Rugby-Pioneers: "The Crunch" : from 1906 to 2006...

We are going to celebrate tomorrow 100 years of France - England games... !

This is a press coverage of the first "France - England" of history, on March 22 1906, in Paris (Parc des Princes)

This is only the second official game of the "Equipe de France", a couple of months after having met Gallagher's All Blacks. As Froggies were far from being ridiculous on that occasion (France scored two tries, ie more than England + Scotland + Ireland together during their tests matches against the same Blacks...), the International Board agreed on French proposal to have an annual game ... the "V nations Tournament" started... (actually, France first played Wales in 1908 and Ireland in 1909. Finally in 1910 they played Scotland...)

A few words about the referees :

Regular readers of this blog would have recognized former Stade Français captain Louis Dedet, one of my favorite "characters" of French rugby history... I have already blogged about him here, there and there and there again...

The line referee is Mr Cyril Rutherford, a former RCF player (and later Secretary for International Affairs at the "Federation Francaise de Rugby") who did a lot to introduce French rugby to his fellows from the International Board

And a few words about the match itself :

Final score 8 - 35 (2 tries to 9...) for England... all the stats are here (thanks scrum.com)

Interestingly, there were three foreigners in the French side, an American (Allan Muhr from Stade Français who scored the first try of France in the history of the Tournament...), an Englishman (William Crichton) and a Welshman (Ernest Lewis... his only cap...)

On the French side, let's name Marcel Communeau (check this previous post), Emile Lesieur (famous sprinter and future President of Stade Français... great friend of Roland Garros... who scored the second try for the Frenchies), Gaston Lane (RCF, captain of the team)...

If you want to read or download this article (in French) from La Vie Au Grand Air, you will find a better resolution copy on my Flickr.

edited 12/3 : YES ! 31-6... nice way to celebrate this anniversary (as Jacques says in his comment...). If I am not wrong, +25 is the largest win of France against England ever....