CR Liceo Francés

Club de Rugby Liceo Francés is a Spanish rugby union club. The club was founded in 1968 and currently competes in the División de Honor de Rugby competition, the top level of Spanish rugby. The club are based in Madrid, Spain and play in red, white and blue.

Rugby has been played at the Lycée Français de Madrid since 1968, when the school’s facilities in the Parque del Conde de Orgaz were built. On July 15, 1972, it was formally established as a club independent of the school, although it has always maintained a close connection with the Lycée.

The club began competing at a regional level, before making its debut in the Second Division of the National League in the 1974–75 season.

In 1978, the Ramón Urtubi Stadium, with a natural grass pitch, was built on the school grounds. During the 1980–81 season, Liceo Francés played in the División de Honor de Rugby, after the top tier was expanded.

The club’s first major success came in the 1988–89 season, when it reached the final of the Copa del Rey and won the second-tier Primera Nacional championship, meaning it returned to the División de Honor.

The following years were the club’s golden era, with two league runner-up finishes (1990–91 and 1992–93), another Copa del Rey runner-up (2001), and a FER Cup title (1996).

During the succeeding decades, the club bounced between Spain's top two divisions, hitting a low point when it was relegated to Primera Nacional, now the Spanish third tier, in 2004.

In the 2024–25 season, after 18 years away from the top flight, Liceo Francés achieved promotion under Fernando Díez, defeating Gernika RT 32-29 in the promotion playoff final.^[1]

The women's team has won the Copa de la Reina, Spain’s top national competition, twice (1999 and 2000).

Liceo Francés is well-known for its success at youth level. Throughout its history, it has won Spanish national titles in the junior (1993 and 1994), youth (1992 and 1993), cadet (1991 and 2018), children’s (1994), under-12 (1990), under-10 (2002), and under-8 (2005) categories. The youth team also won the Iberian Cup in 1992.

Today, Liceo Francés has around twenty teams competing in different categories, making it one of the Spanish clubs with the most registered players. Many international players have emerged from its ranks, as well as actors Javier Bardem and Sergio Peris-Mencheta.^[2]

• División de Honor: 0
  • Runners-up: 1990–91, 1992–93
• Copa del Rey: 0
  • Runners-up: 1989–90, 2000–01
• Copa FER: 1
  • Champions: 1996
• Primera Nacional: 3
  • Champions: 1976–77, 1985–86, 1988–89

• 14 seasons in División de Honor
• 10 seasons in División de Honor B

• Rugby union in Spain

• Official website
• Spanish Rugby website