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 ...
Essonne
Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.Pro D2, the second tier of the French league system.
They are based in Massy, Essonne, in the southern suburbs of Paris and were founded in 1971. They were promoted from the
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 ...
at the end of the 2011–12 season, entering professional rugby for the first time in their history.
Their stay in Pro D2 was short-lived: they were demoted at the end of the 2012–13 Rugby Pro D2 season. On 24 May 2014, it was announced that they had won promotion back to Pro D2 for the 2014–15 season as a result of winning the
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 ...
semi-final 17 – 9 against Tyrosse. They went on to lose the final 18–14 to
Montauban
Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, ...
.
Massy were again relegated after only one season, finishing bottom on the 2014–15 Pro D2 table. They would return to Pro D2 after winning the promotion group in the 2016–17 Fédérale 1 regular season.