530 registered players, a first team in Fédérale 2, a rugby school with a 3-star rating, and the women's championship finals hosted with real flair. La Roche-sur-Yon are on the rise.
40 years old, 74 caps and the France captaincy, French champion in 2009 with USAP and in 2022 with Montpellier, European champion in 2015 with Toulon: Guilhem Guirado hung up his boots after the Top 14 final on 24 June 2022, which he played in full wearing the number 2 shirt. Four years on, he splits his time between his insurance agency, corporate talks and a barn under renovation. The first episode of our series "After the Hooter", about those who have left the pitch.
Delphine Bunel is the only woman president among Top 14, Pro D2, Nationale and Nationale 2 clubs. She runs the Valkyries, in Élite 2 Féminine, and Rouen Normandie Rugby, in Nationale, and is acting vice-president of the FFR (French Rugby Federation) in charge of elite women's rugby. We met a passionate, capable and anything but dogmatic leader.
Promoted to Régionale 1, Stade Treillierain must now field a reserve team even though the club has neither juniors nor an under-16 section yet. Around ten new players have arrived, but twice as many are needed. Club president Thomas Cingarlini has secured a one-season moratorium, with points deductions attached, and is targeting survival.
On Monday and Wednesday, Victor Wembanyama trained with the Provence Rugby players in Aix-en-Provence. Tackle bags, kicking, weights: the Spurs centre spent four days in the daily life of a Pro D2 club before joining the France basketball team. Philippe Saint-André, the club's director of rugby, takes us behind the scenes.
Survival secured a season ahead of schedule, a shield for the women's side, fifty volunteers at Hellfest and a move into the West pool: SAC Clisson president Jean-Michel Bonnet takes stock before the return to Fédérale 3.
President of the Ligue de Bretagne, the regional rugby body in Brittany, Fabrice Quénéhervé looks back on a very busy 2025-2026 season: 66 clubs, more than 14,000 registered members, Vannes going up to Top 14 and a mouthguard in the colours of the Gwen-ha-Du.
From Louis Blanc to Leucate by way of the Camp Nou, an attic in Picardy and an agricultural fair in Montbeton, the story of a trophy that weighs far more than its wood: the Bouclier de Brennus, the one and only.
Relegated from Fédérale 2 to Régionale 2, Rugby Club Baulois is casting off with a brand new committee led by Anthony Picaud, a 26-year-old president. With 250 members, an accredited rugby school and healthy finances, RCB has found its smile and its ambitions again.
Miguel Fernandez is the president of Intervals, the union of rugby player agents, and is starting his third term. A snapshot of the transfer market, a survey of the structures…
The head of French refereeing sets out for itsrugby.com what is going to change in a few weeks. A chance to look at the thinking behind it, and to take…
Xavier and Emeline, Candice and Valentin: in the Barret household, rugby is handed down like an inheritance. She is targeting the France women's team, he is rebuilding as a prop at Colomiers. A portrait of a rugby clan winning on every front.
When a shield goes travelling, you have to keep up: it moves fast. RC Vannes' Pro D2 champions' trophy stopped off in La Baule, at Le 106. The story of a fine day out.
Sam Casey is a shrewd observer of rugby in general and of the All Blacks in particular. A few days out from Saturday's All Blacks v France in a superb rebuilt Christchurch stadium, the Radio NZ journalist is expecting a lot from the test.
Almost thirty years ago to the day, the France university side were crowned world champions in Johannesburg at the expense of South Africa (38-20). Captain of that adventure and today manager of France, Raphaël Ibanez remembers, in detail.
Rugby Club Baulois have their summer signing: a prop of more than 100kg who has been through Dublin and then the scrums of Upper Clutha, in New Zealand. You followed him all winter in our "Down Under" series: Eliott is coming home. Final episode.
Eleven thousand registered players, some sixty clubs and five departments to bring together: the Pays de la Loire league closes out a solid season. Its president, Hugues Meillereux, takes stock and sets the course: attracting new players and stepping up on women's rugby.
Safe in Nationale whatever happened thanks to the restructuring of the divisions, Rennes EC also secured their survival on the pitch last season. A first, and one head coach Kévin Courties draws lessons from. Budget, new format, recruitment, the renovation of the Commandant-Bougouin stadium: he steps outside the touchlines to talk about the club's future.
From the Imhoffs to the Elissaldes, from the Pumas to France, rugby is handed down from generation to generation. For Father's Day, a tour of the dynasties where the oval ball is a family business.
