USA Limoges is a French

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

club currently competing in

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 2 ...

, the top level of the French amateur rugby pyramid and one level below the professional leagues. They finished second-from-bottom in the second professional level, Rugby Pro D2, in both 2007 and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. In 2007, they received a reprieve from

relegation In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

to the amateur ranks during the close season when another Pro D2 club,

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 le ...

, were denied a professional license due to financial problems. However, they would have no such luck in 2008, as all clubs above them on the league table passed their required financial audits. The club, founded in 1902, play their home matches at Parc municipal de Beaublanc. They wear blue and red. They are based in Limoges in the Haute-Vienne in the centre of France. Their most recent success was in 2005-06, when they finished second in

to Gaillac and won the promotion playoffs to earn a place in Pro D2.

History

The club was founded in 1902 as AS Limoges, changing their club name to USA Limoges in 1943. In 2003 they were champions of the Federale 1 competition. USA Limoges were the runners-up (second, behind UA Gaillac) in the Federale 1 competition in 2006, earning promotion to the Rugby Pro D2 competition.

Honours

: ** Champions: 2003 ** Runners-up: 2006

Famous players

* Ionut Tofan * Gheorghe Dumitru * Pablo Henn * Sébastien Bonetti

External links

*
USA Limoges
- Official site {{Rugby union in France Limoges Sport in Limoges