Organising trial games to select international players is as old as international rugby... as it was possibly the only way for committees to review "in real life" ruggers they only knew from written or verbal reports... if not from the newspapers... Here are some pictures of early French selection games...
The upper postcard shows a "South" team in 1908, feat. gentlemen from Stade Toulousain (Fabregat - the man wearing an impressive beard... -, Avejean...), Bordeaux (Massé, Martin...), FC Lyon, US Bergerac, CA Perigueux etc... (here is a
king size picture if you want to get the names of all players). The referee on the right is Cyril Rutherford, a well known player, referee and official... who really deserves a full story one of these days...
I've never seen, so far..., any picture of the "North" team (Paris, Le Havre...) !
I would be delighted if any fellow collector could share it here...
The photography below is a press clipping (in La Vie Au Grand Air) from a "Possibles vs Probables" match in 1911 in Paris (Parc des Princes)... Easy win 33-3 to the Probables in white... my picture shows SCUF lock
Jules Cadenat jumping to contest the ball over Pierre Mouniq's head (n°2)... that day, his teammates were Communeau, F. Forgues, Lane, Paoli, Faillot, Burgun, Dufau (n°14), Laribau (n°9), de Beyssac... (full size pic
here)
As far as I know, this is my oldest French picture showing numbers on jerseys... Does someone know about Home Countries ?
Indeed, you couldn't miss these large numbers... that were printed on both sides of the jersey !
The very same jerseys (in these early days - expensive - jerseys were returned to the team manager after the game...) were worn again in December the same year to prepare 1912 season... but North vs South again... suggesting some swaps between Blacks and Whites... full size (even
king size...) and names
here: Cadenat... in black standing between Communeau (n°7) and Mauriat (n°2) on the left... Mouniq in white (n°1) with F.Forgues (n°8) on the right...
