"Contrechamp" : Springboks 1907

Dear Sandrine, I have been trying for ages to write a note called "Contrechamp"... and you will admit that it's not exactly obvious when my main topic is about rugby, in English moreover... Done deal, and end of private messages...

French cinema vocabulary... "Shot - Reverse Shot" or "Champ - Contrechamp" in French...

"Champ" : Paul Roos' Springboks in Paris, Parc des Princes, January 3rd 1907, before crunching 54-6 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...

"Contrechamp" : 12 French press photographers... I've never seen so many of them in my old documents ! The Springboks, stopping over in Paris after their triumphant tour in Great Britain in 1906, were celebrated as rugby "masters"... enough to deserve the front page of French main sports magazine "La Vie Au Grand Air" (cf below : Morkel kicking while Roos is holding the ball)



The pictures don't come from the same newspaper... the upper one comes from "Les Sports Illustrés", the bottom one from "La Vie Au Grand Air"... Funnily, there was more competition in French sports press 100 years ago than today...

PS : I know that apartheid was officially established in 1948, but it's worth mentionning that Paris team was captained by a coloured player, Georges Jérome from Stade Français... a gentleman famous enough (2 international caps, 5 championship finals) to appear twice on the cover page of "La Vie au Grand Air" in 1905...

 

rugby, springboks, paul roos, contrechamp

Comments

[John]

Hi love the top pictures of The Springboks I wonder if it was ever produced as a postcard?

[Frederic (www.rugby-pioneers.com)]

Hi John,

I've never seen any postcard like this... I also wonder why there are so few postcards with international rugby in France ? a matter of money to pay the publishers ??

Cheers

F