Ms Ekaterna Kislova... and the original French photographer Mr Pierre Petit.

 

 

  

(Seb, if you read me, the title of this post is for you - sorry, end of the private joke...)

W.Shakespeare and I wish you a Happy New Year

As this fine postcard (1910) reads "May Christmas bring you joy and the New Year every happiness"!

I was a bit puzzled to discover that the sentence above the picture "He misses not much" comes out of William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (1610). At first glance, there's nothing much about rugby in this play... except when you consider that this exact dialog relates to a rugby ground...

GONZALO.       How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!

ANTONIO.        The ground indeed is tawny.

SEBASTIAN.    With an eye of green in't.

ANTONIO.        He misses not much.

Full text here if you want to suggest alternative interpretation...

In the meantime... Happy New Year again !

And Rugby World Cup 2011 looming ahead...

Edited Jan 3rd : let's also share this "customized" Baines card... so far, my best photo editing effort! (original 'Bramley' card here)

 

Christmas Kick

I'm late... awfully late!!

I haven't posted any new story since more than two months... late and lazy... though I still have lots of rugby stories and pictures to share about new collecting finds, about Louis Magee in Paris, about rugby in Russia and Japan, about ruggers during WW1, about Northern Union tour in Australasia 1910, about the great flood in Paris and Colombes a hundred years ago, about grassroot rugby in Scotland, about Phil Grant's "Tommy Vile: A Giant of a Man", about Jep Pascot and his six rugby jerseys, about Twickenham stadium... just to name stories I've started to draft!!

Enough said... let me wish a happy Christmas to all my rugby friends - old and new - I've met this year, to all my rugby friends I've have seen in ages (hope to see you soon!), to all my rugby friends I haven't already met "IRL" (yes, I have to travel down under one of these days...) and to all anonymous rugby fans visiting "rugby-pioneers.com"...

As a small "present", let me share this early 1900s postcard... a "XMas and rugby" poem... pretty unique in its kind :-)... it reads like this:

YOU WON'T KICK
at my wishing you a MERRY CHRISTMAS WILL YOU ?

I tackle the job
with the greatest of glee
In Touch with Good Luck
at all Points may you be
A jolly Good Run through
a Scrum-ptious Yule...
May you Take all your Chances
And Score a Fine Goal.

I'll be back soon... at last!

Digital Treasures from the State Library of NSW

Libraries are a great place to wander... especially in the digital world !

I already discussed that point 18 months ago, but I'm pleased to realize that the quantity and quality of early rugby documents available online is continuously improving... as well as technical interfaces... as well as legal framefork which usually allows non-commercial use of documents (when copyrights have expired)

I regularly visit the collections of National Library of New Zealand (and their newspapers archive PapersPast ), of State Library of New South Wales and French National Library (Gallica... great improvement since 2009... a lot of fine early French rugby photographies... I'll come back later about it). I'm afraid that the National Library of South Africa and the famous British Library are lagging behind - rugby-wise, of course!

I'm displaying today sample pictures of a fine Australian brochure, "Illustrated Football Annual, 1909", owned by State Library of New South Wales, which brings a nice blend of coloured comic illustrated pictures (i like that!), team pictures (such as 1908 Moran's Wallabies) and rugby action...

Picture above (I want the same at home!) advertises for Zam-buk embrocation ("the great herbal balm") whereas picture below (previously published in British Chums magazine) shows all aspect of a rugby game...

By the way, this brochure also features Rugby League "superstar" Dally Messenger... the very same advertisement shared here four years ago (!! time flies !!) by our friend Sean Fagan (rl1908.com, colonialrugby.com.au, tribe13 and jottingsonrugby.com - no less!).

Let's also mention that State Library of NSW is a contributor to Flickr's project "The Commons" where various international institutions share early photographies of historical or cultural interest. Great initiative !

Here are two sample pictures from State Library of NSW gallery with a sporting interest...

Here are Australasian (Australia + NZ) team in Stockholm, Olympic Games 1912, and an anonymous Women Rugby Union team in Sydney, c1930 (Sam Hood collection at NSW State Library)...

Legal stuff :  the "Copyright rules" of State Library of NSW website reads "unless otherwise stated, you may access, download, print, reproduce and distribute content on this website for individual or non-commercial use provided that the copyright ownership is acknowledged.". Thank you!

HCup 1892-2010

HCup is back next Saturday !

During pool rounds, six English teams (Northampton, Saracens, London Irish, Bath, Leicester, Wasps) will play vs six French teams (Castres, Clermont, Toulon, Biarritz, Perpignan, Toulouse).

HCup (or so...) and "crunches" between British and French teams started back in April 1892 when Rosslyn Park of London and Stade Français of Paris played the first ever rugby fixture between a British side and a "Continental" team.

This game, played in Levallois near Paris, turned out to be a popular event attracting several thousand spectators... an easy win for Rosslyn (can't find out the exact score in my documents... but 'nil' for Stade Français...). The illustration above - published in French newspaper "Le Monde Illustré", April 1892 - gives you some flavours of the game (also cf these previous posts here and there)

After the game, a special commemorative sculpture was presented by Lady Dufferin, wife of  the British Ambassador, to Park captain E Figgis, and now resides at Rosslyn Park. The beautiful and delicate silver sculpture portrays a symbolic branch with laurel leaves intertwined with English oak leaves. A medallion bears the date 18th April 1892. (picture courtesy of Stephen Cooper of Rosslyn Park and rugbyremembers.co.uk - thank you Stephen!)

 
Two years later in March 1894, the same two teams met again in Paris (Bécon Les Bruyères) and, to everyone's surprise, Louis Dedet's Stade Français managed a short but historical 9 - 8 victory versus E.Figgis' Rosslyn Park... the first defeat of a British side in an international football game... a milestone in the history of French rugby... and an apportunity to share this "cartoon" report published in "L'Universel Illustré", March 1894, showing merely all aspects of the game!

.

Illustrations by Louis Bombled show various moments of the game... large picture here and let's zoom...

Stade Français captain Louis Dedet is acclaimed by the crowd...

  Stylish gentlemen ruggers...

Wild ruck (NB : Rosslyn lost two injured players during the game...)

Dribbling contest...

Kicking...

Say, the actual pictures published in another newspaper ("Le Soleil du Dimanche") show far less dramatic action... but, as the motto says: when the legend is more interesting than reality, just print the legend...

PS: if you can read French, check related newspaper articles here (1892), here (1894) and there (1894).

 

A Welshman in Bordeaux (and some legal stuff)

There certainly is a book to write about all these British sportsmen who went to France between 1890 and WW1 to play or coach in nascent French championship... They brought tactics, organisation, experience and leadership in a country enthusiast about Rugby Football, but lacking of many rugby basics... Quoting Louis Dedet, Stade Français captain after a severe defeat vs Rosslyn Park in 1892, the first ever international fixture in French rugby "That day, we discovered how rugby must be played"... meaning that passing the ball between backs could be an interesting option!

In this book, there should be a chapter about William Priest, in the center of this fine photography of Bordeaux team (Stade Bordelais Université Club "SBUC") in April 1910 together with French international players Leuvielle (Max Linder's brother...), de Beyssac, Bruneau, Massé, Monier, Martin...

In the early 1900s, Bordeaux was ruling French rugby championship : no less than 12 finals and 7 titles between 1899 and 1911... In 1908, after losing in final vs Stade Français, Welshman Willam Priest was hired as coach... and soon went in the middle of an international controversy about professionalism and amateurism - a touchy topic at the time!

It is said that Priest once hired a fly-back from an English club while also promising a paid job in Bordeaux. When RFU got to know about this, its officials put strong pressure on French Rugby Union (USFSA) to take action against Priest and Bordeaux. In December 1912, SBUC officials were all dismissed and Priest got sacked. I read that Priest then took legal action against USFSA... and eventually won his trial...

Actually, I'm just starting to investigate about this... I would like to know more about the facts, and I would be delighted to retrieve the minutes of Priest's trial. It will certainly be a long quest... any help, any hint will be welcome!

(large team photography here on Flickr)

Rugger in the Dark - Fiat Lux !

This morning, my rugby browsing led me pay a visit to Christian Jean's Esprit en Mélée - a fine blog, in French, bringing well written texts and quality photographies together about (or around...) our favorite sport...

Today's picture (left), a b&w photography by Philippe Roussel, shows a stadium light post under a dramatic dark sky... that suddently made me remind of these training pictures showing one of the very first attempts to bring artificial lightings on a rugby stadium !

The article, published in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News nov.28 1925,  was paying a tribute to Old Whitgiftians RFC's innovation : half-a-dozen acetylene flares and a ball painted white... and here we go for some "Scrumming and passing practice at night" !

Well, thank you gents... all amateur rugby teams training at night owe you something !

Full text of the article below :

Scrumming and passing practice at night: The Old Whitgiftians' Innovation

Alltough facetious people may be tempted to murmur something about the new "Midnight Follies", these peoples represent a really succesfull endeavour on the part of the members of the Old Whitgiftians Rugby Football Club to obtain evening practice in these days 'as the Irishman said) "of long nights". The have arranged to use the school ground, in Croydon, every Wednesday evening, and by the light of half-a-dozen acetylene flares, and using a ball painted white, they indulge in serious scrumming and passing practice. This is not the first time the experiement has been tried, and it has not always proved too successful ; but the Old Whitgiftains have quite "fallen" to the idea and are turning out in good numbers every week. This old boys' club has had a rather lean time since the war, but obviously they have the proper enthusiasm for the game.

 

Here we go again... at last !

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm back !

Indeed, I've been a bit lazy this summer, but I'm very happy to start blogging again about the early days of rugby...

There still are a lot of nice rugby pictures to uncover, of early rugby players to honour, and of fine rugby memorabilia to share. Not to forget some kind contributions (from Scotland and England - thank you Gents!) to be displayed soon.

Next stop : RWC 2011 in New Zealand !

And a video teaser to start this new "season" (cool technology by Stupeflix)

 

Work - Play

  
Work - too many things to do in July... resulting in poor blogging activity in the last weeks and tons of stories postponed to September... Sorry folks !

Play - time for Holidays... and poor blogging activity again ! except when I can find public computers... like today in Nantes airport on my way to RFU Rugby Museum in Twickenham... at last !

Play, again - 2010/11 season rugby starting soon here in France and Europe... no rest for ruggers (zoom below...) !

And this old English comic postcard (advertising for Spalding Sports) to make my point clear... !

High Tackle (and much more)

Here is a great 10 pages article by Fernand Bidault (the man on the roof in this previous post...) about rugby published in 1908 in "Je Sais Tout", a popular French encyclopaedia... candid text - obviously in French... - to explain rugby to an audience not familiar with sports, and many illustrations... like this powerful "Pacific style" tackle which is failrly surprising in early French rugby...

This article was spotted by Pascalou on French National Library website (some wonderful pre-WW1 photographies up there... definitely something I need to talk about soon... sample!) a couple of weeks ago... and now at home, scanned and ready to be shared... Here is a "player" to comfortably read the full text (enable "fullscreen" for a better experience)... and let's thank Pascalou for his scouting talents!

In my opinion, these sketches explaining basic tactics skill are most tastful...

This "Je Sais Tout" magazine was published by Pierre Laffite, also owner of French sports weekly "La Vie Au Grand Air"... hence common illustrations: "serious" collectors will recognize some of the photographies below that show various and anonymous action from French rugby championship... except the very last one which show Springboks power-players Paul Roos and Dougie Morkel !



 The latter picture, where Roos holds the ball for Morkel to kick, actually was the cover of "La Vie Au Grand Air" in January 1907. 

The Springboks ended their tour in Great Britain by playing in Paris, Parc des Princes, a poor French side... final score 54-6 game vs a Paris team (9 players from Stade Français incl. Combe, Lesieur, Jérome, Galichon...) NB : the "true" Equipe de France was playing in England two days after... cf previous posts here and there...

Rugby Stories for Boys

I really enjoy these old English books for boys from the 20s and 30s! Great artwork, vivid colours and energetic rugby action... introducing glorious rugby stories where young boys could be the star of a day...

Sean Fagan's most recent article at jottingsonrugby.com brings an interesting analysis of these boys' stories... suggesting that their main message, i.e. "creative thoughts, active contribution and hard work produce positive results - and there is nothing to be ashamed of in making that your goal" doesn't precisely match with rugby values and what teamwork is supposed to achieve...

Fair enough... let's just share some of these rugby covers...

Above are two recents finds : "The Great Book of School Stories", published by Herbert Strang in 1932, and "The British Boy's Annual", 1931. Below is another fine cover of "Boy's Own Paper", 1919.



My "Flickr friend" Mando Maniac has set a Flickr group dedicated to "Boy's Own" covers... more than 1000 illustrations are waiting for you here... (and some "Girls' Own" as well...)

Broadcasted !

All the TV cameras of World are currently focusing on South Africa as FIFA World Cup kicks off today...

80 years ago, movie and TV broadcast of sports events remained both a human and a technical challenge...  check this early camera, installed 30 feet above Twickenham ground by British Movietone News to bring coverage of the All Blacks tour in 1936. Above are "cameraman Leslie Murray and his sound partner Terry Cotter, at work, opening the 24 inch lens", as explained by Henry Wakeman in his book "The Game Goes On" published the same year (*).

The guys were right there behind the camera to capture Prince Obolensky scoring twice...

These gentlemen "in height" also reminds me of these two French sports journalists, Maurice Martin from "La Petite Gironde" and Fernand Bidault from "La Vie Au Grand Air" who managed their way up to the roof of Bordeaux Stadium to cover the final of French championship in March 1907, and to provide this remarkable graphical and statistical analysis of the game (large pic)...

Kind of "paper broadcasting"...

That day, Stade Bordelais crushed Stade Français 14 (4T 1B) to 3 (1T)... Interestingly, the game witnessed no less than 88 scrums (in these days, every tackle was followed by a scrum... also check these 1901 videos) and 89 throw-ins (direct kicking was then allowed everywhere...)...




(*) Footnote : Capt Henry B.T. "Teddy" Wakelam, after captaining the Harlequins, turned to be the very first to radio broadcast a "live" commentary on a rugby game in 1927 (England v Wales). As rugbyfootballhistory puts it "He became one of the team of all-round commentators, covering not just rugby, boxing, cricket and tennis [...]. His speciality was always rugby, however."... Then, a "fellow" of Edmond Dehorter, French radio "pioneer" in the 20s that I portrayed earlier this year...

Rugby at Rugby in 1852

This is an old litho c1900 captionned "Rugby at Rugby in 1852", from an earlier painting by George Barnard (larger pic here).

I am afraid that I've been unable to date and locate the original painting, neither to find any information on this painter (more than these poor facts on Artnet)... any suggestion would be appreciated.

Anyhow, this painting certainly ranges among the oldest representations of our favorite sport... it shows a large number of students, old and young, running with a ball on the Big Side. I'm inviting you to check these earlier posts to get more about playing fields at Rugby School and the players' kits ("skull and crossbones": here and there).

Please also check this fantastic photography provided by Nigel Trueman @ www.rugbyfootballhistory.com to better "feel" this "seminal" mid XIXth century rugby football...



This picture (larger pic here) is believed to be the oldest photography of Rugby School Team - "skull and crossbones" kit, again! - , taken in 1855 in Oxford. The captain, holding the ball, is young Richard Sykes, future captain of Manchester RFC (Hi Lorenzo !) and accredited with introducing the rugby game to the USA in the 1870s according to Wikipedia.... This being said, we'll not discuss the "paternity" of American rugby right now : there certainly were several British ruggers involved in the same period of time (1870s) in different places... cf the story of old Rubeian D.S.Schaff introducing rugby in Yale, 1871.

And now, let's prepare for South Africa... test match versus France next Saturday... I hope that the vuvuzelas of FIFA World Cup won't disturb the game...

Training... Coaching... Listening... Smiling...

I like this photography !

Somewhere in England... sometimes in the 30s... the rugby training is over, and all these young players gather around this gentleman to listen to his speech... (larger pic here )

Muddy jerseys and shorts, but smiles and happy faces all around... it seems that they all had great time today...

The caption is torn into pieces, save these fine three words "game", "played" and "coaching" to let you imagine your own story...

I just can't recognise this rugger (any hint ? see close up below)... he looks like wearing England colours, and must be famous enough to have a press photographer shooting this picture...

Just a reminder that rugby is not only about World Cup, TriSeries, VI Nations, Super14 and professional leagues...  

Edit Oct.6th : JohnG has got it! Thanks a lot...

The coach is Bert Toft, England's hooker between 1936 and 1939 and their captain against Scotland in 1938 and in all three of their Championship matches in 1939 (when France were temporarily excluded). He was a master at Manchester Grammar School from 1933 until the War. The pic probably shows him coaching a group of his schoolboy students. After the War he was an England selector up to 1952, when he became the rugby football correspondent of The Observer newspaper. 

A tribute to W.J.A. Davies - RFU "Wall of Fame"

I recently found this newspaper comic print... a full page portray of England fly-half and captain William John Abbott Davies published in 1922.

Say, I've never claimed - by far... - to be a specialist of the history of English Rugby! The name of this gentleman was familiar to me because I used to read his coaching / tactics book ("How to play Rugby Football" and "Rugby Football" published by Webster's in 1923 and 1933 respectively)... but I was far to know his achievements and that he was one of the first inductees to RFU "Wall of Fame".

As Dai Llewellyn puts it :

"Born in Pembroke in Wales in 1890, W.J.A.Davies led England to the Grand Slam in 1921 and 1923. He was also a member of the pre-War Grand Slam winning sides of 1913 and 1914.

He was England’s most capped fly-half with 22 appearances until Rob Andrew’s emergence towards the end of the 20th century, and he captained his country on 11 occasions.

His career was interrupted by the First World War, when, as a naval officer, Davies served aboard HMS Iron Duke, then HMS Queen Elizabeth and was appointed OBE in 1919 in recognition of his naval duty."

Four Grand Slams... despite of a five year break because of WW1... impressive!

He also enjoyed an impressive track record (cf his stats @scrum.com) : 22 played, 20 won, 1 draw (v France, 1922)... and only 1 lost (v South Africa, 1913... his international debut...). Check 1913 teams picture below (hi res picture here) where young Davies (then playing for Royal Naval College) stands in the third row, third from the left.

Let's also share these two pictures below, from W.J.A. Davies' "Rugby Football"

No date (1922 ?) : W.J.A.Davis, leading England at Twickenham, introducing his team to King George V.

W.J.A.Davies formed a notable international half-back partnership with his Royal Navy team-mate Cecil Kershaw; in their 14 matches together for England they never finished on the losing side (13W, 1D)... Here they are, giving a living example of "a short punt and quick follow up" to illustrate "Half back play" chapter...

P.S.: why does RFU have a "Wall of Fame" whereas most other sports do have a "Hall of Fame"... ?? something special to Rugby Union ? ;-)

Just comics...

Above : English comic postcards "The Adventures of Nosey Parkey", c1910

Below : French comic postcards, signed Boby, c1920 (nota: there're many other similar cards in this series... and I can't find them... please help!)





Remember... when I've no time to blog serious rugby stories, I just post nice pictures ;-)

PS : ten minutes ago, I was called by an old friend to join him and attend to French Top14 final tomorrow night... Perpignan vs Clermont... honestly, I don't know what colours to wear and which team to support...