Rugby football has a history of pursuing normalcy and stoicism despite the carnage of armed conflict during times of war. Not so abnormal as the soccer games in no man’s land played by opposing troops in 1914, now the stuff of film and legend, but as World War Two reached its climactic final stanza, international rugby returned with a series of games featuring France and the four home Nations.
From 1940 the authorities abandoned international competition by suspending the then Five Nations rugby championship from 1940 to 1947.In 1939 the Championship had been reduced to four teams, those of the Home Nations only because France had been expelled in 1932 for allowing professionalism and unacceptable levels of violence in their domestic rugby. The conservative representatives of the 4 home nations committee took a dim view of ‘ rugby a la muerte’ ( rugby to the death) practiced in south west France.
Yet on January 1st 1945, as the allied forces resisted the last gasp German offensive in the Ardennes, the Battle of the Bulge, the first of what would be termed “Victory International” matches was played between a British Army XV and France only 200 miles away from the fighting. France awarded full caps for the match. At Stade Colombes in Paris France ran out comfortable winners 21-9 thanks to the silky skills and magical flair of the great Jean Dauger who scored two magnificent tries. To this day the stadium in Bayonne is named Stade Jean Dauger.( Although his daughter did marry the mayor of Bayonne!). Incredibly I was coached as a twelve year old by Jean Dauger.
I personally knew four players, all French from that match — Jean Dauger, Robert Soro( the lion of Swansea), Alban( Bambi) Moga and Monsieur Rugby himself, Jean Prat.
My father R.C.C. (Clem) Thomas won his first cap for Wales against France at Stade Colombes in 1949 and played against all four, becoming close personal friends. Until his last match against France in 1959 he played the French six times.
Wartime rugby continued with a 27-6 win by a British Empire XV over France played on the 28th April 1945 at the Richmond Athletic Ground only ten days before Germany’s unconditional surrender signed by Admiral Doenitz. Playing that day on the wing for France was the future French Prime Minister Jacques Chaban Delmas.
Playing in the 2nd row for France in both games was Bambi Moga, a giant of a man with the athleticism of a matador such was the speed of his feet. He was enormous for his generation— 120kg and 1m 87 in height. My father said he was as quick as a snake, immensely strong and powerful. He played 22 times for France and with his brothers Fon-Fon and Andre they won the French Cup in 1949 playing together for Begles, a Communist commune south-east of Bordeaux’s City Centre. I played for Begles in 1978.
It is no word of a lie to say that in the 1960s and 1970s into the 1980s, the Moga family practically ran Bordeaux. By this time the family had imposed itself on the city in sporting,business and political fashion. Not a great many people today would recognise the name Heinz Stahlschmidt, ot Henri Salmide, as he chose to be called after the German occupation. He was the German naval officer who, in August 1944, refused to blow up the port of Bordeaux. He was an acquaintance of Fon-Fon(Alphonse Moga), who worked in the port, and who was also a prominent member of the French Resistance in Bordeaux and he persuaded Henri not to follow his Nazi master’s orders.
Salmide said he followed his Christian conscience stating “I could not accept that the port would be wantonly destroyed when the war was clearly lost”. On 22nd August 1944, four days before the planned destruction of the port he blew up the munitions depot where the Germans had stored 4,000 fuses to be used in dynamiting the port. Salmide laid strips of dynamite inside the supply bunker filled with demolition hardware and thousands of pounds of ordnance and watched as the city shook from the huge explosion. His actions killed 50 Germans but were credited with saving 3,500 lives.
After the detonation Salmide presented himself to the French resistance, and Fon-Fon hid him from the German forces that had branded him a traitor and ordered that he be shot on sight. Salmide spent the last months of the war in hiding at the Moga family townhouse, the Cours de l’Yser, looked after by Fon-Fon and his mother Marcelline. I stayed there, probably in the same bedroom that Salmide occupied, when I arrived in Bordeaux in 1978.
After the war the Moga family developed close ties to the Gaullist party — the Rally of the French People (Rassemblement du Peuple Francais RPF). This was thanks to the Victory international in London where Bambi met Jacques Chaban Delmas who had adopted the nom de guerre of Chaban whilst in the French resistance. As a general of brigade in De Gaulle’s resistance movement he took part in the Paris insurrection August 1944. He was the youngest French General since the first French Empire. His leadership skills coralled the several, factional resistance groups active in the Paris region, whether communists, marxists, nationalists or patriots. He astutely ensured they worked together within the framework of the liberation plan outlined by Charles de Gaulle.
In late 1945 the Communists and Socialist parties threatened to take power in France. De Gaulle despatched the trusted Chaban Delmas to Bordeaux in order to ensure political control over this important city in Western France. Having never been to Bordeaux before, his first point of contact was the Moga family. He lodged in the Cours de l’Yser (again probably in the same bedroom used by Salmide) , played rugby for Begles, used the Moga social and business networks to introduce himself and De Gaulle’s politics.Bambi ran the charcuterie, Andre the cheese in the vast Marche des Capucins where I worked in 1978, and in 1947 Chaban won the mayoralty elections remaining in situ until 1995. President Pompidou made him Prime Minister of France from1969 to 1972.
Remarkable people from remarkable times. Rugby forms a very narrow thread through the timescale of history, and even today there are stories of the Italian rugby club Zebre from Parma reaching out to a Ukrainian rugby club in Kyiv. As we look forward to the super Saturday of the final three games of this year’s 6 Nations Championship, with the grand finale in Paris between France and England, remember there’s only 1250 miles between Paris and Kyiv. Plus ca change……
Wonderful stuff Chris! - loved it - have to say that Andre Moga was very instrumental in helping the direction of Gullivers in France during the 80s and 90’s - along with your other pal Gerard Krotoff and Gaston Lesbats. Those early years were when French clubs enticed the best players to join them often on the strength of their planned rugby tour and because back then they had little personal connection with the English speaking rugby world, Gullivers got in and organized some phenomenal tours - RC Toulon being one of the few clubs to have incorporated Machu Pichu into a 3 week rugby tour - indeed, Daniel Herero, who ran RCT back then told me that they probably wouldn’t have won the French championship I think in the early ‘80s if they had not started off the pre season training with a good bonding tour.
With Toulouse club President Jean Fabre and Pierre Villpreux, besides organizing tours, I helped them set up what was probably the first pro rugby tournament, the Toulouse World Masters, way before the game went pro - never knew how they got away with it!
So many more stories - including getting a leg on the ladder for tickets at Parc des Princes via an intro from Gerard K to a certain M Chirac!
Keep your musings going and happy to hear Mark say you were in pretty good form at Christmas . All the best - hally.