1995–96 French Rugby Union Championship

1995–96 French Rugby Union Championship
1995–96 French Rugby Union Championship
Countries	France
Champions	Toulouse (13th title)
Runners-up	Brive
Relegated	Nîmes, Périgueux, PUC, Dijon

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

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

Pool 1

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

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

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

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

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

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

Final

1 June 1996

Toulouse	20 – 13	Brive
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