1995–96 French Rugby Union Championship

The 1995–96 French Rugby Union Championship was played by 20 teams in the first division ("A1")

1995–96 French Rugby Union Championship
Countries France
ChampionsToulouse (13th title)
Runners-upBrive
RelegatedNîmes, Périgueux, PUC, Dijon

In the "A1" group were abstent historical clubs like Béziers, Biarritz, Tarbes, and FC Lourdes.

The teams were divided in two pool of 10, and the first 4 were directly qualified to the "Last 16" round, while the ranked from 5th to 8th were admitted to a "barrage" with eight teams from "A2" group.

Stade Toulousain won their 13th title winning the final against CA Brive, who lost their 4th final.

Four team were relegated to lower level: Bayonne, Racing club de France, Montpellier, RC Nice et FCS Rumilly that were replaced by Béziers, Biarritz, Périgueux, Dijon, and Paris Université Club.

Stade Toulousain won his 14th title beating in the final the Bourgoin, at his first final.

Preliminary round edit

Pool 1 edit

Pos Team Points
1 Toulouse 43
2 Grenoble 41
3 Toulon 40
4 Narbonne 38
5 Agen 36
6 Perpignan 36
7 Nîmes 34
8 Nice 33
9 Bayonne 32
10 Racing club de France 27

Pool 2 edit

Pos Team Points
1 CA Brive 42
2 Bourgoin 41
3 Castres 38
4 Bordeaux-Begles 38
5 Montferrand 38
6 Pau 36
7 Dax 36
8 Colomiers 34
9 Rumilly 33
10 Montpellier 24

Barrage edit

may ‘96 Nice - ES Catalane 9–12
may ‘96 Biarritz - Montferrand 3–40
may ‘96 Dax - Lourdes 49–13
may ‘96 Beziers - Perpignan 18–31
may ‘96 Auch - Colomiers 9–24
may ‘96 Agen - Dijon 35–3
may ‘96 PUC - Pau 28–54
may ‘96 Périgueux - Nîmes 18–15

Last 16 edit

may ‘96 Toulouse - ES Catalane 27–16
may ‘96 Narbonne - Montferrand 23–20
may ‘96 Dax - Grenoble 28–14
may ‘96 Toulon - Perpignan 16–15
may ‘96 Brive - Colomiers 24–18
may ‘96 Agen - Bordeaux-Begles 25–18
may ‘96 Castres - Pau 6–14
may ‘96 Périgueux - Bourgoin 12–26

Last 8 edit

may ‘96 Toulouse - Narbonne 12–9
may ‘96 Dax - Toulon 25–11
may ‘96 Brive - Agen 13–12
may ‘96 Pau - Bourgoin 21–18

Semifinals edit

may '96 Toulouse - Dax 36–23
may '96 Brive - Pau 23–21

Final edit

1 June 1996
Toulouse20 – 13Brive
Try: Berty
Pen: Deylaud
Castaignède (2)
Drop: Deylaud
Castaignède
Try: R.Paillat
Con: S.Paillat
Pen: S.Paillat (2)
Parc des Princes, Paris
Referee: Patrick Thomas
FB 15   Stéphane Ougier
RW 14   Émile Ntamack (c)
OC 13   Philippe Carbonneau
IC 12   Thomas Castaignède
LW 11   David Berty
FH 10   Christophe Deylaud   76'
SH 9   Jérôme Cazalbou   79'
N8 8   Sylvain Dispagne
OF 7   Hervé Manent
BF 6   Didier Lacroix   63'
RL 5   Franck Belot
LL 4   Hugues Miorin
TP 3   Claude Portolan
HK 2   Patrick Soula
LP 1   Christian Califano
Substitutions:
HK 16   Christophe Guiter
PR 17   Pascal Lasserre
FL 18   Jean-Luc Cester
FL 19   Richard Castel   63'
CE 20   Olivier Carbonneau   79'
CE 21   Éric Artiguste   76'
FB 22   Ugo Mola
Coach:
  Guy Novès
FB 15   Sébastien Paillat
RW 14   Sébastien Carrat   16'
OC 13   Romuald Paillat
IC 12   Jean-Marie Soubira
LW 11   Christophe Lucquiaud
FH 10   Alain Penaud (c)
SH 9   Sébastien Bonnet
N8 8   Thierry Labrousse   73'
OF 7   Alain Carminati
BF 6   Loïc Van der Linden
RL 5   Laurent Bonventre
LL 4   Éric Alégret   76'
TP 3   Richard Crespy
HK 2   Vincent Moscato
LP 1   Didier Casadeï
Substitutions:
PR 16   Sotele Puleoto
PR 17   Arnaud Boudie
LK 18   Yvan Manhès   76'
N8 19   François Duboisset   73'
SH 20   Bruno Marty
WG 21   Didier Faugeron   16'
FB 22   Alain Guettache
Coach:
  Laurent Seigne