1924 Olympics. The day rugby disappeared from the Olympics

Punches, oval ball and international outcry… Rugby has long remembered May 19, 1924. That day, in the stands of the Olympic stadium in Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), 15,000 supporters gathered to watch the French rugby players battle it out with their American counterparts. A blue polo shirt embroidered with a red rooster on one side; a white jersey stamped with the star-spangled banner on the other, the Olympic final was about to begin.

For its fourth appearance at the Games, rugby, a sport invented by the Anglo-Saxons, only brought together three teams because the English, South African, New Zealand and Australian selections had refused the invitation. Their pretext: it was a “winter sport” and the players rested in the spring and summer. As a result, the Blues and the players from Uncle Sam found themselves competing with Romania, severely beaten twice (61-3 and 37-0) in the group stage.

If the poster for the final quickly became known, as the match approached, the physical attributes of the Americans attracted praise from the press. The newspaper The Work describes a game that is “effective in its roughness and dangerous in the energy with which it is conducted”, and is concerned about a forward line “made up of eight strong young men”, one of whom “even reaches 100 kg”. France still has some good arguments: a technical game, a fervent public and more experience. For most observers, it remains the favourite.

From insults to punches

But if, at the kick-off, the tricolor rooster is proud, it ends up shrivelled at the end of the match. The score is dry: 17 to 3 for the Americans. The French players finish the game with 13, two of their teammates having been evacuated on stretchers, crushed by the physical power of the opponent, at a time when substitutes did not exist. The field has spoken, the players shake hands. In the stands, the crowd roars. To the American tackles, it responds with insults and whistles; to the photographers who immortalize the moment, it throws stones in the face; to the joy of the opposing supporters, it responds with punches and canes.

The fight seriously injured an American who had to be evacuated to the nearest hospital. The French team lost at home and rugby offered the world “the best that can be done without a knife or a revolver”, according to a famous phrase. This final was a fiasco, it sounded the death knell for the Olympic adventure of rugby union. Faced with the general outcry and with the departure, in 1925, of Pierre de Coubertin, father of the modern Games and great fan of the oval ball, rugby lost its greatest defender and disappeared from the following Olympics. Ironically, a hundred years after showing such a sad face, rugby is praised for its unfailing fair play.