Say goodbye to the old Lansdowne Road.The olympics was resurrected in modern times by Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French educator. He formed the international Olympic committee (IOC) in 1894 and introduced rugby to the second games in 1900. He also refereed the first ever French championship final which was won by Racing club in 1892.
The first games were held in Athens in 1896 but did not include Rugby. Rugby was added to the Olympic program for the second Olympiad and featured in the games held at Paris in 1900, London in 1908, Antwerp in 1920, and Paris again in 1924. Shortly after the Paris Games, the IOC cancelled rugby as an Olympic sport - even though rugby sold more tickets than the track and field events celebrated in the movie about the 1924 Olympics, "Chariots of Fire."
Read more on re-instating Rugby to the Olympics
Olympic Games Med. Country FRANCE GERMANY GREAT BRITAIN AUSTRALASIA UNITED KINGDOM UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FRANCE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FRANCE ROMANIA
Note: Click on the team name to see the list of players.Dual gold medallists:
Daniel Carroll was a member of the Australian gold medal team in 1908, and won another gold for the USA in 1920.
Morris Kirksey, gold medalist in the sprint relay and silver medallist in the 100 metres on the track in 1920, was a member of the gold medal rugby team in 1920. Kirksey failed by 18 inches (46cm) to beat Charlie Paddock for the sprint gold.
Games Gold Silver Bronze 1900 Paris France Germany not awarded Great Britain 1904 St. Louis not included in the Olympic program 1908 London Australasia Great Britain not awarded 1912 Stockholm not included in the Olympic program 1920 Antwerp United States France not awarded 1924 Paris United States France Romania
Team Played Won Lost For Against Diff. Gold Silver Bronze United States 3 3 0 64 3 +61 2 – – France 5 3 2 116 53 +63 1 2 – Australasia 1 1 0 32 3 +29 1 – – Great Britain 2 0 2 11 59 -48 – 2 – Germany 1 0 1 17 27 -10 – 1 – Romania 2 0 2 3 98 -95 – – 1
1900. Venue: Cycle-racing track of Vincennes
In 1900 the Olympics was a much smaller event than we see today and only three countries entered a rugby team, France, Britain and Germany. Britain sent the Moseley Wanderers to represent them; Germany, Eintracht Frankfort and host France entered the Paris club side.
The French national team played Germany represented by Frankfurt beating them 27 to 17.
October 28th, 1900.
The French national team then played Great Britain represented by Mosley Wanderers RFC beating them 27 - 8. 6000 watched the game, 4,389 of them paying for entry. This was the largest crowd of the 1900 Olympic games.
No decider was played so Germany was awarded Silver and Moseley Bronze on points differential.
If you want to read more about Moseley click here.
October 19th, 1908. Venue: Shepherd’s Bush, London
Cornwall, the champion county of the previous season, was chosen by the RFU Committee to represent the United Kingdom and play the Australians who were making their first tour of the UK during 1908/9. The Australians would end the tour with a 25-5-1 record. The decision to choose Cornwall was somewhat controversial, as the Australians had beaten Cornwall 18 - 5 on a previous occasion when ten of the same men were playing; and only three of their fifteen had ever represented England before. As expected, the Cornishmen were defeated even worse than they had been at Camborne some three weeks before, and the Australians took the gold medals, by 32 points to 3.
The games could have been somewhat different if it wasn't for the fact that the Anglo-Welsh team who had been playing in New Zealand had not received a letter inviting them and the fact that the French were unable to send over a team and withdrew at the last minute.
Note the name D.B.Carroll from Sidney who played for Australia, he later immigrated to the US following a tour in 1912 and then played for them as the captain/coach in the 1920 Olympics and therefore won two gold medals for two different countries. he also coached the 1924 USA side.
Few Americans know that rugby was played in the early years of modern Olympic competition, let alone that the USA won the last two Olympic rugby gold medals up for grabs. But if the news that an American rugby team brought home Olympic gold medals in 1920 & 1924 comes as a surprise today, it was nothing less than astounding when it last happened eighty years ago. It is all the more astounding knowing that rugby hadn't been played competitively in the U.S. for more than a decade prior to the events. Rugby had been all the rage in California high at the turn of the century, but the sport had died out by the outbreak of World War I. It's no surprise then that the US Olympic committee refused to even fund the trips.
1920 US Olympic Team:
(BACK, L-R) Wallace, Patrick, O’Neil, Fish, J Muldoon, Fitzpatrick, Slater, Righter.
(MIDDLE): Meehan, Hazeltine, Maloney (trainer), Tilden (c), Carroll (pl/coach), W Muldoon, von Schmidt, Scholz.
(FRONT): Wrenn, Doe, Hunter, Davis, Winston. Missing: Templeton, KirkseyA movement to send an Olympic rugby team to represent the US in Antwerp started after an undefeated Cal-Berkeley tour to British Columbia in 1920. The US Olympic committee (USOC) sanctioned an All American side, on condition that the enterprise be underwritten by the California Rugby Union (CRU) and the chosen players. Selection to the team was left to the California RU and its president, W Harry Maloney since US rugby was heavily concentrated in the California area.
CRU officials and players, with the assistance of AAU representative Sam Goodman, created fundraisers. Dances and baseball games were held for donations; and individual contributions were gathered from throughout the local community.
Selections were made from a pool of 42 players in three intra-squad trial matches. The team was composed mainly of players from Stanford, Cal-Berkeley and Santa Clara, with the remaining California club players recently graduated from the collegiate ranks.
Notable players included Stanford’s Dan Carroll, an Australian gold medallist center who had scored two tries in the 1908 Games. Carroll, now a naturalized US citizen, was the player/coach of the 1920 US team and destined to win another rugby gold in Antwerp.
Stanford rugger, Robert L "Dink" Templeton, was an Olympic high jumper. Morris Kirksey, another Stanford man, lost the 1920 Olympic gold in the 100 meters by 18 inches to fellow American and world record holder Charles Paddock. Kirksey then added a gold in the 4x100 relay to his silver in the 100. Cal-Berkeley’s Charles L Tilden, Jr was selected captain of the first US Olympic rugby team and served as manager as well.
The accommodations provided at Antwerp for the first post-war Olympians were austere in a nation ravaged by World War I and struggling to rebuild from the carnage. The US team, including the rugby players, had to endure a trans-Atlantic crossing aboard an overcrowded Army transport ship, the Sherman, and nearly revolted when confronted with their quarters in Antwerp. After the reinstatement to the US contingent of a triple jumper who had been thrown off the team when he found better lodgings on his own, the US athletes relented, but still had to accept their poor accommodations.
By the time the US Rugby team arrived in Europe, Czechoslovakia and Romania had withdrawn from the competition, France and USA were the only teams left to compete and France, as the European champions, were savoring a certain gold medal. Fifty thousand people assembled in Antwerp Stadium, Nelgium and by half time the score was 0-0. Half way through the second half they marked a kick in front of goal and Templeton kicked it over for 3 points.
Later on the forwards dribbled the ball to within 5 yards of the French goal line and when the French forwards fumbled the ball Hunter picked it up and fell over the line for a try which was converted. The shocked onlookers were numbed by an 8 – 0 victory for the United States. The Americans had won the gold medal. The stunned French suggested that the US team tour France, which they did although only sixteen players stayed on.
On Sept 19th Lyon: a team representing the SE of France was beaten 26-0. On September 22nd Toulouse a Southern France team was beaten 14-3, On September 25th Bordeaux a SW French team was beaten 6-3 and finally in Paris on Oct 10th a French national team defeated the US 14-5.
A gold medal and winning three out of the four follow-up matches, not bad!
USA vs. France (Credit: IOC/Olympic Museum collections)
1924 Paris Olympics
In September 1923, the U.S. Olympic Committee once again agreed to send an American rugby team to the 1924 Paris Olympics to defend their title.
The French Olympic Committee (FOC) had scheduled the rugby event to kick off the 1924 Paris Games, and lowly Romania and the USA were to provide only token opposition for the European Champions, France the team was picked to win the gold medal in grand style.
"They were looking for a punching bag," says 87-year-old Norman Cleaveland, a Stanford All-American halfback of the twenties who was one of the first athletes to respond to the call putout through the press in the Fall of 1923. "We were told to go to Paris and take our beatings like gentlemen." Nevertheless, seven players of the 1920 team together with a host of large American football players making up a 22 man squad, raised $20,000 and headed for England to prepare where they were beaten four times in practice sessions. The coach Charlie Austin was relying on his team's size, speed, stamina, and raw athletic ability to compensate for its technical deficiencies.
Players from Stanford University in the 1924 USA squad were:
Phillip Clark
Norman Cleveland
Dudley DeGroot
Robert H. Coleman Devereaux
Charles Webster Doe, Jr.
Linn Farrish
Richard Hyland
John Patrick
William Rodgers.The USA Olympic rugby team arrived in Paris, via England on April 27, 1924, after a 6,000 mile journey by train, bus, ship, and ferry from Oakland, California.
But if these young American athletes expected to be welcomed to France with kisses on both cheeks, they were unpleasantly surprised. The team was the target of hostility even before the players set foot on French soil. French journalists branded them "streetfighters and saloon brawlers" after a brouhaha in the port of Boulogne where immigration officials mistakenly refused the team entry, and the players - many of whom had been seasick during the turbulent crossing - forced their way off the ship onto dry land.
The American rugby players' reputation only deteriorated. When Paris authorities cancelled previously arranged games against local club teams and restricted American workouts to a patch of scrub land next to their hotel, the players responded by marching down to Colombes Stadium, scaling the fence, and going through their paces on the hallowed turf.
"It wasn't the best way to conduct international affairs," concedes Norman Cleaveland, chuckling at the memory. "If they wanted to push us around," snarls 91-year-old Charlie Doe, who was vice-captain of the 1924 team, "then we damn well pushed back."
France vs. Romania
The Olympic games of 1924 opened on May 4th with a match between France and Romania. Playing its first fifteen, the French notched a 61 to 3 victory (some say 59-3) over the smaller eastern European team, scoring 13 tries including four by the fine Stade Francais winger Adolphe Jaureguy.
After the match, another round of trouble started over the referee for the France - USA match. An earlier selection of British Admiral Percy Royds was deemed unacceptable by US team manager Sam Goodman. The dispute degraded into the French no longer providing any practice fields for the team, so the Americans found themselves a park. Fanning the flames, the French press published an article by a Paris City Counselor questioning the amateur status of the American players. The Americans invited the Frenchman to come down to the pitch to discuss the matter. To make matters worse, an argument started over the French Olympic Committee's ruling that the American side could not film their match against Romania that weekend. A French company had been awarded sole rights to filming the Olympics, and an American request to film the match was flatly denied. A meeting on the 8th did not resolve the issue, so Sam Goodman told the French organizers that the US might pull out of the Games.
Adding fuel to the fire, the American players' clothes were robbed during that day's training session. Even though a French attendant had been posted, the team lost about $4,000 worth of cash and possessions. Cleaveland and his teammates were not very happy, and because of their treatment in the press, the American side was now being cursed and spat upon on in the streets of Paris. The American expatriate community in Paris was even staying well clear of them. The French press were now whipped up fierce anti-American sentiment in Paris.
The next day, the French agreed to allow the Romanian match to be filmed for historical and educational purposes. A selection featuring only six of the US starting fifteen was also announced for the match.
USA vs. Romania
On Sunday, May 11th , the US pounded Romania 39 to 0 at Colombes Stadium. With Norman at flyhalf, Richard "Tricky Dick" Hyland at center, and Jack Patrick at flanker, the US ran rampant through the Romanians, scoring nine tries.
Fullback Charlie Doe had a good day kicking, scoring 13 points. With the impressive win, though, a difficult situation was brewing. Each time the Americans touched the ball, the French crowd of about 6000 booed and hissed. Conversely, they cheered and screamed each time the Romanians gained any possession, even though the Americans never let the Romanians within kicking distance of their own goal, and won every lineout and all but one scrum. And though everyone felt that the Americans would play a harsh, physical match, both the American and French sporting press noted the lack of violence and the skilled nature of US play, coupled with their size and fitness. Some of the French press even conceded that the fans had been unfair at the match. Still the odds were set at 5 to 1 against the US with a 20 point spread in the upcoming match with France. Two days later, the issue over the final's referee was settled when Sam Freethy of Wales was selected. That day, the team also moved from their hotel to the newly constructed Olympic housing. It seems that the hotel's proprietor became upset the night before due to "a little college cheering and rollicking" by the American players.
The final: USA vs. France
In the days leading up to the final, the U.S. rugby players were insulted and sometimes even spat upon if they dared venture outside their hotel.
The final was played at Colombes stadium, Paris on 18 May 1924 before 50,000 screeching, drunken Frenchmen who were oblivious to the FOC's public appeal for calm. Paris bookmakers set the odds at twenty to one; the points spread was twenty and no wonder: The French national rugby team was one of the greatest ever assembled, and included on its roster the legendary Adolphe Juarraguy, said to be the fastest rugby player alive. By comparison, most of the American players hadn't touched a rugby ball until six months earlier. The mob packing Colombes Stadium fully expected an easy gold medal for France to open the Paris Olympic Games.
As the team entered the stadium from a tunnel, they noted that the Olympic officials had elected to install a tall wire fence around the stadium to restrain the crowd. The American side wore white uniforms, blue belts, and white stockings hooped with red and blue. An American shield was sewed to the front of their jumpers. Wearing white shorts and blue stockings, the French took the field in their famous blue jumper badged with a cock. The American captain was Colby "Babe" Slater, and his French counterpart was Rene Lasserre. The US chose 45 minute halves, betting that their fitness and stamina would outlast the French. Sam Freethy agreed to 90 minutes over French protests and started the match.
France intended to take its revenge, but from the kickoff it was obvious the American players intended to avenge their treatment by the French. Two minutes after the opening whistle, Adolphe Juarraguy received a pass on the wing, and the crowd roared as its hero set off for the American line. But from out of nowhere came "Lefty" Rogers, Stanford's basketball captain, who leveled the famed Frenchman with a tooth-rattling tackle.On the next play Juarraguy's stride was broken by another Rogers tackle. Then it was the turn of All-American and Rhodes Scholar Alan Valentine who had sprinted the width of the field to hurl his 210-lb bulk into the off-balance Juarraguy. "And that was the end of him," says Charlie Doe. Oblivious even to the sound of the howling crowd, Juarraguy was carted off the field bleeding, "like a sack of potatoes," according to Doe.
USA vs. France (Credit: IOC/Olympic Museum collections) At halftime the score was only 3-0 in the USA's favor, but as team manager Sam Goodman put it, they had their opponents "buffaloed." The French players were devastated by the American football-style tackling, though as they admitted after the game, the hits were within the rules of the game.
In the second half the French defense crumbled in the wake of a series of ferocious American attacks. "Our men, " wrote Andre Glarner of the Exelsior newspaper, "too frail and hesitant, too fragile, could not hold up before the admirable athletes before them." The Americans, from Stanford University, scored five tries, (Farrish(2), Patrick, Rogers and Manelli), with a conversion by Doe. Gallau scored the lone French try.
With a humiliating French defeat imminent, the crowd began earning its reputation for thuggery (many foreign teams refused to play in Paris because of French rugby hooliganism at that time). American supporters were being beaten up in the stands, and their bodies passed down to the field to be collected by ambulances.
"I thought they were dead," says Norman Cleaveland. "We were sure it was only a matter of time before they got their hands on us." The match finished in uproar, when Gideon Nelson, one of the reserves, was flattened by a walking stick.
When the final whistle blew, the score was 17-3, and the French crowd was hysterical.
"They were throwing bottles and rocks and clawing at us through the fence, recalls Cleaveland. "We had no idea what was going to happen."
Charlie Doe saw the band pick up their instruments and conductor waving his baton, but, like his teammates, he couldn't hear a single note because of the cacophony of booing and catcalls.
"Then we saw the Stars and Stripes being raised and realized they were playing the Star Spangled Banner," says Doe. "We had completely forgotten about the medal ceremony which took place in front of tens of thousands of people who wanted to rip us to shreds." After the medal ceremony, the American rugby players were escorted to their locker room by dozens of gendarmes.
The attitude of the French press changed dramatically after their national team's routing. In the interest of the remainder of the Games, French journalists began to portray the American players as heroes. "The American team is comprised of true athletes, all fast, strong, energetic, and possessing athletic qualities of which we are rarely aware in France," wrote Glarner of the Exelsior.
The fickle French public responded in kind. "When you're a hero in Paris, that's something! All we had to do was walk in to a bar or restaurant and there would be free drinks all around," says Norman Cleaveland.
The American victory, which marked rugby's last appearance as an Olympic sport, was a feat then, called by UP sports Editor Henry J. Farrell "the brightest entry scored on all the pages of American international sports records."
The Rugby heroes returned to the Bay Area without much fanfare. Despite the USA's spectacular 1924 Olympic rugby victory, rugby again slipped back into obscurity in the U.S. That astonishes modern observers, but as Charlie Doe points out, the Olympics were "not such a big deal" before the advent of television coverage, which today can propel an obscure sport like Olympic hockey into the public consciousness. "Our victory in '24 made the hockey win against the Soviets look like an everyday occurrence," says Doe. "If we had that kind of coverage rugby might be the great American pastime today."
See also Alan Valentine
Vladimir
Aitoff
A.
Albert
Leon (Jean)
Binoche
Jean
Collas
Jean-Guy
Gautier
Auguste
Giroux
Charles
Gondouin
Constantin
Henriquez de Zubiera (thought to be the first black athlete to compete in the Olympics 3 months earlier he had competed in the tug-o-war)
J.
Herve
Victor
Larchandat
Hubert
Lefebvre
Joseph
Oliver
Alexandre
Pharamond
Frantz
Reichel
André
Rischmann
Albert
Roosevelt .
Emile
Sarrade
Albert Amrheim Hugo Betting Jacob Herrmann Willy Hofmeister Hermann Kreuzer Arnold Landvoigt Hans Latscha Erich Ludwig Richard Ludwig Fritz Mueller Eduard Poppe Heinrich Reitz August Schmierer Adolt Stockhausen Georg Wenderoth
F.C. BAYLISS J.Henry BIRTLES J. CAUTLON Arthur John DARBY C.P. DEYKIN L. HOOD M.L. LOGAN H.A. LOVEITT (Herbert) N.S. NICOL V. SMITH M.W. TALBOT Joseph G. WALLIS Claud WHITTINDALE Raymond WHITTINDALE Francis Henry WILSON
"Jumbo" John
BARNETT
Francis
BEDE-SMITH
Philip
CARMICHAEL
Daniel Brendan
CARROLL
Robert R.
CRAIG
Thomas
GRIFFEN
John
HICKEY
Emmanuel (Malcolm "Mannie")
MCARTHUR
Arthur J.
MCCABE
Patrick
MCCUE
Christopher
MCKIVATT
Charles
MCMURTRIE
Albert Sidney
MIDDLETON
Thomas
RICHARDS
Charles
RUSSELL
James
DAVEY
L.F.
DEAN
Edward John
JACKETT
Richard
JACKETT
E.J.
JONES
J.T.
JOSE
A.
LAWREY
C.R.
MARSHALL
J.C "Barney"
SOLOMON
Bertram
SOLOMON
Nicholas
TREGURTHA
J.
TREVASKIS
Thomas Greenfeld
WEDGE
A.
WILLCOCKS
Arthur James
WILSON
Edouard
BADER
François
BORDES
Adolphe René
BOUSQUET ?L
Jean
BRUNEVAL CASTEX André
CHILO
René
CRABOS
CURTET Alfred
ELUERE
Jacques
FORESTIER
GRENET
Maurice
LABEYRIE
Constant
LAMAIGNIERE
Robert
LEVASSEUR
Pierre
PETITEAU Eugène
SOULIE
Raoul
THIERCELIN
Robert
THIERRY
Daniel Brendan
CARROLL
Stanford University, (also won gold with Australia 12 years earlier) Charles Webster
DOE
Stanford University George Winthrop
FISH
James
FITZPATRICK
Stanford University Joseph Garvin
HUNTER
Morris.
KIRKSEY
Stanford University, (also won silver in the 100 yard dash & gold in the 4x100 relay) Charles Thomas
MEEHAN
John
MULDOON
John T.
O'NEIL
Santa Clara University John Clarence
PATRICK
Stanford University Cornelius Erwin
RIGHTER
Stanford University Rudolph John
SCHOLZ
Santa Clara University Colby Edward
SLATER
Robert Lyman
TEMPLETON
Stanford University, (later became a famous track coach) Charles Lee
TILDEN
Heaton Luse
WRENN
Stanford University James Duarte Winston (did not play)
George E. W. Davis (did not play)
Matthew Hazeltine (did not play)
Colby Slater (did not play)
Harold von Schmidt (did not play)
Davis M. Wallace (did not play)
William Muldoon (did not play)
Note: There is some debate as to whether Fitzpatrick actually played or not.
C.
AUSTIN
R.
BROWN
J.
CASHEL
P.
CLARK
Norman
CLEAVELAND
H.
CUNNINGHAM
Dudley
DE GROOT
Robert
DEVEREAUX
Georges
DIXON
Charles Webster
DOE
Linn Markley
FARRISH
Edward
GRAFF
C.
GRONDONA
Joseph Garvin
HUNTER
Richard Frank
HYLAND
Caesar
MANELLI
Charles Thomas
MEHAN
J.
MULDOON
William John
MULDOON
John T.
O'NEIL
John Clarence
PATRICK
William Lister
ROGERS
Rudolph John
SCHOLZ
Colby Edward
SLATER
Norman Bernard
SLATER
Charles Lee
TILDEN
Edward L.
TURKINGTON
Alan Chester
VALENTINE
Alan Frank
WILLIAMS
J.
WINSTON
F.
ABRAHAM
René
ARAOU
Jean
BAYARD
Louis
BEGUET
André
BEHOTEGUY
M.
BESSON
Alexandre
BIOUSSA
Etienne
BONNES
François
BORDE
Adolphe René
BOUSQUET
Aimé
CASSAYET
F.
CAYROL
F.
CLAUZEL
Clément
DUPONT
Albert
DUPOUY
Jean
ETCHEBERRY
E.
FRAYSSINET
Henri
GALAU
Gilbert
GERENTES
C.
GONNET
Raoul
GOT
Adolphe
JAUREGUY
René
LASSERRE
L.
LEPATEY
Marcel-Frédéric
LUBIN-LEBRÈRE
C.
MONTADE
Etienne
PIQUIRAL
R.
PITEU
E.
RIBERE
Jean
VAYSSE
N.
ANASTASIADE
Dumitru
ARMASEL
Gheorghe
BENTIA
J.
COCIOCIAHO
C.
CRATUNESCO
Theodor
FLORIAN
J.
GARLESTEANO
P.
GHITZULESCO
O.
LOUKIDY
H.
MANO
Nicolae
MARASCO
Theodor
MARIAN
Sorin
MICHAILESCO
Paul
NEDELCOVICI
Iosif
NEMESCH
Eugen
SFETESCU
Mircea
SFETESCU
Soare
STERIAN
M.
STROESCO
Atanasie
TANASESCU
Mihail
VARDALA
Paul
VIDRASHCU
Dumitru
VOLVOREANU
1924 Olympics rugby revisited
27 MAY 2004
Eighty years have passed since rugby was last played in the Olympic Games in front of 50,000 spectators at the Stade Colombes, Paris on 18 May 1924.
To mark the anniversary the International Rugby Board and the Fédération Francaise de Rugby, organisers of the IRB Sevens' Bordeaux event, have decided to commemorate the occasion in Bordeaux with an exhibition match on Saturday 29 May.
Students of Bordeaux University, who first started playing 'le Jeu Anglais' more than a century ago, will re-enact the historic occasion, wearing playing kit specifically designed and manufactured for this match between France and the USA.
Like on 18 May 1924, the American team will wear white V-neck jerseys with the shield of All American Student Rugby, white shorts and white socks with red and blue hoops, while France wear the traditional blue jerseys with white shorts and blue socks.
Rugby was one of 17 sports in the 1924 Olympics, which brought together 3,092 athletes from 44 countries. The rugby competition started on 4 May 1924, the opening day of the eighth Olympiad, which went on to last nearly three months.
The sport had previously been played at three Olympic Games; at the second Olympiads in Paris in 1900 where France won the gold, in 1908 in London where the touring Wallabies became Olympic Champions and in 1920 in Antwerp, where the USA managed to defeat France 8-0 to win the first of their Olympic golds.
Results and photos from the commemorative match in Bordeaux will be posted on the IRB website on Monday 31 May.
How the teams shaped up in 1924:
USA:
fullback Charles Doe (1), left wing W. Rogers (2) centre (outside) N.Cleveland (3) right wing, F.Hyland (4) 2 nd 5/8 (inside centre) G.Dixon, (5), 1 st 5/8 (fly-half) R.Devereux,(6) scrum half (half-back) G.Scholtz (7) forwards: No 8 C.Slater (8) Captain, back row (3 rd row- wing forward) J.Patrick (9), back-row (3 rd row - wing forward) D. de Groot (10), second-row A.Valentine (11), second rown L.Farrish (12), front row (prop) G.Manelli (13), front row hooker J.O'Neill (14), front row prop E.Graff (15)
France:fullback E.Bonnes (1) left wing A.Jaureguy (2), centre A Behoteguy (3) centre J.Vaysse (4) right wing R.Got (5), fly-half (outside half) H.Galau (6), scrum-half (halfback) C.Dupont (7)
forwards No 8 R.Lasserre (8) Captain, back row (3 rd row) A Bioussa (9), back row (3 rd row) E.Piquiral (10), second row P.Lebrere-Lubin (11), second row A.Cassayet, (12), front-row (prop) J. Etcheberry (13), front-row hooker L.Beguet (14), front row-prop J.Bayard (15)
Referee: Albert Freethy (Wales),
Touch judges: Cyril Rutherford (France) and Norman Slater (USA)
Final score: USA 17-3 France
USA Tries: De Groot, J.Patrick, L.Farrish, W.Rogers, G.Manelli. Conversion: C.Doe
FRANCE Try: H.Galau
.References:
The 1920 Olympic games - Bill Mallon & Anthony Th. Bijkerk, McFarland & Company, Inc.The History of Rugby in the Olympic Games - Richard Coppo
IRB website - http://www.irb.com
