Bouclier de Brennus: France's Holy Grail
Grand Slams and things are all very nice but nothing beats the Bouclier de Brennus for ecstasy, euphoria and sheer glee.
The New Zealanders call the Ranfurly Shield the Log. In Occitan, the language of Southern France, the French call the Bouclier de Brennus Le Planchòt, the Plank. Both shields go back over a 100 years, Brennus's shield nine year's older than Ranfurly's. The Currie Cup as a competition started in 1890.
The Bouclier de Brennus is named after a man – no, not after the romantic, hero who fought the ancient Romans, line Vercingetorix or Ambiorix, but after Charles Brennus, though it is not quite as simple as that. His parents, obviously steeped in France's distant past, named him after two famous opponents of the Romans, real men. His name was Brennus Ambiorix Crosnier, born in 1859, died in 1943, generally known as Charles Brennus. Brennus had sacked Rome in the 4th Century BC while Ambiorix had withstood Julius Caesar, of all people, in the 1st century BC.
Charles Brennus it was that made and gave his name to the shield in 1892. Brennus was the founder of USFSA (Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques). His friend who had a say in the creating of the shield was the more famous Pierre de Coubertin, who is regarded as the father of the modern Olympic movement. De Coubertin did the design and Brennus, an engraver by profession, did the sculpting in brass on a wooden support of ash. The shield has the USFSA coat of arms and the world Ludus pro Patria: a game for the nation. It also had a plaque for the names of the winners.
When USFSA split into several sporting bodies, one of them, the French Rugby Federation, took the shield with them. The legal custodians of the shield are SCUF (Sporting Club Universitaire de France) who have never themselves won the trophy though they were losing finalists in 1911 and 1913. Each year two SCUF players hand over the trophy to the winners.
What is awarded now is not the original. In 2003 it was decided that the battered original would be restored and kept safe. What is handed over now is a replica which gets carted about in celebration, ending in the centre of an unruly mob, and, for players, a jolly ticket to free wine and cheese wherever its bearers make a raucous stop. It will take its share of battering while the restored original rests in splendour, as it is entitled to do.
