A French triumph against the odds

Brendan Gallagher on the ten-match tour which changed rugby in France for ever

FRANCE’S ten-match tour and series win in South Africa 1958 can probably be viewed, historically, as the seminal moment in the development of Les Bleus. French rugby was never the same afterwards which means the rugby world itself changed.

On one level it was a ripping rugby yarn, a backs-to-the-wall triumph in adversity. Already travelling with a much-weakened squad to tackle the unofficial world champions in their own lair, France picked up a litany of injuries early on and appeared complete no hopers. Keeping the score decent was the height of their ambition yet they drew the first Test 3-3 at Newlands and won the second Test at Ellis Park 9-5. It was the first time in the 20th century South Africa had lost a home series. Some papers, and not just in France, hailed Les Bleus as the new world leaders in the sport.

After their heroics, the International Rugby Board – consisting of the Home Unions and the three southern hemisphere giants – had to finally confront the necessity of allowing France to take their place at the committee table. It was in the immediate aftermath of this tour that notion of the French being allowed to participate in the governance of the game was first openly discussed by the anglosphere although shamefully it was another 20 years before it was permitted.

Buoyed by the success of the tour France then rattled off four straight Five Nations title wins between 1959-62 – three outright and one shared with England who were very strong during this era – with wing Jean-Vincent Dupuy, right, one of the stars. Heady stuff but if that wasn’t enough there was much more. This was the tour when France, out of necessity, learned to scrummage with science as well as passion and the scrum became an integral part of their game.

This was also the tour when the world-renowned photojournalist Philip Le Tellier – more usually seen in the world’s war zones or chronicling street life in seething cities – decided to travel with the party to document what was really going on in apartheid South Africa. Off the back of the rugby tour his stark images of segregated pens for black spectators gained much more currency than they might otherwise have done. The anti-apartheid movement owes a big debt to Le Tellier. The sporting world tried to look away but his haunting images would not permit such cowardice.

“Some papers, and not just in France, hailed Les Bleus as the new world leaders in the sport”

The trip had started in the most unpromising fashion. France had suffered six straight defeats in 1957 and early 1958 and although they recovered a little to win two Championship matches in 1958 the mood was pessimistic. Some big names couldn’t make the trip through a combination of work and National military service – prop Amedee Domenech, centres Maurice Prat and Andre Bonfice, flyhalf Antonie Labazuy and forwards Henrie Domec and Michel Hoche.

In passing, the French, who always stood accused of quasi professionalism during this period by British commentators, could never understand how British and Irish players could absent themselves from work for five months for a long tour south, and South Africa, Kiwis and Aussies could do likewise when travelling north. It was a mystery, no?

Anyway, off they flew to South Africa and it’s worth mentioning this was their third short tour since World War Two. Long before the individual home unions embarked on their own – non Lions – tours, France were on the road. They visited Argentina in 1949 and South America (mainly Argentina) again in 1954. Despite language barriers the French were good tourists. They were versatile and adaptable and tended to rise to the occasion. Soon after this tour they won again in Argentina in 1960, beat South Africa in Springs in 1964 after a short six match tour and drew another series with the Boks in 1967. The French travelled very well.

The start of this 1958 tour was a swine though. On top of their absentees they picked up a multitude of serious injuries in the first four games. Ruled out of action for the rest of the tour were skipper Michel Calaya (knee), reserve scrum-half Pierre Lacroix (ankle), classy fullback Michael Vannier (ankle), flanker Louis Casaux (broken wrist) and wing Jacques Lepatey who was in hospital after an appendix operation. First choice scrum-half Pierre Danos had picked up a big concussion that left him out cold for an hour or more although he was deemed to have recovered in time for the Test matches and indeed played superbly in both games.

It wasn’t looking good… but some big personalities stepped forward. Young medic Lucien Mais was a charismatic leader of men and took over from Calaya and started cracking the whip, especially with his pack. There was no hope unless they stood firm against the mighty Boks forwards.

Smooth operator: Jean Carrere in action in South Africa. The flanker played eight out of the ten matches on tour and would have played the other two given the choice

Mias and in particular his experienced and innovative hooker Robert Vigier identified the scrum as the main area of weakness. France had to change their technique entirely to stop the front row splintering in horrible and costly fashion. Vigier realised that in first choice props Alfred Roques and Aldo Quaglio France had two formidable specimens and that he, a slight figure who had often played in the backs, was the point of weakness the Boks would attack. Only an old campaigner such as Vigier, whose job as a test driver relied on objectivity, was likely to have that level of self awareness while it also required an unusual lack of ego.

So at practice the French flankers were ordered to switch their angle of shove. For decades the French way had been for flankers to push squarely behind their props. But on this tour they were going to angle in to bolster and support their hooker, or put more crudely pin him in position. The French locks also made significant changes, again designed to make their hooker immovable. The left lock would henceforth lead with his right leg, i.e. most of his weight and heft would be transferred into their hooker – while the right lock would lead with his left leg to mirror this. Another advantage of this method is that it was quicker for the ball to be heeled into the back row and out to the backs.

France worked on this in training and warm-up matches and by the first Test were good to go. The truth is that it transformed French rugby for ever – far from being a short term fix, it was the way forward. France had occasionally had tough strong specimens in the front row, volatile characters who saw the scrum as a chance to duel with their opponent, but there had been no science to their method, no acknowledgement that scrummaging was about the collective. It was a Damascus moment and since 1958 – even taking into account non-vintage eras – you can count the number of games in which a France scrum has been splintered or shunted back on the fingers of one hand.

“The 80-minute ferocity of French defence stopped South Africa in their tracks”

Come the Tests and France had one other surprise up their sleeves. They had known from the off that it would require two huge once-in-alifetime defensive efforts in the Test matches and frankly they had been keeping plenty back in that respect, hence their patchy performances in the run in. You could only go to that particular well so often.

The 80-minute ferocity of the French defence stopped South Africa in their tracks, literally, and paved the way for all that followed. The draw on a soft giving pitch at Newlands and then 9-5 win on the concrete hard white parched surface of Ellis Park.

In that first Test it was Danos, recovered from his knock, who secured the draw after Boks No.8 Phil Lochner had crossed for an unconverted try. A dropped goal by then had declined from four to three points in value but it came into play massively again in the second Test when dropped goals from Pierre Lacaze and Roger Martin help France to their win. Lacaze also kicked a penalty while for the Boks, wing Loftie Fourie crossed for a converted try. It was the French tackling however that both games are chiefly remembered for, never more than in the second half at Ellis Park when South Afria poured it on and France refused to buckle.

Such heroics surely warranted a book and that’s exactly what it got, indeed it spawned the best tour book ever – Le grand combat du XV de France – by the remarkable Denis Lalanne. The doyen of French sportswriters generally, Lalanne was the scribe who caught the character not just the moment. Cricket had Neville Cardus, cycling Dino Buzatti and rugby had Lalanne. An English translation of the book can still be found in dusty book shops and editions occasionally appear online. Grab one if you can.