France national rugby union team

Categories: National rugby union teams | French rugby union

The France national rugby union team are also known as les Blues or les Tricolores.

The majority of the leading clubs, such as Toulouse and Perpignan who contested the European Cup final earlier this year, are based in the south of a country that boasts some 1,700 clubs with 90,000 seniors and around 120,000 juniors playing the game.

1 History
2 Famous players
3 See also
4 External links

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History

Rugby was introduced to the Le Havre region of France by English merchants in 1872 and spread through the country with them, but despite this arrival in the north of the country the game began to flourish in the poorer, more rural south amongst workers in the wine trade. Rugby Union is still much more popular in the southern part of France than in the North. The French league, started in 1906, was the first truly national league anywhere in the rugby union playing world.

In 1906 France played and lost their first ever Test 38-8 to New Zealand in Paris. The Fédération Française De Rugby was formed 13 years after this test debut

France have been playing in the Six Nations Championship (then known as the Five Nations) since 1910. They were expelled in 1932 following accusations of professionalism in the French league as well as on-field violence and poor organisation and were not allowed to rejoin until 1939. During this time many French players turned to rugby league, which soon became the dominant game in France.

During the German occupation of France in World War II, Vichy France forcibly merged the French rugby league into the French rugby union, declaring that there was only one rugby. After this, the union code was dominant in France again.

They finally won the Five Nations in 1959 and since then have gone on to be one of the strongest competitors.

The late 1960s and early 1970s was a golden era, with the French running the Welsh every step of the way, winning the Five Nations in 1967 and 1968 and sharing the top spot in 1970 and 1973. Titanic battles raged between Barry John, Gareth Edwards, Dai Morris, John Taylor and Gerald Davies for the Welsh and Jo Maso, Claude Dourthe, Jean-Pierre Lux, Guy Camberabero and Pierre Villepreux for the French.

In the 1980s, France won two Grand Slams under the coaching of former international Jacques Fouroux and with such famous names as Philippe Sella, Daneil Dubroca and Serge Blanco.

In the inaugural World Cup France beat Australia 30-24 in the semi final, coming from behind three times to triumph. France were unable to repeat the feat in the final against favourites New Zealand losing 29-9.

Knocked out by England in the quarter-finals in the 1991 Rugby Union World Cup, they were desperately unlucky to lose in the semi-finals to the hosts and eventual champions South Africa in 1995

After finishing wooden-spoonists in the last ever Five Nations they upset the odds by beating red hot favourites New Zealand 43-31 with an outstanding display of attacking rugby in the semi-final of the 1999 Rugby Union World Cup. A week later, however, fatigue told hold as they were beaten convincingly 35-12 by Australia in Cardiff.

Since the advent of the Six Nations in 2000, France has won the competition twice (2002 and 2004), completing a Grand Slam both times.

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