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