Who'd want to see this lot waiting for them?

Brendan Gallagher delves into some of rugby’s most enduring images, their story and why they are still so impactful

- Brendan Gallagher

What’s happening here?

I’m not exactly sure because the Getty’s archive simply labels this ‘March 1975’, but we do know that it is four of the fearsome Spanghero brothers lining up for Narbonne as they often did in the mid-70s. It was the biggest number that ever started for the First XV. To these eyes, it looks very much like the “paddock” area out the back at one end of the old Stade Chaban Delmas in Bordeaux. From left to right we have Jean Marie, Walter, Guy, and Claude.

What’s the story behind the picture?

A remarkable rugby fraternity of Italian origins – their parents were from Friuli in northeast Italy – who settled in the minute village of Payra-sur-l’Hers in the Aude Department. Initially, the family was mainly farm laborers and with six brothers in total the Spangheros often made up nearly 30 per cent of the pupils at the small village school.

Rugby was their outlet and the key to a better life. Laurent, the eldest and not in this picture, was as strong as an ox and the trailblazer. He headed for Narbonne, alternating between prop and second row.