Gaston Lane

Gaston Lane (31 January 1883 – 23 September 1914) was a French rugby union player. He was 1 m 68 cm tall and weighed 68 kg.

He played right wing three quarter (later centre) for Racing club de France and for the French national team; at first he also played for AS Bois-Colombes then for the Paris Cosmopolitan Club.

He played in the first French international and was capped ten times, along with Marcel Communeau.

He was a tradesman. He was killed on the front in Moselle at the start of the First World War.

He was an excellent club rugby player, and also occasionally contributed articles to Sporting.

Club

 * Racing club de France
 * Cosmopolitan Club, Paris
 * AS Bois-Colombes (initially)

International
Gaston Lane was first selected for the French national team for the 1 January 1906 match against the All-Blacks, the first French Test match.

Club

 * Second place in French national rugby championship, 1912 with Racing club de France, and captain, alongside Géo André and Pierre Failliot, who also played three quarters.

International

 * 16 caps.
 * 1 try (3 points).
 * Caps by year: 2 in 1906, 1 in 1907, 2 in 1908, 3 in 1909, 2 in 1910, 2 in 1911, 3 in 1912, 1 in 1913.
 * Participated in the first official France match against the All Blacks in their first European tour.
 * Captain five times (in 1906, 1910, 1912 & 1913), and captain of the French first XV in the first Five Nations Championship, against Wales at Swansea in 1910 (the second was Marcel Communeau in the next match).
 * He was in 4 seasons of the Five Nations Championship in the pre-war period.
 * First victory against a Home Nations team, Scotland, in the second French Five Nations Championship, in 1911.