L'Entente Cordiale Sportive

My take about France v England tomorrow in Paris...

 

Sportsman, journalist and rugby writer E.H.D.Sewell wrote in 1907 the best article in English (who said the only...?) about the history of early French rugby I’ve ever read.

 

When Sewell writes this wonderful “Entente Cordiale Sportive”, illustrated by Charles Ambrose, France has only been part of rugby international scene for two years (three games in Paris vs NZ, England and SA - yet not a test match - and a match in Richmond v England). The Entente Cordiale treaty which strengthens the politic and diplomatic links between England and France (after nearly a thousand years of sheer antagonism...), signed in 1904, is not much older...

 

Over 8 pages, Sewell explains and comments the development of rugby in Paris in the early 1890s under the leadership of Coubertin’s USFSA, the rise of Bordeaux as a leading provincial center and the apparition of the French team at international level. He also portrays many of my favorite players and officials from the era (da Silva Paranhos, Lane, Muhr or Louis Dedet “the prophet Daniel of French Rugger”...) and gives interesting prospects for the future of French rugby. Full of British wit, of course!

 

Follow this link to access hi res photos if reading is difficult

 

PS I’ve purchased these pages with no mention of the newspaper where they were originally published, but format and style suggest “C.B.Fry’s Magazine”

Comments

[D]

Bonjour Monsieur,
je suis un doctorant en histoire du sport travaillant sur le rôle joué par les Britanniques dans le développement des sports en France au XIX° siècle. Je viens de découvrir votre site tout à fait impressionnant, et j'aurais souhaité savoir si vous étiez disposé à échanger au sujet d'un certain nombre d'équipes, de dirigeants ou de joueurs de l'époque.
Bien cordialement.
François Bourmaud

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

Bonjour François
Les relations Franco Britanniques dans le rugby d’avant guerre sont un de mes sujets préférés !
Je n’ai pas votre e-mail. Contactez moi à [email protected] et on arrangera un moment pour en parler