Modern history today ! A 30 years flashback to July 14th, 1979 ("Bastille Day") to recall the first victory ever of a French side touring to New Zealand...
Possibly one of my first "rugby" souvenir (I was 12)... that day, Jean-Pierre Rives and his goodfellows (Gallion, Joinel, Dubroca, Paparemborde, Dintrans, Codorniou, Aguirre...) defeated Graham Mourie's All Blacks 24-19 (names of all players here)... Above is the programme of the match, and below is a 10min summary of the game on French TV... You'll hear French commentator Roger Couderc almost dying from heart attack at the end...
This leads us to another classic New Zealand v France test match tomorrow at Carisbrook... French rugby is so desappointing these days that it would be foolish to place a bet on France, but our kiwi friends are our favorite victims of some rare "coup d'éclat" (1979, 1994, 1999, 2007)... "Our test matches are always a trip into the unknown..."
The last sentence isn't mine... It was mailed to me earlier this week by His Blackness Jed "Jedi" Thian... Some of you know that I am a big fan of his Alternative Rugby Commentary (here on the web - here on Facebook)... For those who don't know him yet, please do take three minutes to check these videos (shot in 2007) : the first one will show you Jed "at work" live in a pub and on the web, the second one is an hilarious teaser for the previous (and miserable...) French tour in New Zealand...
Jed has also set up a group on Facebook to cover tomorrow event... when I read the baseline ("Let see what makes these frogs tick...") and see the supporting picture there, I do have some ideas about his views on the game ;-)
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