FRANCE 1906 NAVY T-SHIRT

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Rugby football was introduced into France by the British in the early 1870s.

It was in 1872 that a group of British residents formed the Le Havre Athletique, which played a hybrid form of football, a cross between rugby and soccer, called “combination”.

The English Taylors RFC formed by British businessmen in Paris in 1877, followed by Paris Football Club a year later. Racing Club de France was formed in 1882 and their rivals Stade Français in 1883.

On 20 March 1892 the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques organised the first ever French rugby union championship, a one-off game between Racing and Stade Français. The USFSA remained the main controlling body of French rugby, until the formation of the French Rugby Federation in 1920.

In 1900, rugby was played at the Paris Summer Olympics, France entered a team, along with Germany and Great Britain. France won the gold medal, the first ever rugby event at the Olympics.

In 1906, for the first time, England and France played each other. Although not officially part of the tournament until 1910, a match was arranged with the French national team which was played during the Home Nations Championship against England.

In 1910, France coined the term The Five Nations, though they had competed in the home nations tournament four times previously, the tournament would be known as the Five Nations for most of the rest of the 20th century.

Rugby was again played at the 1920 Summer Olympics, though this time, in what is considered one of the most surprising results in rugby history, France fumbled in the gold medal match, being defeated at the hands of the United States, eight points to nil.