For you fans more extracts of my book.
Know that I will be at Gilbert Brutus stadium next Saturday 29th from 4pm near Dragons Shop with books and my friend Marc rugby league painter. Now already to meet you !
CHAPTER II
Banning of Rugby League by the Vichy Government (1940)
Context of those times…
After the Ligue was launched in 1934, rugby union leaders tried everything to block rugby league, particularly by banning the game from stadiums and grounds. The following is an extract from L’Echo des Sports from 9 January 1934: “… the smell of rugby league players lingers at a ground forever”.
In January 1938, ministers Leo Lagrange and Jean Zay no longer tolerated activities organised by the FFRXV to ostracise rugby league institutionally. They played their part in obtaining official recognition for rugby league, and on 12 January 1938 the Ligue was given ministerial approval number 16739. Rugby league at the time was generating more honour for France than any other sport with its brilliant international results. It became the first team sport in which the French had beaten the English on their own soil with a score of 12-9 against St Helens on 25 February 1939, helped by stars Jean Dauger from Bayonne and the unforgettable Max Rousié from Marmande.
In a book published (1) in 1938, Honorary President of the FFR (XV) Fernand Forgues unreservedly made the following declaration on page 32: “Rugby league is a mushroom, a monstrous external growth that has formed on a sick body: the Federation. But the statement in the introduction by the book’s author, Herman Grégoire, hit a new low: “The game of rugby is witnessing the growth of the monstrous cyst of professionalism [rugby league] (…) on its weakened body. The sores must be burned with hot irons (…)
Common sense tells us we must use fire and lancets to treat the growths (…) French sport must reject all foreign bodies.”
In the second edition of the Ligue’s official journal, Rugby Treize, published on 2 July 1938, President Laborde confirmed that the players did not have ‘professional’ status because they were required to have jobs outside rugby, ensuring that payments from clubs only covered time spent training. An undeniably authentic document (2) provides the proof: an image of Villeneuve-sur-Lot players, each one with employment outside rugby league. The commissioner for sport, and the honorary president of the FFR, Paul Voivenel, must have been aware of this. So must rugby union clubs and their managers, particularly the Arlequins of Perpignan, have been.
When the Germans invaded on 10 May 1940, rugby league would continue for only a few more months. On 22 August 1940, Jean Ybarnegaray, founding President of the French Federation of Basque Pelota and Secretary of State for Youth and the Family declared (3): “The fate of Rugby League is clear. Its life is over and it will quite simply be deleted from French sport...”. A few days later, when a journalist asked Commissioner for Sport Jean Borotra if the Ligue de Rugby à XIII would be dissolved he said: (4) That is not what I said. If it is proven that rugby league has a distinct character and essential differences that distinguish it from rugby union, and is clearly of value, then the question may be looked at.”
CHAPTER V
Rugby League in the Basque Country (1937-1958)
Bayonne…
Rugby league began in 1934 with the Côte Basque XIII team under the joint leadership of Doctor Déjeant and Mr Miremont. The head office of the club was located at 4 rue Lormand, before it was transferred to the Grande Brasserie de Bayonne in 1944.
From the first season of the championship in 1934, well-known names in rugby union appeared, including Francis Daguerre, Goyetche, Rapp, Saint Celbe, Ladoumègue, Darrigade, Rollet, De Malaret, Castex, Bonnet, Cussac and Bergèze. With no ground in Bayonne, Côte Basque XIII established itself in the neighbouring town of Anglet at ‘Stade des XIII’, which opened on 20 January 1935. Between 1935 and 1937, the team was captained by Welsh player Tom Parker.
1936 was a great year for Côte Basque with victory in the final of the Coupe de France Lord Derby against the great Villeneuve-sur-Lot and its international players, including Galia, Rousié, Porra and Bruneteau. The reception given to the winners on 23 April 1936 took place amid the splendour of Bayonne City Hall. In the same year, a new junior team emerged called ‘Le Crampon Basque’ (The Basque boots). On Ascension Day, 1936, Côte Basque XIII played Widnes, from England. The game ended in a 14-14 draw. Labourdique, Etchart (two) and Lacour scored tries for Côte Basque XIII, and there was a conversion from Rousié. Millington, Roberts, Kaks and Evans scored tries for Widnes, with a conversion from Jacks.
Côte Basque XIII was invited to the north of England in October 1936 and lost all four matches it played there. The team played three matches in one week. The first was against Bradford on 14 October, which it lost 23-12, the second against Hull on 17 October, another loss at 33-1, and the third against Wigan on 21 October, which it lost 21-15. A fourth match was played against a Lancashire side who defeated Côte Basque XIII 32-5.
On
