Rugby union in France

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Rugby union in France
Stade Francais playing Biarritz at Stade de France.
Governing body	Fédération Française de Rugby
National team	France
Nickname(s)	Les bleus
First played	1872, Le Havre
Registered players	212,059
Clubs	1,720
Competitions
National
- Rugby World Cup
- Six Nations
- Rugby World Cup Sevens
Club
- Heineken Cup
- European Challenge Cup
- European Shield
- Top 14

Rugby union is a popular team sport that is played in France. It was first introduced in the early 1870s by British residents. Elite French clubs participate in the domestic club competition - the Top 14. Clubs also compete in the European knock-out competition, the Heineken Cup.

The national side competes annually in the Six Nations Championship and are the current champions. France has been to every Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987, and has been a runner-up on two occasions. France will be hosting the next World Cup, the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

Contents 1 History 2 Governing body 3 Popularity 4 Competitions 4.1 National 4.2 European 5 National side 6 Media coverage 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] History

Rugby football was introduced into France by the British in the early 1870s.

It was in 1872 that a group of British residents formed the Le Havre Athletique.^[1] which played a hybrid form of football, a cross between rugby and soccer, called "combination".

The first genuine rugby club in France was English Taylors RFC formed by British businessmen in Paris in 1877, followed by Paris Football Club a year later. Racing Club de France was formed in 1882 and their arch rivals Stade Français in 1883. The Football Commission of l’Union des Societes Françaises de Sports Athletiques (USFSA) formed in 1890 and became the de facto controlling body of French rugby, until diversity and sheer numbers led to the birth of the Fédération Française de Rugby in 1920.

The French rugby clubs remained in affiliation with the RFU and IRB when rugby split in 1895. In 1900, rugby was played at the Paris Summer Olympics, France entered a team (Union des Sociétés Français de Sports Athletiques), along with Germany (Frankfurt Club) and Great Britain (Moseley Wanderers). France won the gold medal, the first ever rugby event at the Olympics. In 1905, for the first time, England and France played each other. In 1910, France coined the term The Five Nations, though they had competed in the home nations tournament four times previously, the name was known as Five Nations after 1910.

Rugby was again played at the 1920 Summer Olympics, though this time, in what is considered one of the most surprising results in rugby history, France fumbled in the gold medal match, being defeated at the hands of the United States, eight points to nil. That same year, the Fédération Française de Rugby was officially formed. France were again participating in the rugby at the 1924 Summer Olympics, in the last time that rugby would be played as an Olympic sport, the United States successfully defend their title. By the 1930s the rugby union authorities concluded that France rugby union was breaching amateur regulations, and they were suspended from playing against the other nations. In addition to the breaches of amateurism, their were worries about on-field violence among other problems.

It is estimated that rugby league arrived in France in about 1934, half a century after the amateur code had established itself in the country. Also in 1934, The FIRA (Federation of Amateur rugby) is founded by Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Catalonia (Spain), and Sweden. With the expulsion from Europe's leading international competition, many French players turned to the professional code. As rugby league began to develop within the country, he number of rugby union clubs went into a decline. However, rugby league's popularity in the thirties was undone when the sport was faced with numerous convictions from the then Vichy government.^[2]

In 1959, William Webb Ellis' grave was located in France. It was in 1978, that the Fédération Française de Rugby joined the International Rugby Football Board. Also in 1959, the national team won the Five Nations for the first time, and subsequently won another consecutive three championships (1960 was shared with England). This success was repeated at the end of the 1960s, when France won both the 1967 and 1968 championships, the 1968 being a Grand Slam.

France supported the propsed concept of a Rugby World Cup, even though the majority of vote holders in Europe were opposed to the idea. Following the introduction of professional rugby in 1995, the national team made a lot of progress.^[3] In 1998, France's women's team competed at the first official Women's Rugby World Cup which was held in the Netherlands. In 2003, France was awarded the right to host the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

[edit] Governing body

Main article: Fédération Française de Rugby

Fédération Française de Rugby is the rugby union governing body in France, they are responsible for the governing of rugby union in France including the French national team and the Ligue Nationale de Rugby. It was formed in 1919.

In 1934 the Fédération Française de Rugby French set up the Federation Internationale de Rugby Amateur (FIRA) in an attempt to organise rugby union outside the authority of the International Rugby Board. It included the national teams of Italy, France, Catalonia, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Germany. In 1978 Fédération Française de Rugby became a member of the International Rugby Football Board (now IRB).

[edit] Popularity

Rugby union is one of the most popular sports in France, rugby is especially popular in the south of the country.^[4] There are around 1720 clubs in France and over 200,000 registered players.^[5]

The domestic competition has grown considerably in recent years, with attendance up by 25% from 2004-05 as well as numerous sellouts. On 15 October 2005, Paris club Stade Français drew a crowd of 79,502 at Stade de France for a home game against Toulouse. This match broke the previous French attendance record for a regular-season league match in any sport (including football). That record has since been overtaken, when on 4 March 2006, Stade Français returned to the venue and drew 79,604 against Biarritz Olympique.

[edit] Competitions

[edit] National

Main article: Ligue Nationale de Rugby

The major national club competition in France is the Top 14 (formerly, the Top 16). The Top 14 is played on a home and away basis between the top fourteen club sides in France. The first championship was contested in 1892 and won by the Racing Club. The current champions are Biarritz Olympique. The second major competition in France is the Rugby Pro D2 competition. A relegation system exists between the two tiers of competition. Below Pro D2 is the Fédérale 1, and a number of other Fédérale leagues.

[edit] European

Main article: Heineken Cup

The Heineken Cup (known as the H Cup in France due to alcohol advertising laws) is an annual rugby union competition involving leading club, regional and provincial teams from the Six Nations: England, France, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Italy. The competition was launched during the European summer of 1995 by the (then) Five Nations Committee, following the advent of professionl rugby union. The tournament was born with the intenion of providing a new level of professional European competition. The French clubs have been quite dominant in the tournament; the inaugural competition was won by Toulouse. Then in the followig year Brive were the champions. Toulouse became the first ever, and so far only team to win the competition three times, becoming champions again in 1996, 2003, and 2005.

[edit] National side

Main article: France national rugby union team

France, nicknamed the Les Bleus, are a top tier nation, as cited by the International Rugby Board. France competes in the Six Nations Championship annually. Although France has never won the World Cup, they have in fact appeared in both the 1987 and the 1999 finals - losing to New Zealand and Australia respectivley. In addition to being runners-up on two occasions, France has always appeared in the semi-finals - with the exception of the 1991 Rugby World Cup where they were knocked out in the quarter finals. France currently hold the Six Nations trophy. The French style of play is renowned for its paradoxical combination of rugged physicality and inspired grace.

[edit] Media coverage

Free-to-air channel France 2 broadcast the Six Nations internationals, as well as France's home internationals, such as those that are played during the latter stages of the year in Novermber. On club level, France 2 also broadcast matches from the Top 14. The premium pay television channel Canal + broadcats a lot of international rugby union, including the Southern hemisphere's Tri Nations, between Australia, the All Blacks and South Africa.^[6]

[edit] See also

• List of rugby union clubs in France
• Sport in France
• Rugby league in France

[edit] References

1. ^ Historical Rugby Milestones - 1870s. telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved on 14 May 2006.
2. ^ French Rugby League - Still Awaiting An Apology. rl1908.com. Retrieved on 14 May 2006.
3. ^ From heroes to zeroes. telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved on 14 May 2006.
4. ^ Le Rugby Français. wallabytravel.com. Retrieved on 14 May 2006.
5. ^ Federation Francaise de Rugby. irb.com. Retrieved on 14 May 2006.
6. ^ France. planet-rugby.com. Retrieved on 13 July 2006.

[edit] External links

• (French) FFR.fr
• (French) Rugby World Cup
• 100 years of French Test rugby: part one
• 100 years of French Test rugby: part two