The Breakdown | Vive la différence: French rugby tome still resonates 60 years on

The Rise of French Rugby, written in 1960, offers insights into the Gallic game as it was then, and partly still is nowSixty years ago, two writers decided on a book explaining the history and unique features of French rugby before the national side’s tour to New Zealand the following year. The upshot was The Rise of French Rugby, written in English by Alex Potter and Georges Duthen and published in Auckland.It is a time for spring cleaning and dusting volumes that have been deprived of light for too long but this book has remained close to hand. Written in a style all of its own, as if transl…