BRENDAN GALLAGHER ON WHY FRANCE ENDED UP SPENDING 16 YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS
Brendan Gallagher looks back on ‘The Rupture’ when the four Home Unions decided to expel France from Five Nations

MENTION the “Rupture” in English rugby circles and most will think of the civil war amidst English clubs over broken time payments at the back end of the 19th century which eventually saw the foundation of the professional Rugby League in 1895.
In France, however, the Rupture always refers to their brutal expulsion from the old Five Nations in 1931 and the 16 tumultu...