France 2012 Andre Lhote - Rugby Players

For the modern art exhibition entitled "Gleizes - Metzinger / Du cubisme et après" ("Gleizes - Metzinger / From cubism and after") organised by the French Postal Museum in Paris, a booklet of 12 self-adhesive stamps, entitled "Du Cubisme - Paintings of the twentieth century", was put on preview sale on 10 May 2012 at the French Postal Museum and the "Carré d'Encre". Among the 12 self-adhesive stamps is the one entitled "Rugby (1917)" by André Lhote. The official release date of the stamp booklet for general sale is on 16 July 2012. The actual painting is located at the Musée d'Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Other versions of the same theme by Lhote exist.

France 2011 Bravo et Merci

The French Post issued this stamp with the rubric "Bravo et Merci" or "Bravo & Thank you" in English, on 23 October 2011, the day of the final of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Unfortunately, they lost to the "All Blacks" 7-8; however, this stamp is an acknowledgement of the efforts put in by the French team, as were not even expected to have reached the semi-finals.

France 2011 Rugby World Cup

France will release on 6 July 2011 a souvenir sheet to commemorate its participation in the 7th Rugby World Cup that will take place in New Zealand. The souvenir sheet contains 4 stamps, 2 with members of the french national rugby team, and another two feature New Zealand scenes, one featuring the Auckland skyline, the other showing a view of the Authur's Pass National Park located on the southern island. The stamps are surrounded by the flags of the participating nations in this World Cup.
A silver foil stamp with a face value of 5 € will be released 2 days later, on 8 July, for this event. This is the second silver foil stamp, the first being issued in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. This silver foil stamp is packed in a plastic bag, and is best left as it is, because the silver foil will oxidised, giving a blackish surface as time passes.

France 2010 Languedoc-Rousillon Pre-personalised Minisheet

The french post issued on 12 June 2010, 24 pre-personalised minisheets to illustrate regional attractions and specialities, each minisheet comes with 10 self-adhesive stamps. The one for the region of Languedoc-Rousillon illustrates rugby (scrum) and has one of the 10 stamps featuring a "Wallaby" rugby ball placed for kicking.

France 2010 Stade Toulousain Collector's Sheet

After writing about the Monaco issue for the 5 Nations Tournament, I suddenly remembered that France released a collector's sheet 4 days before the Monaco issue, on 4 February, featuring one of the better rugby team in France - Stade Toulousain. Some may argue that this is not a true philatelic issue, since it is even classed as pre-personalised stamp sheet by the french post, composing of 10 stamps for local use, featuring ST players.

France 2009 Region of Aquitaine - the origin of modern rugby?

The French Post released in August a series of regional sheetlets with 10 self-adhesive stamps each featuring regional specialties. The stamp shown above is from the sheetlet for Aquitaine. The description for it listed "soule" or "sioule" as the ancestor of modern day rugby. I googled it, and discovered that "soule" is still being played in France, especially in Normandy, and there are almost no rules for it, one just have to bring the ball across the goal line, and there can be any number of players on either side. The game is supposed to been played more than a thousand years ago!