Rugby-Pioneers: 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...