2008–09 Rugby Pro D2 Season
The 2008–09 Rugby Pro D2 was the second-level French rugby union club competition, behind the Top 14, in the 2008–09 season. It ran alongside the 2008–09 Top 14 competition; both competitions were operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Previous season At the end of the previous season, Toulon were champions and thus automatically promoted to Top 14. They were eventually followed by Mont-de-Marsan, who beat Racing Métro in extra time in the final providing the second promotion place. Blagnac, which had been newly promoted to Pro D2 for the 2007–08 season, finished bottom of the table and were initially relegated to Fédérale 1, but were further relegated by French sporting authorities to Fédérale 2 due to financial problems. Limoges finished second-from-bottom for the second consecutive year; unlike 2006–07, when Limoges were reprieved when Gaillac were denied a professional license due to financial issues, they received no such break in 2007–08. The o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Racing Métro 92 Paris
Racing 92 () is a French rugby union club based in suburban Paris that was formed in 2001 with the collaboration of the Racing Club de France and US Métro. They were called Racing Métro 92 between 2001 and 2015, when they changed the name to Racing 92. "92" is the number of Hauts-de-Seine, a département of Île-de-France, bordering Paris to the west, where they play, and whose council gives financial backing to the club. They currently play in the Top 14, having been promoted as 2008–09 champions of Rugby Pro D2. After starting the 2017–18 season at the Stade Yves-du-Manoir stadium at Colombes, where the France national team played for several decades, Racing played their first match at the new U Arena, since renamed Paris La Défense Arena, in Nanterre on 22 December 2017. History Racing Club was established in 1882 (it became Racing Club de France in 1885) as an athletics club, one of the first in France. New sections were regularly added thereafter (17 as of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fédérale 1
Le championnat de France de première division fédérale, a.k.a. Fédérale 1, is a French rugby union club competition, the fifth highest level of amateur rugby. The competition has been organised by the Fédération Française de Rugby since 2000, when it replaced the B2 Group. The championship is contested between 40 teams and named in honor of the famous former FC Lourdes and French International player, Jean Prat. Format The format has two phases with many steps. Before the 2015–16 season, the structure was even more complex. Preliminary phase A total of 10 teams compete on a double round-robin basis (18 games) in each of the 4 groups. At the end of this phase, the teams are divided as follows: * At roughly the midpoint of the season, the French Rugby Federation (FFR) announces a list of teams that will be eligible for promotion to the country's second level, Rugby Pro D2, in the following season. Six of these clubs will advance to a set of promotion playoffs, provided ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rugby Union Bonus Points System
Bonus points are group tournament points awarded in rugby union tournaments in addition to the standard points for winning or drawing a match. Bonus points were implemented in order to encourage attacking play throughout a match, to discourage repetitive goal-kicking, and to reward teams for "coming close" in losing efforts. Standard system The most common point system is: * 4 points for winning a match * 2 points for drawing a match * 0 points for losing a match * 1 losing bonus point for losing by 7 points (or fewer) * 1 try bonus point for scoring (at least) 4 tries, regardless of the outcome. In this system, winning teams get 4 or 5 points; drawing teams 2 or 3 points; and losing teams between 0 and 2 points. Variant systems France The French professional league, Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR), uses a similar system in its two competitions, the Top 14 and Rugby Pro D2. After trialling the system in 2007–08, LNR adopted the new system permanently after that season. The Fr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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L'Équipe
''L'Équipe'' (, French for "the team") is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sport, owned by Éditions Philippe Amaury. The paper is noted for coverage of association football, rugby football, rugby, motorsport, and cycle sport, cycling. Its predecessor was ''L'Auto'', a general sports paper whose name reflected not any narrow interest but the excitement of the time in car racing. ''L'Auto'' originated the Tour de France road bicycle racing, road cycling stage race in 1903 as a circulation booster. The race leader's yellow jersey (french: maillot jaune, link=no) was instituted in 1919, probably to reflect the distinctive yellow newsprint on which ''L'Auto'' was published. The competition that would eventually become the UEFA Champions League was also the brainchild of a ''L'Équipe'' journalist, Gabriel Hanot. History ''L'Auto-Vélo'' ''L'Auto'' and therefore ''L'Équipe'' owed its life to a 19th-century French scandal involving soldier Alfred Dreyfus – th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tarbes Pyrénées Rugby
Tarbes Pyrénées Rugby is a French rugby union team that currently takes part in Nationale, the third level of the country's league system. They were founded in August 2000 as a result of a merger between Stadoceste Tarbais and the senior side of Cercle Amical Lannemezanais. They play in red and white. They are based in Tarbes, the capital of the Hautes-Pyrénées département, in Occitania, and play at the Stade Maurice Trélut. History Several clubs from the Bigorre region have been part of the history of rugby union in France, but none of them was able to keep up with the times when professionalism appeared. Stadoceste Tarbais, the big regional gun, a two-time French champion, was struggling in the amateur leagues, like FC Lourdes (8 times French champion) and Stade Bagnérais. However, at the end of the 1999-2000 season, CA Lannemezan reached Pro D2 for the first time ever. But the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, which operates the French professional leagues, blocked the promo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oyonnax Rugby
Union sportive Oyonnax Rugby is a French rugby union club from Oyonnax in the Ain département of the région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, currently playing in Rugby Pro D2, the second division of the country's professional rugby system. They play at Stade Charles-Mathon (capacity 11,400). They wear black and red. History They were founded in 1909 as ''Club Sportif Oyonnaxien'' and were renamed ''Union Sportive Oyonaxienne'' in 1940, as sports clubs were forced to unite by the Vichy régime. Oyonnax played in the regional leagues until 1967 when they joined the First Division (64 clubs). They were relegated to the lower divisions a few years later and bounced back to Group B of the First Division (the Second Division in fact) in 1988. Finally, in 2003 they reached the Fédérale 1 final and although they went down to Limoges (18-20), they moved on to the professional Pro D2. In the 2012/13 season, they won Pro D2 and were promoted to the top-flight Top 14. They were repromoted afte ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stade Rochelais
Stade Rochelais (), commonly called La Rochelle, is a French rugby union club who compete in the Top 14. They were founded in 1898 and play at Stade Marcel-Deflandre (capacity 16,000). They wear yellow and black. They are based in La Rochelle in the Charente-Maritime ''département'' of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. 98% of the shares are owned by the Stade Rochelais Association. Stadium The stadium is named after Marcel Deflandre, who was the president of the club born of the fusion between the rugby league and rugby union clubs during World War II in La Rochelle, after the Vichy government banned the game of Rugby League and forced all of its assets to be handed to the French Rugby Union. Honours * Top 14 ** Runners-up: 2020–21 * European Rugby Champions Cup ** Champions: 2021–22 ** Runners-up: 2020–21 * EPCR Challenge Cup ** Runners-up: 2018–19 * Challenge Yves du Manoir ** Champions: 2002, 2003 (March) Current standings Current squad The La Roc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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FC Auch Gers
Football Club Auch Gers is a French rugby union club based in Auch in Midi-Pyrénées most recently playing in the promotion-eligible pool of Fédérale 1. In recent years, they have mainly bounced between the first-level Top 14 and Pro D2. In a five-year stretch between 2003 and 2004 and 2007–08, they were either promoted or relegated four times—promoted to the then-Top 16 as champions of Pro D2 in 2004, relegated in 2005, promoted as Pro D2 champions again in 2007, and relegated as bottom finisher in 2008. Founded in 1891, the club plays at Stade Jacques Fouroux (capacity 7,000); its players wear red and white. Auch was founded in 1897. They were runners-up in the 2001 League Cup competition, losing to Montferrand (Clermont) in the final. In the 2000s they were playing in the second division on French rugby, and in the 2002–03 season they made the semi-finals toward promotion but were defeated by Montpellier. However the following season they were promoted to the to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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US Colomiers
Union sportive Colomiers Rugby or US Colomiers is a French rugby union club currently competing in Pro D2, the second level of the French rugby pyramid. They had been relegated from Pro D2 after finishing last in the 2006-07 season, but earned promotion from Fédérale 1 at the first opportunity in 2007-08, and survived a relegation scare in 2008–09, finishing 14th, in the last safe position. The club was relegated from Pro D2 in the 2010–11 season. The club, based in Colomiers in the Haute-Garonne ''département'' of Occitania, was founded in 1915 and plays at the Stade Michel Bendichou (capacity 11,000). The players wear blue and white. Colomiers have been runners-up in the French championship and Heineken Cup, as well as winners of the European Challenge Cup. US Colomiers were established in 1915. Colomiers had various European success in the late 1990s. In 1998 they won the European Challenge Cup, the competition below the Heineken Cup, defeating fellow French club SU A ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Stade Aurillacois Cantal Auvergne
Stade Aurillacois Cantal Auvergne (commonly known as Aurillac) is a French professional rugby union club that was founded in 1904 and currently play in the Rugby Pro D2, the second division of French rugby. Aurillac`s home matches are mostly played at the Stade Jean Alric, which has a capacity of around 9,000. Honours * Première Division Groupe B ** Runners-up: 1996 * Fédérale 1 ** Winner: 2007 * Coupe de France ** Runners-up: 1986 Current standings Current squad The Aurillac squad for the 2022–23 season is: Espoirs squad Notable former players * Victor Boffelli * Danie De Beer * Thomas Domingo * Romeo Gontineac * Wade Grintell * Olivier Magne * Sébastien Viars * Jean-François Viars * Keith Andrews * John O'Connor * Phillipe Kilroe * Mark Andrews * Forrest Gainer * Joel Bates * Pierre Trémouille * Didier Casadeï * Graydon Staniforth * Harold Karele * Jacques Burger ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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UA Gaillac
Union Athlétique Gaillac is a French rugby union club currently competing in the Fédérale 3 league, the third level of the French amateur league system, after having been forcibly relegated from the second level of the French professional league due to serious financial problems. The club, founded in 1901, is based in the small town of Gaillac, in southwestern France, in the département of Tarn, some 70 km northeast of Toulouse. They play their home games at ''Stade Laborie-Bernard Laporte'', which was inaugurated in 1909. Their current coach is Alain Gaillard. History The club was founded as ''Stade Gaillacois'' and was only the third rugby union club in Tarn. In 1905, it became ''Stade Athlétique Gaillacois'' and in 1910 ''Union Sportive Gaillacoise''. In 1940, the French rugby federation cancelled the championship and the club was forced out of business, but a new club was founded, ''Union Athlétique Gaillacoise'', with rugby, football, boxing, tennis, athletics ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |