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Rugby union in France
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Rugby union is the second most popular team sport in France after football and is actually the dominant sport in most of the southern half of the country. It was first introduced in the early 1870s by British residents. Elite French clubs participate in the professional domestic club league, 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 last winning the competition in 2007. France has participated in every Rugby World Cup since its inception in 1987, and has been a runner-up on two occasions. France also hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
HistoryRugby 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. which played a hybrid form of football, a cross between rugby and soccer, called "combination".
The 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 rivals Stade Français in 1883. On March 20 1892 the Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques organised the first ever French rugby union championship, a one off game between Racing and Stade Français. The game was refereed by Pierre de Coubertin and saw Racing win 4-3 . The USFSA remained the main controlling body of French rugby, until the formation of the Fédération Française de Rugby in 1920.
In 1900, rugby was played at the Paris Summer Olympics, France entered a team, along with Germany and Great Britain. 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 FFR 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.
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, FIRA (Federation of Amateur Rugby) was 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.
In 1959, William Webb Ellis' grave was located in France. It was in 1978 that the FFR joined the International Rugby Football Board, now the International Rugby 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 has nearly always been in the top three teams of the Northern Hemisphere since then.
The first Rugby World Cup was held in 1987. After a low period in the mid-1990s caused by FFR's hesitation to join in the introduction of professional rugby in 1995, the national team has regained its top-tier status. 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.
Governing bodyFédération Française de Rugby (FFR) 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 FFR set up the Federation Internationale de Rugby Amateur (FIRA) in an attempt to organize 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, the FFR became a member of the International Rugby Football Board (now IRB). In 1995, the same year that rugby union became a fully professional sport, FIRA officially recognized the IRB as the worldwide governing authority for the sport and turned itself into an exclusively European governing body. In recognition of this transition, FIRA changed its name in 1999 to FIRA - Association Européenne de Rugby (FIRA-AER).
PopularityRugby union is one of the most popular sports in France, and is especially popular in the south of the country. There are around 1720 clubs in France and over 200,000 registered players.
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). The next three times that Stade Français returned to Stade de France saw the Parisians break their previous attendance record. Most recently, on 27 January 2007, Stade Français drew 79,741 against Toulouse. They failed to break their record on 27 October 2007 when Clermont came to Stade de France in the 2007-08 season opener, but still drew over 75,000.
CompetitionsNationalThe 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 Stade Français. 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.
Very few French players participate in the sport, with the majority of teams taken up by ex-Australian and New Zealand Rugby League and Australian Rugby Union players.
EuropeanThe 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 intention 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 following 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.
National sideFrance, nicknamed Les Bleus (The Blues), are a top tier nation, as cited by the International Rugby Board. France competes in the Six Nations Championship annually. Although France have never won the World Cup, they have in fact appeared in both the 1987 and the 1999 finals — losing to New Zealand and Australia respectively. 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.
Media coverageFree-to-air channel France 2 broadcasts the Six Nations games, as well as France's home internationals, such as those that are played during the latter stages of the year in November.
Matches from the Top 14 are broadcasted by the premium pay television channel Canal +, which also broadcasts a lot of international rugby union, including the Southern hemisphere's Tri Nations, between Australia, the All Blacks and South Africa.
See also
External links
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