Thought this maybe of interest ! The man who is as much a part of French rugby as William Webb Ellis is to world rugby is known by the very short name of Yves Frantz Loys Marie Le Pelley du Manoir. ....... Probably never heard of him? It was only in 1974 that fixture rotation was introduced in the 5 Nations Championship and, if you recall, France was not admitted or sanctioned until 1968 by the IRB, or the RFU, whichever you prefer. The traditional opener was France versus Scotland. It is thought that since that match was the last to official be a part of the program back in 1910 that the last should be first or something to that effect. Typical RFU thinking. What is incredible is that when France played Scotland at the Stade Colombes on January 2, 1928 the match was more important because of the man who do not play. Some years later Scottish rugby player David McMyn how surprised he and his team-mates were to discover upon arriving in France for the match that du Manoir was not playing. Only two weeks before he had swapped international jerseys with du Manoir in the London versus Paris match. Du Manoir had been Captain of that fixture the year before at the age of 22. He had won his first cap in 1925 against Ireland at the age of twenty. He could play all the positions in the backline but du Manoir is remembered as an outhalf. Scotland won that match 15-6 scoring five trys. McMyn scored one, he recalled, 'because du Manoir was not there to stop me'. It was shortly after the match that news that du Manoir had been killed, when his Goudron biplane, lost in the fog, had crashed near the town of Reuilly. His name lives on as few French names do in the world of rugby and sport. The Stade Colombes, home of his team, Racing Club de Paris, was renamed and remains now The Stade Yves du Manoir. France had for many years an intense domestic championship named in his honour. A stadium in Montpelier and a couple of schools bear the name du Manoir. It was not only Du Manoir who the French Federation of Rugby lost prematurely. Rugby heroes like Guy Boniface and Jean-Michel Capendeguy died in car crashes within four days of each other and almost forty years to the day after du Manoir. Teenage schoolboy Jean Pradie died in a French league match in 1930, the competition's second fatality in three years. Du Manoir lived in a period of conflict in French rugby, according to the British, where accusations of professionalism led to France's expulsion from the 5N by the governing rugby body(England) in 1931. Pilots have also been romantic figures in the world of rugby. Men like Charles Nungesser, Jean Mermoz, a relative of USAP centre Maxime, scorer of a rermarkable try against Leicester last month and, of course, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, who became heroes and martyrs when they died in plane accidents. Du Manoir was an aristocrat educated at the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique. His body lies in Paris world renowned Pere Lachaise cemetery. His jersey from the London/Paris match belongs to the French Federation of Rugby, presented after the France/Scotland match in 1958 by President of the Scottish Rugby Union, the very same David McMyn. French writer Henri Garcia recalled in his Les Contes de Rugby that French Federation of Rugby President Rene Crabos, a Racing Club team-mate of du Manoir 'stood clutching the jersey to his chest that had once belonged to his brother-in-arms and wept like a child'. http://rugbycan.com/public_html//article.php?story=lkjcsapofdcoajsdjo
Annie Thanks for that - very interesting. I think that the aeroplane in which he crashed was a Caudron. Gareth
