Le jeu-à-13

I bow to no man in my love of the game of rugby, and this month's World Cup is proving a wonderful antidote to the blues of "la rentrée". But the opportunity is too good to miss, so I must now bring up a subject I first wrote about five years ago -- that is, the shameful record of French Rugby Union in suppressing its younger rival "le jeu-à-13".
(Rugby experts, skip this. There are two forms of the game, Union and League. Union is played with 15 men, League with 13. They have different rules, and very different cultural histories)
My researches took me -- symbolically enough -- to Vichy, because it was there in 1941 that Marshal Petain signed an order prepared for him by his minister of sport, banning Rugby League. Yes, in addition to hunting down Jews and promoting Catholic nationalism, the Vichy government actually took the time out to outlaw a sport!
In brief, the story goes back to the early 30s when Rugby League made a sudden impact in France. The Union game was in disgrace, largely as a result of violent play by French sides, and France had been banned from the five nations championship. Rugby League took up the slack, and by 1939 there were 225 League clubs -- all set up in just five years. But then along came Vichy. The Rugby Union authorities saw their chance, and lobbied hard against the rival game. League was professional, they said, (true -- League players signed annual contracts) and an affront to to sporting values. Worse, it was championed by the left and closely associated with the Popular Front government of 1936. They won the argument, and League was outlawed, its property confiscated, and players urged to "convert" to Union.
Later of course it was unbanned, but the prejudice endured. Not until 15 years ago was League allowed to call itself rugby at all -- the official name before that was the "jeu-à-13". And not till 2002 did a government enquiry conclude that "influential officials in the French Rugby (Union) Federation endeavoured to eliminate the competitor, which they claimed was a deviant form of Rugby Union".
Today League is played in some parts of the southwest -- and the Catalan Dragons play in the European super-league -- but of course it is a pale shadow compared to Union. I am a Union man myself, but this shameful story should not be forgotten.