Australia hammered by Fabulous French 1951

1951 French Rugby League team tour to Australia and defeat the Kangaroos convincingly.
Led by the chain-smoking, goal kicking genius, Puig Aubert, the French defied the odds to defeat a star studded Australian Team.
Puig Aubert (born Robert Aubert Puig, 24 March 1925 - 3 June 1994), is often considered the best French rugby league footballer of all-time.

[@dasrhinegold]

Fantastic coverage.👍

[@lapalad]

My father said to his dying day this French team were the best touring team he ever saw.

[@glenchapman3899]

My dad told me a story of watching Puig Aubert playing football against NSW. NSW player slices through the defense, ran straight past Puig who did not make a move to stop him. After the game Puig was claimed to say. If he is good enough to beat the 12 players in front what hope did I have lol

[@glenchapman3899]

I read an article years ago that explained why the French were so good in this era. During WW2. Many members and supporters of the resistance refused to play Rugby as a protest against the French government collaboration with the Germans (Vichy French) After the war many potentially good Rugby players continued to play league because of the issue. Over time the scars healed and all the good players coming through stayed with Rugby rather than play League. And hence French rugby league remains in the doldrums.

[@jpatten]

Note quite. During the 1930's rugby league was very popular throughout France. During WWII the French rugby union worked with the puppet Vichy government under the NAZI invaders, getting them to ban rugby league and have all of its assets handed over to rugby union. They were able to convince them to do this because rugby league in the south of France was a hotbed for the resistance against the NAZI's. After the war, rugby league was allowed to be played, but the damage had been done. Most of the clubs who had been forced to play rugby union didn't bother to switch back, and they didn't get their money back either. It was also illegal for them to call the game rugby xiii. The game had to be called "Game of 13" all the way until the late 1980's. The kids who grew up playing the game in France before the war were great. They were the tourists in the 50's who beat Australia. After that, the next wave were guys who didn't grow up playing the game, and were drawn from a much smaller playing pool. Hence the poorer results in the late 60's and later.