On me dit dans l’oreillette (branchée avec la Nouvelle Zélande) que le cameraman est le Honorary Captain Henry
Sanders, New Zealand Engineers. (
Ron Palenski nous envoie aussi le compte rendu de Malcolm Ross, le correspondant de guerre qui suivait la NZEF. Cet article paru dans le Taranaki Daily News le 21 may 1918 évoque le match, le banquet, la spectaculaire évasion de Géo André et de son camarade Saillot, Maurice Boyau et la vie à Paris... à lire absolument si un peu d'Anglais de vous fait pas peur !
J'ai juste mis en exergue la phrase qui dit que les NZ ont eu de la chance et que la meilleure équipe n'a pas gagné...
FOOTBALL IN FRANCE.
NEW ZEALAND v. FRANCE.
(From Malcolm Ross)
The annual Rugby football match between teams from the Armies of France and New Zealand took place on a recent Sunday at the Parc des Princes Velodrome, Paris. Parenthetically, it may be remarked that, except for the church services, Sunday, in the war, is tile same as any other day. All work goes on just as on week days, and there is no half-holiday at the front.
The teams were as follows:—
New Zealand.—Bdr. Capper, back; Dvr. Doull, Gnr. Ryan, Spr. Loveridge, three-quarters; Spr. Murray (captain) and Pte. Carnegie, five-eighths; L.-Cpl. Brown, half-back; Cpl. Standen, Sgt. Fogarty, Sgt. Wilson, Gnr. West, Sgt. Bell, Pte. Geary, and Spr. M'Donald, forwards.
Franco.—Sgt. Navos (Olympique, Biarritz) hack: Sgt. G.André (Racing Club de France.) Sgt. Strohl (Racing Club de France), Sgt. Lasserre (Aviron Bayonnais). and Cpl Jaurreguy (Stadoceste Tarbais), three-quarters; Cpl. Struxiano (Stade Toulousain) and Lt. Domercq (Aviron Bayonnais), half-backs; Sec.-Lt. Mauriat (Football Club de Lyon), Sgt.-Maj. Nicolai, Lt. de Beyssac (Stade Bordelais), Sgt. Jules Forgues (Aviron Bayonnais), Sgt. Fernand Forgues (Aviron Bayonnais, captain), Sgt.Maj. Rouzies (Stade Toulousain), Lt. Thierry (Racing Club de France), and Sgt. Saillot (Cercle Amical de Paris), forwards.
The match was watched with the keenest interest by a crowd of between 15,000 and 20,000 people. Lieutenant Boyau, of the Flying Corps, was to have captained the French. He has brought down thirteen German planes. Last year he flew over to Paris in his plane from the front, played as captain in the match, and then flew back to the front in the evening. It was his intention to have repeated the same performance this time, but the weather was too fine for sport when there were Boche planes about, so the gallant Boyau stayed at home, and that day brought down his thirteenth enemy plane. There were several distinguished people, military and others, present at the match, but duty at the front prevented any Anzac general from attending. The New Zealand team was in charge of Colonel A. Plugge, C.M.G., who acted as one of the line umpires. The referee was an American resident in Paris, who after the war commenced joined up with the French Army and was now in the uniform of the American Army, but wearing the Croix de Guerre, gained, I was told, at Verdun. Miss Russell, daughter of the New Zealand General kicked off, after having been presented with a very handsome bouquet by the promoters of the match, which, by the way, was in aid of the purchase of footballs for the French Army. Moving and other pictures of the play were taken by the New Zealand Official Cinematographer and other operators. It was thought that the New Zealand team, which had only a few days before handsomely defeated a famous division's team at the front, would win easily. Soon after the kick-off it, however, became apparent that they would have all their work cut out to win. And so it happened. Indeed their win was a very lucky one, and there was no New Zealanders present who did not admit that the better team did not win. The Frenchmen began with great dash, their forwards were very fine, and some of their backs exceedingly fast runners. Moreover their passing was at times quite brilliant, and they were not afraid to pass, even in their own territory, when danger threatened. The game was a very hard one. Indeed so willing was the play that often there were times when two or three players were temporarily knocked out at the same time and the game had to be stopped. Physically the French were a fine-looking lot, and they certainly displayed the dash and quickness that have been characteristics of their race in this war. Their defence was as good as it was at Verdun, and what luck there was in the game was certainly on the side of the New Zealanders. Competent judges who saw last year's match said that the present French team was forty points better than last year's. Certainly the French Army has learnt to play Rugby football. Of late the whole army has been playing it at the front, and this practise, as well as the training in the war itself, has made the French soldier the fine athlete he now is. The French are keen now on sending a team to tour New Zealand and Australia after the war. It is almost a pity that they could not go out during the war. Such a team as played in Paris the other day would give a splendid account of themselves, and would, I feel sure, get a rousing reception. The Entente requires no further cementing at present, but, in the years to come, such an exchange of visit-, between the Dominion and the Republic would surely be mutually beneficial. One of the outstanding features of the game was the play of Andre, a wing three-quarter, who seemed one of the fastest men we have seen on the football field for many a long day. Some of the other backs were also very quick and fast, and the defence of a player called Navos was exceedingly fine. It was well on in the second spell before the French scored the first try, and not till near the end that the New Zealanders, after a series of desperate attacks, managed to score and to place a difficult goal. It was a lightning-like bit of passing that took the play at this stage right into the French twenty five, and enabled Carnegie to dash through near the corner flag. It was Capper who kicked the goal, thus giving the New Zealanders a luck win by the narrow margin of two points. But for the fact that the referee's watch had stopped in the first spell, so that the second spell had to be prolonged for several minutes, the New Zealanders might not have scored at all.
THE DINNER.
In the evening the two teams were entertained at dinner at the Cafe Cardinal. There one met several of the French players who have distinguished themselves in the war. Everyone regretted the absence of Boyau, who detained last year's team at Vincennes already wears the Legion d'Honneur and the Médaille Militaire, and has been eleven times mentioned in orders. As already stated, he had that day been better employed. Opposite me sat Andre, a sergeant, and Saillot, another sergeant, who were prisoners In Germany. but escaped, and are now back in the French Army. They burrowed under the German wire, killed two of their guards and getting into civilian clothes, which they stole, worked for a considerable time in Germany as plumbers. They travelled to Berlin, lived there for a fortnight, and walked two hundred kilometers to the frontier, bringing back with them important information. For this service they were rewarded with the Legion d'Honneur. Saillot has won prizes as a long-distance runner. Andre is one of the best all-round athletes that France has produced. He has done the hundred yards in 9 4/5 seconds, was second in the 20 feet broad jump at Stockholm, and has established himself both as a high jumper and a hurdler. As a wing three-quarter he was so fast that he made our fellows seem slow. Near me was one of the team—Lieutenant Thierry who had lost an eye in the war. He had also received a bayonet wound. He wore the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. There were no fewer than seven airmen in the team. Two belonged to the Tank Corps. The scene as the evening wore on with song and chorus and speech, and the blue smoke wreaths rose to the chandeliers, was one to be remembered. The New Zealanders in their sombre khaki were in strange contrast to the French in their variety of gayer uniform. The New Zealanders did their Maori war dance and song, and English and French joined in the "Long way to Tipperary." Later the Frenchmen broke into the songs and choruses of their own districts—those little songs of a great nation that stir the pulses at any time, but more particularly in such years as we are now passing through.
As we strolled homewards, past the towering black column in the Place Vendome, its base now concreted and sandbagged, with a turn to gain the Rue Royale, at the end of which the splendid columns of the Madeleine seemed more impressive than in the day, and so on to our hotel in the Place de la Concorde, Paris, with its blue-shaded, wartime lights, was ethereally beautiful in the clear moonlight. The anti-aircraft guns were booming, and away in the direction of the Arc de Triomphe parachute lights in the sky blozed brilliantly, indicating an air raid. But there were still many people abroad in the streets, and all seemed unafraid. An old woman had come back from her home to be with her daughter, who was still selling newspapers in the little stall on the pavement. They were sipping, each, a cup of hot coffee, and had a cheery word for us as we bought a paper in passing. In the fourth year of the war, with a big German offensive threatening, the morale of Paris was certainly still high.
NB: Ron Palenski, historien du rugby et l'armée NZ, avait écrit un article sur Malcom Ross il ya quelques années