(MOODY ELECTRONIC MUSIC) Since 1810, the city of Munich has hosted one of the world's biggest festivals ` Oktoberfest. Each year millions of visitors dressed in traditional costume drink beer, party hard and have a very good time. For the small but passionate German rugby community, Oktoberfest represents an opportunity to break through the clutter. Because in soccer-crazy Germany, rugby has an image problem. (MELANCHOLY MUSIC) It's the first time we're holding this big, professional Sevens tournament. Obviously, it has to be a success. Our Munich and German crowd wants to see a great tournament, and they don't want to be disappointed. (RISING MUSIC) No matter how exciting the games, how thrilling the occasion, how action-packed the spectacle, not many Germans know much about rugby. Oktoberfest is a chance to learn. (INTENSE MUSIC) (DRAMATIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC) (CHEERING ECHOES) Once, countries like Germany were contenders for a bright rugby future. But that was long ago, when Britain ruled the world. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) (MEN CHANT HAKA) (DRAMATIC MUSIC CONTINUES) (MUSIC BUILDS) (CHEERING ECHOES) Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019 (SERENE ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC) Even in the middle of a million square kilometres of the South Pacific Ocean, you can still find a game of rugby ` especially if that game is in Fiji, where the people eat, breathe and sleep rugby. (CHILDREN SHOUT, CHATTER) We stopped off in Fiji and played three games. I think it was the first full All Blacks side that ever went to Fiji. I remember stopping the bus on our way back from training because there were about a dozen guys playing touch rugby in a grassed area that wasn't marked out. It was just a grassed area between trees. And we actually stopped the bus, and we got up and we joined them and we played touch rugby with them, which was a bit of a highlight. And I couldn't get over how ingrained rugby was in their culture. And it was wonderful. Rugby was first introduced to Fiji in the 19th century by sailors and traders. This was the age when the British Empire was at its peak of influence. We were everywhere. And quite literally, the sun never did set on the British Empire, because whenever it went down in corner of the planet, it was being raised somewhere else. The geographical reach was vast. India obviously was the heart of it, the 'Jewel in the Crown.' But there was Africa; there was the South Pacific; you had little enclaves in Asia, in Australasia, North America. So it was truly global. One of the things that's quite hard to grasp for us is the fact that in the 19th century, it was rugby that was the nearest thing to a global game. (CHEERING, SHOUTING) But 140 years ago, global games were in their infancy. There were no famous tournaments, no star teams, no celebrity athletes. Sport was a worldwide British export, and rugby was its favourite. Games like rugby express the manliness, the vigour of sport, of the British male. This is a very masculine thing. Personally, myself, I really think it's about learning how to suck it up and do what you're told. Rugby is a way of demonstrating the superiority of the British ` what makes Brits so special, what gives Britain its entitlement to rule this empire. You know, what greater tool than sport? What made rugby special, its followers believed, were its universal values ` its secret sauce. These values were proudly cherished, elevating rugby from other British games. Fiji's wholehearted adoption of rugby proved this spectacularly. Rugby's values are probably as important, if not more important, than the game itself, because, you know, they're the bedrock of the game. It's commitment; it's loyalty; it's bettering the team, you know, not being selfish. In a sport like rugby, I am giving my whole body, my mind, my soul to you, my teammates, you know? I'm in battle, and I'm here to protect my teammates around me. I can still remember the games we played together, and the camaraderie and the friendship have been going for 50 years. You respect each other. What I also like is the respect of the referee and the coaches and your opposition. It's physical bravery; it's putting your own needs below the needs of the team. I've played in some pretty violent games. It's nothing I'm proud of. But looking back, we used to have some right old barneys. But afterwards, without exception, you shake hands. That's why it's a crazy game. The mateship, the friendship ` full speed ahead for 80 minutes and then enjoying the third half. (TEAM SING IN FIJIAN) Tiny Fiji was huge for rugby, and the exception. As the 20th century approached, rugby's international appeal began to wane. Rival games now posed serious threats. What they didn't appreciate... was they way in which the world was changing under their feet. And for a sport that was built on hierarchy, on deference, on acceptance of tradition... that was a huge problem. Australia was where rugby, surprisingly, hit serious speed wobbles. A British dominion, it was an early adopter of British games ` rugby in winter, cricket in summer. But Australians only had room for one. There's no doubt that cricket` I think most people would consider that Australia's national sport. (DRIVEN VIOLIN MUSIC) They say here in Australia that the second most important job, next to the Prime Minister, is the captain of the Australian cricket team. Certainly, for someone from England, it's quite surprising to see the importance that cricket and the Ashes still have. They're possibly even more important than what they are in England, because Australia measures itself by its ability to beat the English. Oh, we just hate the Poms ` full stop. That's it. 'Bye!' Can't stand them. Anti-English sentiment thrived in the 19th-century Victorian goldmines. And the last thing wanted by the many Irish miners, who were building new lives and a new nation, was to play the game of the British hierarchy. Rugby, so quintessentially English, was rejected outright. A young Australia wanted its own version of football. Australian rules soon ruled supreme from Melbourne to Perth. Rugby was shut out of middle Australia for the next century. Forced east, rugby found a much warmer reception in sophisticated, English-friendly Sydney, where Aussie Rules lacked appeal. Rugby clubs were quickly formed along traditional British lines. And for a time, the sport flourished. Sydney University is the fourth oldest rugby club in the world. We go back to 1863. You know, rugby was the game you played. It was the 'gentlemanly game'. I think rugby's always` It's generally been a niche sport. The private schools only played rugby. And if you didn't want to play rugby, that's OK, but you needed a doctor's certificate. (CHUCKLES) (ELECTRIC GUITAR MUSIC) Working class men couldn't afford doctors or private school fees. The arrival of professional rugby league from England in 1907 was, literally, a game changer. Workers deserted amateur rugby in their droves for the new code. World War I dealt rugby the hammer blow. The Australian rugby clubs suspended the competition because they felt it wasn't right that we at home should be enjoying ourselves, mucking around playing sport, whilst people were fighting on our behalf and dying. And none of the other sports suspended their competitions. And so people went to watch the other sports. Rugby's rival codes were separated by a clear fault line ` money. Union was the amateur game. League was for professionals. League not only attracted more players, it was the out-and-out winner in popular appeal. (CHEERING) I hadn't really heard of rugby union. Rugby league was the country's sport. We weren't focused on rugby union, because that was for the private schools. I'd say rugby league is the more popular game. There'd be more rusted-on supporters to rugby league. It's a more tribal game. And there'll be divided loyalties between rugby and rugby league. Sydney was the OK Corral between league and union. League's popularity extended off-field with the rise of social clubs. Income from beer and gambling went a long way to paying players. And rugby league's take-no-nonsense style of play was in stark contrast to the more elegant moves of union. ARCHIVE: Of course, in the rugby league game, weight, plus the instincts of primitive man, tend to come out on top. But never has there been such a crunching demonstration of that great truth as we see now. Rugby league, back in those days, was a macho sport, you know ` the big guys running into each other. It was a very different way of playing. It is a very simple sport ` entertaining but very simple. You know what's gonna happen. You can see everything that's happening. It's a very physical sport, rugby league, with running with three guys and that shoulder charge; where rugby was more of a gentleman's sport played by thugs, I think. I don't think there was a lot of biffo or, you know, punch-ups like in rugby league. Post-war, Australian rugby hit the rocks. League's non-stop poaching of its best players caused irreparable harm. Shorn of its stars ` who could never return to the amateur game ` union's popularity plummeted. You know, I had a lot of offers from rugby league when I started playing rugby. And it was never` I didn't really want to do it. And it was a money sport back then, where rugby wasn't. We weren't allowed to play. We weren't allowed to even get money for a book. You weren't allowed to get anything. Someone said, 'Well, look, you know, here's an opportunity. You're gonna be a great rugby league player.' And off you went. But union still had one card up its sleeve. It was the exclusive winter sport for the private schools of Sydney and Brisbane. This supply line of talent ensured rugby could still compete in Australia. We've got rugby union, rugby league, soccer and AFL. Rugby has to compete in that level. The Wallabies, Australia's national team, were world rugby's traditional easy beats. I think it would be fair to say that against the great nations like New Zealand, like South Africa, like the Welsh and England, we were bullied up front. But in the 1980s, Australian rugby fought back. COMMENTATOR: Here they go. Farr-Jones. Overlap for Campese. He's there! (CHEERING) Australia has won the cup. David Campese is overjoyed. ALL SING: # ...Australia fair. # I remember my girlfriend, to become my wife. You know, often at the end of those tours, she'd look at you in the bath or something, and, you know, you're covered in stripes, and she'd think, 'Well, how do you enjoy this game?' (CROWD ROARS) Little punch-up there between halfback Robert Jones and Nick Farr-Jones - they're all joining in now. It's punches galore! Fair play. That was` But that was what happened. You expected to take home souvenirs,... and you did. * Rugby had missed its chance down under. But where Australia frustrated, America promised a much brighter future. Thought newly independent from Britain, the USA still had a fondness for British culture, including many of its games. Rugby was kind of a university game. It was violence with a PhD, right? And in the US, rugby got off to the perfect start, launched into the ultra-competitive atmosphere of east coast Ivy League rivalry. American colleges' animosity was there right from the get-go. The rules were really vague. It was mostly rugby, but it seemed like largely the point was just to try to annihilate the guys on the other side. Yale-Harvard rivalry is the biggest rivalry here. It doesn't matter what the sport is. You know, 150 years of doing it. This is the sort of aristocracy that probably was more inclined to having a connection to England. Maybe some of their ancestors came over on the Mayflower. (WHISTLING, CHEERING) Students ` they went wild, because you wanted to kick the crap out of Yale or whoever out there because of this sense of, you know, 'I'm better than you.' It's just this competitiveness. Harvard is the older school. We think of them as arrogant, obnoxious boors. And they probably think of us as guys who wish they'd gotten into Harvard. But it wasn't rugby per se, and it wasn't football per se. It was evolving. It didn't take long. And they didn't want to play just plain old rugby. That was clear. They wanted something new. In the US, rugby had to compete against history ` recent history. The War of Independence was still fresh in people's minds. In the US, we proudly rejected the games of the British Empire ` beginning in around 1775 when we threw the tea into Boston Harbour. And that sort of set the tone for how we felt about sports. I think it's important to remember that in the middle of the 19th century, the United States was 50 years old. I mean, it didn't have a personality and a culture in the way that we think it does today. You know, America ` the United States ` has always put its own spin on anything it got its fingers in, and that would be true of sport as well. A decade after its introduction, American rugby turned rogue. Walter Camp, who started Yale University as a rugby halfback and ended it as a football halfback, was instrumental in driving change. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) The game that Walter Camp played at Yale, and changed to become American football, was very like rugby. So it was a sport in a process of evolution. He introduced the forward pass. He introduced a series of downs not unlike rugby league. I think the idea was we wanna take this concept, but we wanna Americanise it. We wanna use it as a way to express our own cultural sense of ourselves and who we are. This American form of football, which eventually evolved to include helmets ` very primitive leather helmets... (LAUGHS) Like my mother-in-law, isn't it? ...and then pads; and then we got to what uniforms these guys wear now that you have a helmet that is itself perhaps the greatest weapon. You can't break it with a sledgehammer. And it became such a violent sport. By the 1890s, rugby had been stomped on, stepped over and left in the dust by the brash young contender for America's sporting soul. But something deeper had happened. American football changed the direction of all sport and paved the way to the games we play, watch and follow today. When you inject money into the sports, the money fuels the player's salaries. They become faster; they become stronger. And what happens then is the quality of the competition explodes. And when the quality of the competition explodes, a lot more people wanna see it. (CHEERING) While American football went from strength to strength, American rugby lingered on life support. Year after year, a dedicated minority kept rugby's flame burning. And every early winter, Harvard against Yale was still the big grudge game. Rugby lives on. When you look at American football, you're looking at rugby, but you're just looking at it through a slightly different lens. You know, I've said many times, if you took 25 Division-I defensive backs, and put them together for a year and let them play rugby, they would compete with anybody on the planet. I only played one year of rugby. It was a matter of forcing myself to stand up to other people and to experience what it would be like to get hit and what it would be like to get tackled without pads. Americans, when they get hit and they play sports like that, they've usually got all sorts of things to cushion the fall. Rugby wasn't like that, and there was something really great about it. I think the great irony, of course, is that it's probably safer than American football because it doesn't use pads. By the 1960s, American rugby had rebooted and relocated to Heartland, USA. In hundreds of small clubs, American rugby values had found their true expression. There are hidden rugby fans apparently everywhere. They're all among us, and we don't even know it. You know, it's amazing how many football players will decide in the spring of their senior year after their football career is over, 'Well, let me go try rugby. It looks like fun. I've always wanted to try that.' To me, rugby is the genesis. It was the first real, big, messy, competitive, aggressive team sport. (INDISTINCT YELLING) I think you'd find a lot of guys and women who came to it because they got tired of their football coach or soccer coach, and this was something where drinking beer was part of the culture. So it was a social thing. (LIVELY CHATTER) It was just a lot of fun, from the first game I saw ` I saw from the front row. So... (CHUCKLES) It's the thing that birthed all of these codes all over the world. To me, rugby is the beginning. (LIVELY CHATTER) * (CARNIVAL MUSIC) Any aspirations rugby had of becoming the global game of the 20th century foundered on a number of obstacles. As a rapidly changing world rapidly changed professional sport, rugby doubled-down on amateurism and shunned individual expression, in favour of modesty and teamwork. As a game, rugby could be brutally exciting. But for casual observers, it looked too complicated. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) It's less popular. Rugby doesn't sell newspapers like football does. It's global occasionally, but it's not global. If you got to Bhutan, you see people wearing Manchester United football shirts. That hasn't happened with Harlequins yet or with the All Blacks. (LIVELY MUSIC) Perhaps the biggest challenge for rugby was its hangover as an empire sport in a non-empire world. American sports and American values had increasingly influenced all games. Rugby was regarded by many as quaint ` an anachronism. Ironically, as its popularity ebbed, rugby's universal values only deepened. While the game was not played on the scale once envisaged, wherever rugby was played, its communities were strong, vibrant ` as passionate as fans found anywhere on the planet. (SYNTHESIZER MUSIC) One of those communities was an unlikely destination ` Japan. (ELECTRONIC MUSIC BUILDS) After rugby-loving Cambridge University graduate Ginnosuke Tanaka introduced rugby to Japan, the game flourished in the universities in the 1920s. In Japan, rugby was viewed as a game that demonstrated leadership, which meant playing rugby was also good for career prospects. COMMENTATOR: Oxford have the ball again. Spence passes to Cooper, who crosses the line for a touchdown. Following the Second World War, the Japanese community which embraced rugby wholeheartedly was the corporate sector. All leading companies now had rugby teams, which demonstrated the might of Japan's remarkable, post-war economic boom. For businesses wanting to boost productivity, rugby values were right on the money. Japanese rugby is all corporation owned ` Coca-Cola, Mitsubishi, you know, Panasonic, Sanyo, Suntory. All these huge corporations have rugby teams. You have 20 huge, worldwide companies sponsoring the game. When I say sponsoring the game, they have 33to 55 players; they're employing them; they've got fields; they're competitive. So Mr Panasonic wants to win, so does Mr Toyota, you know, so does Mr NEC. They all want to win. They're so disciplined, you know? They're so respectful. And they'll do anything. You tell them to run through this ball, and they're run it through for you and make sure they clean up all the debris afterwards. To ensure standards kept rising, some of the best international rugby players were hired to work in Japan on lucrative, short-term contracts. Their jobs ` to play rugby. Japan was a different place, you know? I love Japan; I love the Japanese people. Luckily, I went on to finish my career in Japan, playing rugby professionally. So I just lived five years like, 'People are paying me to do this stuff?' A Japanese company wanted me to play in Japan. So of I went to Japan, got an interview. I got about half a million dollars. A bit of a difference. 'Shit, how good's this? I don't have to get up and go to the butcher's shop. Wow.' In Japan, British rugby values found an unlikely but authentic home ` the commercial world. And in that world, rugby values had become uniquely Japanese. In South America, another country would also adopt and adapt in an unexpected way. The British don't go to Argentina in great number. But when they go to Argentina, they bring their money with them. It's British capital which talks. We, the British, financed an awfully large number of the railways that went across South America. Britain's influence is enormous. And so when the British came, they occupied a very narrow niche of society but an incredibly influential niche. And people emulated them. The way the Argentinian guys were educated involved rugby. It was very much like the English way of schools and universities. British investment was accompanied by British culture. Across the best addresses of Buenos Aires, private members clubs proved an irresistible hit. The social environment was very important. The club was a place where we really socialised. The clubs are very impressive. They're multi-sports clubs, so they had their bowls, and they had their tennis, and women's hockey ` very strong. Swimming pool, you know? So the whole family belonged to the club. (MAN SPEAKS IN SPANISH) Some of them, at the beginning, were very tough to get in. They were a little bit classist, to be honest. You have to be on a certain social level to access, or you will find yourself very outside of the box. You can feel like you're in Scotland or in England. It's like a clubhouse, you know? Full of wood ` very cosy atmosphere. Everybody speaks English in case you're in trouble with Spanish. Because of the British influence, people brought three sports ` cricket, football and rugby, as they do. (CHUCKLES) Cricket ` one of the most boring sports in the world ` was dismissed for the Latin people. On Saturday afternoons in Buenos Aires, rugby teams representing their private club would compete. We've got more than 300 clubs in Argentina, and it's completely amateur. And it's` In a way, it's where the players start to build up their game. We all want to play for the First XV of the club. (MAN SPEAKS IN SPANISH) This rivalry is always really big in the pitch, but that big rivalry ends when the games is over. (MAN SPEAKS IN SPANISH) So because our way of being is more towards the social, like more Latin, we started creating these clubs where men gathered to just have a drink but also to play rugby. (SPEAKS SPANISH) We are really bonded. We call ourselves cousins. So it's a really nice relationship after the game. And it's amazing to have that in sport nowadays. Rugby flourished, but only within a tight, rarefied circle. The Argentinian working classes had little time for rugby. They didn't need it. They had their own sport ` the beautiful game. The story of soccer is quite different ` because it appeals not to the elite but to the working man and their community. You have to belong to a football team. You have to play football. (CHEERING) (LIVELY RHYTHMIC MUSIC) The main difference between football, or soccer, and rugby is that football is a very simple game. (MAN SPEAKS IN SPANISH) Football here is religion, and rugby has become a more elitist sport. They always wanted to be separate from the rest of the... soccer world in Argentina. They want to stay as an elite. It's nothing to do with values; it's something to do with, 'We don't want to mix with you guys.' Argentina's British love affair turned sour in the 20th century as the country's economic fortunes tumbled and its politics went into crisis. Rugby's association as a game of the elites saw it marginalised. Soccer, the sport of the working man, was now loved by everyone. The classic example is Diego Maradona, who was seen as emphasising the Argentine spirit ` anti-colonial. He also has individual skill. He thumbs his nose at the British. He thumbs his nose at the elites. Rugby is associated with the elites. Football is an expression of anti-elite opinion. It was a soccer-loving rugby player who changed Argentine perceptions of rugby in the 1970s. Hugo Porta was a rugby genius ` the game's equivalent of Maradona. And in Porta, Argentina as a nation saw the values of rugby exemplified at the highest level. I was very close to be a soccer player. Very, very close to be a soccer player. But I think I took the right decision. (MAN SPEAKS IN SPANISH) COMMENTATOR: Gomez ` that's done. (WHISTLE BLOWS) It's not as if rugby and soccer in Argentina are at war. They just have different bases of support. Argentines are just as patriotic as the next nation, so if an Argentine team does really well in rugby, then you will find Argentine icons like Maradona supporting it. (BULL HORN BLOWS) The Pumas are popular ` why? Because they represent the values that the people want them to represent. (CHEERING, SINGING) * (MENACING MUSIC) There was one country where rugby resonated across all levels of society ` Britain's oldest rival and sometimes enemy. France was not only good at rugby, it would be good for rugby. I've always been fascinated, as a French person who didn't grow up in France, to see that, secretly, France's favourite sport is rugby. French rugby's special because we don't like to respect rules... or to have an English vision of what is rugby. National shame was the catalyst for rugby's entre into France ` specifically the shame of defeat in the Franco-German war of 1871. The mood is very bad. The Prussians were close to Paris. You can imagine that they were 10km from here. We are missing our youth. We are missing strength, natural strength. Pierre de Coubertin, a wealthy Parisian aristocrat with a fierce love for his country, was furious at France's humiliation. Pierre de Coubertin was involved in rebuilding the youth ` the French youth ` after the war in 1870. Sport was not part at all of the French education. So he said, 'I want the youth to be strong again.' And you know where he head to? Rugby College. Thomas Arnold's version of Muscular Christianity had never looked so good. The young Frenchman was converted on the spot. Sport is part of the education. And he came back from Rugby's college with this idea. And he say, 'We have to enhance the sport activity.' There were a big fashion for English sports. So the elite, they say, 'OK, why don't we start that? Nobody played that. That's going to be our game.' Inspired by de Coubertin's passion, Paris embraced rugby in the late 19th century, first at school, then at club level. And they all say, 'OK, that's an English game, but we will play the French way.' (CHIC MUSIC) But Paris fashions are fickle. Rugby had its moment in the sun, then it was time to go. (MAN SPEAKS IN FRENCH) (FLOWING PIANO MUSIC) The south of France is like the Holy Grail of rugby. It's like everything happened there. In South West, every 10km, you've got a village, and you'll find a club of rugby in every village of South West. And these guys were strong. They were tough. They were uncompromising. In the south of France, rugby is a state of mind. There is even a name for it. Ovalie ` it's a spirit. It's a country. It's a country that doesn't exist, but it's much more than a country. It's something that belongs to everybody. You are ovalie; I am ovalie. Pass the ball to my partner, make the ball alive and be happy to share a glass of beer or red wine after the game, because it was a strong and tough game. (SHOUTS IN FRENCH) Rugby became an expression of identity in the south ` a point of pride and difference from the poseurs and pretenders in Paris. In clubs like St Jean-de-Luz, rugby is the centre of life for the community. For generations, sporting progression from boy to man has been predestined. Rugby from school to the very end of your life. It's rugby here. It's really in that feeling. There's a bit of rivalry. And these villages, they don't like each other. That's why you always want to win on your own ground, and when you play away, you're a bit more lenient. But that's the spirit of French rugby. (PLAYERS YELL) French clubs always win at home and very rarely win away. Because when you're playing in proximity to la cloche ` the clock tower ` you cannot, cannot lose! Because the rest of your week is gonna be ruined. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker ` they are all gonna be on you and at you. (SHOUTS IN FRENCH) (PLAYERS CHANT, SING) * Amateurism wasn't a concept the French really understood. Sometimes the pressure to win blurred boundaries. To be competitive, the best players were tempted to join better teams. Under-the-table payments became an accepted norm in the French game. Some guys was helped by the rugby. They gave the kind of licence for restaurant or for bar. (SCOFFS) It was not very serious. Most of the clubs were involved with what we call amateurisme marron ` brown amateurism. (CHUCKLES) Most of the guy were from countryside, where you work on farms. You've got a champion in every village, so you have to keep this player playing for your clubs. The event that launched the French national rugby team to public consciousness was their game against the 1905 All Blacks. The French scored two tries. That was more than any team in Britain had scored against the All Blacks. And so the demand for the French to be included on the back of that performance against the All Blacks became stronger. Reluctantly, the British acquiesced, and in 1910 included France in the Home Nations. It was, however, a qualified invitation. (SPEAKS FRENCH) By the 1920s, the French were seen as a serious threat to the dominance of the British nations. But no sooner had the French settled into international rugby, they were out again, transgressions in domestic games proving too much for London tastes. The Scottish and the English said, 'What the hell is France doing with our rugby?' Money was involved; recruiting players was involved; violence was involved; and they suddenly say, 'Stop. No more.' And in 1931, we were out of the Five Nations. That left France in the wilderness. This is a shock, a terrible shock for everybody ` the public, the players and the Union. After the Second World War, all was forgiven. France was back in the Five Nations fold. Les Bleus now unleashed a golden era of players. For a the next few decades, French rugby won admirers everywhere. 'French flair' was the universal description of a joyous style of rugby no one had seen before. (FRENCH POP MUSIC) French rugby is... COMMENTATOR: Blanco ` he's looking sharp, the veteran fullback. We don't want to be conventional. We don't like to train so much. We don't care. We are more emotional. And that's probably the origin of French flair. COMMENTATOR: They've slipped on that to Serge Blanco. Philippe Sella... And notice how the backs anticipate this great interplay to Camberabero. Unsettling England, and Camberabero's recovered and sees the man galloping up. It's Saint-Andre. Depends on the bounce, and he's under the posts. One of the most sensational tries Twickenham's ever seen. From behind his own line, we talk about Blanco's flair, but that's just out of this world. The French had customised rugby's British values and made them uniquely Gallic. France had found a way to make rugby French. And in the second half of the 20th century, identity was the reason any country chose to play rugby. No matter the language, history or background, every place where rugby flourished did so because they made the game theirs. London was no longer calling the shots. In England, rugby was approaching its centenary. And though no one realised it, the game was in crisis. www.able.co.nz Copyright Able 2019