RUGBY IN PARIS

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 June 1930, Page 11

RUGBY IN PARIS

“LIKE A FUNNY PLAY.”

A most amusing account of the Welsh and French football match, recently played in Paris, was sent to Mrs Mathew Holmes, by her daughter Miss Kathleen Holmes, who was taken to the match with other girls from the school by the principal (says the Wellington ‘Evening Post’). Miss Holmes says: ‘Have just come back from the match, which you will be glad to hear Wales won. This means they have won the international championship. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life. A French crowd is really priceless. About two hours before it started we got into our seats, and the fun began. The stadium is enormous, and was packed to the brim, and there were people all over the trees and everywhere possible to see. . . . Suddenly a party of about thirty men arrived with bright red berets, and piles of green leeks bestowed all over their garments. Then one of them ran over to the Welsh goal post and tied two leeks on the cross-bar. Of course, one after another of the Welsh enthusiasts swarmed up the poles of the goal, and each tried to place a leak higher than the last. In the end a man got up to the very top, which was awfully dangerous really, as the pole was about forty feet in height. Of course, all this caused great thrills, and then some one began to sing ‘Pack Up Your Troubles, etc./ and the crowd joined in. But the French people did not understand a. word, so they got up and danced on the seats, keeping time (all the fright sparks, you know). Little red and blue cushions were sold, .red for Wales and blue for France, and bombardments of these were started (but not in our stand- —we were more select!). Of course, many funny little things happened in the erbwd, and by the time the teams came on to the field everyone was well worked up. Wales was in black, and France in blue and white. They played, and everybody sang “God Save the King” and the “Marseillaise.” “Things looked very alarming at times. The first thing that happened was that a Frenchman got completely ‘squashed’ and had to be carried off the ground. So far as we could see, only one Welshman got hurt, that being when he scored a try and the entire scrum fell on top of him. The Welsh captain was marvellous, very small and fair, and when he was tackled he was so light that he was just picked up off his feet and flicked about all over the place. . . All our stand was full of English undergraduates who were most funny—we all got so worked up that we screamed for Wales until we had no voices left. Whenever the referee did anything that the crowd did not approve (which seemed to happen all the time) there was Yhe most awful booing and whistling, in fact, it was like a very funny play and very lively. The afternoon was the greatest fun, and I have decided that I will begin to educate you in Rugby, and we will see the matches at Twickenham.”