The France national rugby union team represents the French Rugby Federation in men's international rugby union matches. Colloquially known as Le XV de France, the team traditionally wears blue shirts with a Gallic rooster embroidered on the chest, white shorts and red socks in reference to the French national flag. Les Bleus mostly play home matches at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, near Paris. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship along with England, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. France have won the tournament on 26 occasions, winning the Grand Slam 10 times.
Racing Club de France Football is a French association football club based in Colombes, a suburb of Paris.
Ronald 'Ronnie' William Poulton was an English rugby union footballer, who captained England. He was killed in the First World War during the Second Battle of Ypres.
Jean Prat was a French rugby union footballer. He played as a flanker. He was awarded the Légion d'honneur in 1959. He is considered one of the best French rugby players of all time and was inducted into both the International Rugby Hall of Fame and IRB Hall of Fame, in 2001 and 2011 respectively. His younger brother. Maurice Prat, also appeared for France, with the pair appearing together at international level on a number of occasions.
Racing 92 is a French professional rugby union club based in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Paris' western inner suburbs that competes in Top 14. The club plays its home matches at the 30,681-capacity domed stadium Paris La Défense Arena, located near the La Défense business district.
The French national rugby union team first competed at the 1900 Summer Olympics.
The 1908 Home Nations Championship was the twenty-sixth series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 18 January and 21 March. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
The 1909 Home Nations Championship was the twenty-seventh series of the rugby union Home Nations Championship. Six matches were played between 16 January and 20 March. It was contested by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Dicky Owen was a Welsh international scrum-half who played club rugby for Swansea RFC Owen is seen as one of the greatest Welsh scrum-halves and won 35 caps for Wales between 1901 and 1912, a record that was unbeaten until 1955 when Ken Jones surpassed him.
Thomas Smyth was an Irish international, rugby union prop forward who played club rugby for Newport and Malone and invitational rugby with the Barbarians. He won fourteen caps for Ireland and was selected to captain the British Isles 1910 tour of South Africa, and played in two of the test games.
Louis Moritz Speirs was a Scottish rugby union international who played ten times for his country and was part of the first official British & Irish Lions team that toured South Africa in 1910.
Thomas Henry Evans was a Welsh international rugby union flanker who played club rugby for Llanelli. Evans played in eighteen international games for Wales, and in 1908 was part of the Welsh team that faced touring Australian team. Evans played in four Home Nations Championships, from 1906 to 1909, and the first two Five Nations Championships, in 1910 and 1911; playing in three Triple Crown winning seasons.
Eric "Puss" MacLeod Milroy was a rugby union player who represented Scotland and Watsonians. He was capped twelve times for Scotland between 1910 and 1914, his first appearance coming as a surprise replacement for the Scottish captain, George Cunningham. He was selected for the 1910 British Isles tour to South Africa after other players were forced to withdraw. Due to illness, he only participated in three matches, and did not take part in any of the tests against South Africa. In 1914, he captained Scotland against Ireland, and against England in the last international match before the outbreak of the First World War.
Marie Jean-Baptiste Joseph Anduran, better known as Joé Anduran or Joe Anduran, was a French rugby union player. He was born on 24 April 1882 in Bayonne, and died at Bois-Bernard in the Pas-de-Calais on 2 October 1914, during the First World War.
Marcel Henry Burgun was a French rugby union player. He was born on 30 January 1890, in St Petersburg, Russia and died on 2 September 1916 during the First World War. He was 1 m 73 and weighed 72 kg, and played at centre, for France and Racing club de France.
Pierre Guillemin was a French rugby union player, who represented France, Paris and Racing Club de France (RCF).
Marcel Legrain was a French rugby union player, who died in World War I. He was 1 m 80 tall and weighed 80 kg, and played at second row and then, having played second line, and then third line in the national selection, and at the Stade Français.
Alfred Mayssonnié, nicknamed Maysso, was a French rugby union player who appeared three times for the country's national team, and was also the first rugby international from any country to die in action in World War I. A native of Lavernose, a village near Toulouse, he played as scrum-half and fly-half and is credited to this day by Stade Toulousain as the strategist of the club's first great teams in the early 20th century.
John Guy Giberne Birkett was an English international rugby union player who played for England between 1906 and 1912, and also captained the side on more than one occasion. He also has the distinction of scoring the first ever try at Twickenham Stadium, echoing the feat of his father who in 1871, in the first ever international rugby match scored England's first ever try.
Charles Henry "Cherry" Pillman was an English rugby union international who played on 18 occasions for his country and was part of the first official British Isles team that toured South Africa in 1910. He played club rugby with Blackheath and county rugby for Kent. Pillman's speed and tactics made him one of the leading exponents of an attacking wing forward, now recognised as the flanker position.
