Rule n°33 "the Island is all in goal"

Are you sure, dear reader, that you know all the rules of Rugby game ?

Just consider rule n°33 "the Island is all goal"... (in French "l'Ile est entièrement dans l'en-but")

I am "obviously" refering to the very first written rules of our favorite sport, written in 1845 by three 17 years old students of Rugby College (W.D.Arnold - Thomas Arnold's son -  W.W.Shirley and F.Hutchins )... A French editor recently had this fine idea to publish a booklet (here @ Amazon in French, and here @ Amazon in English) gathering and translating both 1845 and 1871 rules, together with a nice foreword by Jean Lacouture and historical explanations by Jed Smith, the curator the RFU Museum of Rugby at Twickenham (cf this previous note)

1845 rules - again, the very first written rules of any kind of football-rugby - were then comprizing of some local particularities of Rugby College, about discipline, about college rules etc... but also about local topography !

If the "Big-Side", i.e. this large area of deep grass inside the college walls, being just perfectly sized for the practice of rugby... , is fairly well known in "rugby litterature" (cf this 1900s postcard below), I must admit I didn't know anything about this Island... Here is larger map of Rugby College as shown in this book... and let's imagine a XIXth rugger diving for a valid try in this Island... without the support of the video referee...



Nota : "The Island" is a 1891 etching published in Illustrated London News (June 6, 1891) in a 8 page supplement about "the great schools of England" - great text and pictures about Rugby school...

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Why bore the New Zealanders' Full-Back ?

"Why bore the New Zealanders' Full-Back ?" asked this full page cartoon published by British weekly newspaper The Sketch, November 1st, 1905.

According to illustrator Harry Rowntree (a New Zealander, I admit...), it seemed that All Blacks fullback Billy Wallace, Leon MacDonald and Mils Muliaina predecessor in the famous 1905 "Colonial" squad, was so easy during the games that he could rest in a deckchair and have tea while his teammates were outrageously dominating their opponents...

Full caption reads :

A hint to the opponents of the "All Blacks"

If you will not let the New Zealanders' full back take part of the game, why not entertain him in this fashion until the end of the match ?

To put the things back in their historical context, Rowntree and all rugby commentators were utterly impressed by the first results of these newly named All Blacks in this loooong tour (September 1905- February 1906 ! 35 games played... 34 won and 1 lost to Wales... 976 points "for" 59 points "against"....). As of November 1st 1905, the Blacks had already played 13 games against serious regional teams (Cornwall, Midlands, Leicester, Gloucester...) with an impressive series of stats : 100% won... 450 points "for" and 15 points "against"... 107 tries "for" (8 per game... !!) and only 2 tries "against"...

But if one can imagine that Billy Wallace could have been pretty idle "defensively" during these games, just consider that his personnal "offensive" stats are as impressive as the "defensive" ones.... 30 games played (out of 35.... no turnover for him...), 27 tries, 74 conversions and 3 penalty kicks... hardly no time to rest in a deckchair...

Here is a portrait of Billy Wallace, from The Sketch, November 29, 1905 (strong press coverage, indeed....)

edited Sept.27 : Sean Fagan of RL1908 fame is referring this link to the New Zealand Rugby Museum where you could read Wallace's full bio. Sean also suggest that my stats are misleading because they include many games where Wallace was not playing fullback... Sean has it right, as usual !

"Yet Wallace was never more than a reluctant fullback. His personal
preference was as a wing and of the 11 tests he played only three, his
debut in 1903, against Ireland in 1905 and the Anglo Welsh in 1908,
were as a fullback. Of his 51 All Black games only 19 were as a
fullback."

 

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France - Ireland 1925

Things are getting more serious at the RWC... tomorrow France will challenge Ireland, and the defeated team has 99% chances to leave the competition at pool stages.

I will attend to the game in Paris with my 8 years old son... his first rugby game ! we have the replica jersey, we have the blue-white-red make up.. we are ready !

Easy transition, indeed, to introduce this fine painting by Georges Leroux, published in L'Illustration in 1925,  showing rugby action at Colombes stadium... (larger pic here) Please note the dense crowd... the cameraman close to the players.... and the poor position of the French fullback...

Actually I have already posted this picture some time ago, but never noticed another detail : the artist signed and dated his work on Dec.31, 1924... whereas this fixture was played the day after, i.e. Jan. 1st 1925... wrong date ? or is it that the artist just painted after his imagination... ?

Thinking about Ireland... let's also share this poor but interesting picture of French captain Philippe Struxiano (Stade Toulousain) celebrating in Dublin our first victory ever against Ireland (and France fist away victory ever, as well) in April 1920... (first Tournament after WW1)



You could also read some press report (in French) here, and get a larger picture there...




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