The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, April 25, 1903, p. 290.
 

PUBLIC SCHOOL FOOTBALL IN FRANCE.


The first International public school football match—France versus England was played a few weeks ago, and though, as was only fitting, England won—by twenty points to six—yet France gave her an excellent game, and, moreover, accepted the defeat in a sportsmanlike spirit that augurs well for the future. The match was played between the Ecole Albert le Grand and Dulwich College. The football record of Dulwich College amongst public schools is good, and this year particularly so. The Alleynians were defeated by Tonbridge, but beat Haileybury, Bedford Grammar School, St. Paul’s, and Merchant Taylors’. The Ecole Albert le Grand has the reputation of being, outside the crack clubs, the strongest team in Paris. The scene of action was the ground of the Racing Club of Paris. It slopes considerably, but during the game a strong wind blowing up the hill partially neutralised the effects of this. The Ecole won the toss, and played with the wind. It was a most instructive game, and admirably contrasted the English and French styles of play. The Dulwich team tackled low, the French high. The French three-quarters passed erratically, using a single hand for the operation. The English combination was accurate, and they brought both hands into play. Finally a conjunction of these characteristics proved fatal to the home team, for a steady round of passing amongst the English outsides led to Caswall receiving the ball on the half-way line. Any of the three men who tried to stop him would have succeeded if they had stooped to conquer, and attempted to tackle low. But they tried the high tackle instead, and were handed off in turn.

The same thing happened on each of the subsequent occasions on which Dulwich scored, with the exception of the last—a dropped goal by Gregory, in the centre. The French need to learn how to defend. In attack they excel. Both the Ecole tries in this match were fine exhibitions of dash. The French footballer runs straight and hard.

Indeed, only two things are lacking to place him on an equal footing with the English player. He should tackle low, and he should see that the ground he plays on is in a better condition, the first of which things follows, perhaps, upon the second. Possibly, if the natural dangers of the ground were less, the popularity of low tackling would be greater. At present the inducement offered to the performer of such a feat is small indeed. The ground on which this match took place—perhaps destined to become historic from the circumstance—is a condition which it would be mere flattery to describe as unsuitable. It is as steep as Fleet-street. At one end the goal line runs across a broad strip of cement, destined, it is said, some day to grow into a cycle track, and so become permanent. The player who scores in the corner does so at his own risk. And, finally, the entire surface of the field of play is covered with stones.

It is surely obvious that young footballers cannot learn to play the game under such conditions. Even under the most favourable circumstances, and on the softest turf, many a player finds it hard to screw his courage to the point of making his first dive at his opponent’s knees. No wonder the French public schoolboy, eyeing the gravel and broken bottles strewn picturesquely around him, prefers to have at his opponent’s neck. It is human nature.

This defect remedied, much may be expected of the French Ecole. It is not to be looked for that the standard of English public school football shall be reached at a bound. In the English school the game is deeply rooted, the outcome of years of scientific teaching. In the Ecole it has only recently been planted. But the right spirit is there, and time will do the rest. No little information as to the prospects of the game in the country may be gleaned from the behaviour of the crowd during the match. Nothing could have been more courteous and sportsmanlike. Their men were being beaten, but they took the situation as if they had been bred up to the traditions of the game from their cradles. “We must not scream against you,” said one member of the Ecole, who was looking on; “you are our guests.” And after the match the Dulwich team were surrounded by crowds of perfect strangers, each insisting upon shaking hands with and congratulating them on their victory. It was a most pleasant exhibition of the right spirit in which the game should be played.

There is at present some doubt as to whether the fixture is to be an annual one or not. It is to be hoped that it will be continued. The benefits which the public school tone of Paris will derive from the engagement are enormous. At present, if the stories told of the periodical mutinies of these Ecoles are true—as they almost certainly are—then what the Ecole most wants is a sense of discipline. And the more football they play, and the greater knowledge they acquire of the manner in which an English public school is conducted, the keener this sense of discipline will become.

P. G. W.

 


 

Notes:
Entered by Wodehouse in Money Received for Literary Work as “International Public School Football” with the notation (15/-), i.e., payment of fifteen shillings. Wodehouse’s title is similar to that of his report in The Sportsman. In the McIlvaine bibliography this article is entered under D96.1 with its correct title as shown above.
 

The French school, École Albert-le-Grand, in Arcueil, a southern suburb of Paris, was founded in 1863 by Father Eugène Captier of the Dominican order. Its rector from 1880 onward, Father Henri Didion, created the college motto Citius, altius, fortius, and, as a promoter of the modern Olympic Games, suggested that motto for the Olympics. The school closed in 1906.
More information (in French) and photos at Wikipedia.