Le Crunch: A New Year's Day rugby game in 1908
The first and only time England Rugby played an official game of Test rugby on New Year’s Day was against France in 1908. It was just the third meeting between the two teams but the fixture, now known as 'Le Crunch', has gone on to be played more than 100 times.
In the previous two matches, England had won 35-8 in Paris in 1906 before claiming a convincing 41-13 win back in London the following year.
However, in 1908 England Rugby returned to the French capital to the Stade de Colombe to take on a side that had improved steadily since playing its first official game just two years prior against the All Blacks.
As a sport, rugby is often played in tough conditions, but back in 1908 the weather did its best to put the players off as temperatures dropped to as low as -11 on New Year's Eve.
There was even a snowstorm in the build up to the match that lasted until less than an hour before kick-off and made both the pitch and the ball slippery, not to mention the freezing conditions that would have bitten at the players’ fingers.
Despite the cold, the locals must have enjoyed the idea of a rugby game to welcome the New Year, with 4,000 in attendance.
France threatened to open the scoring and it took a try-saving tackle from Alfie Wood to keep them out.
However, it was England who struck first when Walter Lapage scored a try, worth three points at the time, before setting up William Mills for the second of the game.
Injuries hampered the French defensive efforts and, while they continued to make things difficult for the English, Garnet Portus, John Birkett and Douglas Lambert (although some reports credit Hudson) all crossed for tries.
G.D. Roberts successfully kicked two of the tries into goals, making them worth five points which sealed a 19-0 win. Although England were never in danger of losing this fixture, the impressive French performance gave a taste of the rivalry that was to come.
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England captain Thomas Kelly told Le Matin: “Your team [France] have made astonishing progress. We never would have thought that they would hold out with such strength.
“Their forwards were excellent and Hubert is the player who impressed me the most. From my team, Portus and Brickett played the best.”
The newspaper also made a point of stating that in his praise of the opposition and his teammates, Kelly had forgotten to mention another player who performed brilliantly, himself.
A number of future England Rugby captains played in the game, including Lancelot Slocock and Robert Dibble, while Kelly remains the only Exeter player to have captained England Men.
Sadly, many of the players involved in the game died during the First World War, including Lambert and Slocock from the English side, as well as Pierre Guillemin, Henri Isaac, Gaston Lane and Alfred Maysonnié from Les Bleus.
