Rugby at the Olympics:
How Committed Rugby Fan Pierre de Coubertin Ensured its Inclusion

When the Rugby sevens tournament kicks off in Paris on the 24^th July as the first sport to be played in this summer’s Olympic games, it is perhaps worth sparing a thought for the man who is widely accepted as ‘The father of The Modern Olympics’, Baron Pierre de Coubertin who strived to ensure its inclusion.

De Coubertin was a committed fan of the game he had first witnessed at Rugby School in Warwickshire in 1883, when as a young man he spent some time at the school, concluding that organised sport could be used to ‘raise the aspirations and improve the behaviour of young people’. No other sport, he believed, possessed the ‘combination and the drama of rugby’

The visit was part of a wider tour of English Public Schools and Oxford and Cambridge universities, which he greatly admired for their devotion the sport.

He had read Thomas Hughes’ hugely popular book ‘Tom Brown’s School-days’, as a boy (which includes a graphic description of a ‘rugby match’), first published in 1857,  which was an account of the author’s experiences at Rugby School in the 1830’s and which heavily features Headmaster Thomas Arnold who has been described as, ‘The single most important influence on the life and thoughts of Pierre de Coubertin’

 

He made no secret of the role Rugby School played in inspiring him to found the modern Olympics. Rusty McLean the school’s archivist noted that

De Coubertin was an educational reformer in France. He visited the school on several occasions and was even said to have spent a night in the chapel where he is said to have had his ‘light bulb’ moment for the creation of the modern Olympics

He was also invited to Much Wenlock in Shropshire in 1890, by Dr William Penny-Brookes, who had founded ‘The Wenlock Olympian Games in 1850.

The two men discussed their similar ambitions of staging an international Olympic revival to be held in Athens and their shared views on the role of physical education in schools and participation at all social levels; sadly Penny-Brookes would die four months before the Games in Athens took place in 1896.

On his return to Paris inspired by what he had seen at Rugby School and Much Wenlock, de Coubertin became a very active promoter of physical education and in particular the sport of rugby and introduced it into several schools in the French capital, setting up the first French Schools Championship helping to secure the long term future of the sport in France.

He continued to play rugby himself in Bois de Boulogne, where the sport had been played informally by British students in the early 1880’s, and his knowledge of the game was reputedly well respected by his peers, leading to him being nominated as a referee.

Due to Greece’s indifference to the inclusion of rugby in the first modern games in 1896, de Coubertin pushed hard for its inclusion in 1900 and such was his passion for the sport that he refereed the first domestic French Club Championship match between Stade Francais and Racing Club de France in 1892 and then France’s first international match against New Zealand in 1906, in which the French were beaten 38-8, by the tourists in front of 10,000 fans.

This was the first tour where the New Zealanders would wear their ‘all black strip’ and perform the Haka before each match.

At the 1900 Games in Paris, three teams entered, France, Germany and Great Britain (represented by ‘Moseley Wanderers’ from Birmingham, not to be confused with Moseley RFC), with the gold going to the hosts who won both their matches.

It is believed that the first black athlete to compete at an Olympics was Constantin Henriquez competing for France in this competition, also becoming the first black athlete to win an Olympic gold medal.

In 1908, again only three teams entered in London, but surprisingly the French were unable to raise a team and so they dropped out, leaving the hosts, this time represented by County Champions Cornwall (the competition coincided with a British Isles tour of Australasia) to fight it out against the touring Australians, who came out 32-3 winners.

In 1920, in Antwerp only two teams entered, with the USA beating France 8-0 to secure the gold medal and in 1924, in a triangular event, the holders USA beat Romania and France to retain the title that they still hold today.

Interestingly, the USA v Romania match was refereed by Welshman Charles Leyshon from Cardiff, who made history by dismissing the American player Ed Turkington, who thus became the first person to be ‘sent off’ in a rugby international test match.

To date, this was the last time the 15 a side format of the game has featured at the Olympics, initially due to the crowd violence and a pitch invasion after the final by the French crowd, which served to give rugby a very poor image, but the departure of de Coubertin as President of the IOC in 1925, was probably the main reason why the sport was dropped from the programme.

There was an ‘exhibition’ tournament played at the 1936 Berlin Games, which involved four teams, France beating Germany in the final 19-14, but no medals were awarded; de Coubertin would pass away in 1937 aged 74 and is now seen by many as a very ‘controversial figure’, due to his views on race and gender, however, he was inducted into the World Rugby Hall of Fame in 2007 in recognition of his passionate support for the sport.

 

Rugby would re emerge on the Olympic stage at the ‘Rio Games’ in 2016, in the guise of ‘Rugby Sevens’ for both men and women which, rather like T20 Cricket (which will feature at the LA Games n 2028 after a 128 year hiatus) is seen as a shorter more exciting version of the sport, which is considered to be more competitive for the smaller nations; an important consideration for the IOC.

Fiji would take gold in the men’s and Australia the women’s in 2016 and Fiji went on to retain their title in Tokyo, with New Zealand taking the women’s title and with French superstar, Antoine Du Pont strengthening the hosts challenge in the men’s tournament, it should be a thrilling sport to follow at Paris 2024.

Article coppyright of Bill Williams