Club Athlétique Brive Corrèze Limousin, also referred to as CA Brive, Brive or CAB, is a French professional rugby union club based in Brive-la-Gaillarde, in the Corrèze department.
CS Bourgoin-Jallieu is a French rugby union club competing in the third level of the French league system, Nationale.
Frédéric Michalak is a former French rugby union footballer. His early career was spent playing for his hometown team, Toulouse, in the Top 14 and in the Heineken Cup. He moved to South Africa to play for the Sharks in the Super 14 after the 2007 Rugby World Cup, but after just one year with the Sharks he moved back to Toulouse. He has also played over 70 tests for France to date, and is the country's leading Test point scorer, achieving that milestone in 2015. Michalak originally played scrum-half but has played mainly at fly-half. He has appeared in advertisements for companies such as Nike and Levi's.
Bryan Gary Habana OIS is a South African former professional rugby union player. Playing mainly as a wing, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. He played for the Golden Lions, the Blue Bulls and Western Province in South Africa, for the Bulls and the Stormers in Super Rugby, and for Toulon in the French Top 14, and won 124 caps for the South Africa national team.
Sébastien Chabal is a French former rugby union player. He played number eight and lock for Bourgoin (1998–2004), Sale Sharks (2004–2009), Racing Métro 92 Paris, and for the French national team.
Philippe Georges Saint-André is a former French rugby union footballer and was most recently the manager of Top 14 side Montpellier. He earned 69 test caps for France between 1990 and 1997. His preferred position was wing but he could also play at centre. After retiring, Saint-André has found success as a rugby coach in both England and France. He was serving as director of rugby at Toulon before being announced as the successful candidate for head coach of France from 2011 to 2015. He formally took charge of the national team on 1 December 2011, and left his post on 17 October 2015 following a 13–62 loss to New Zealand.
Cédric Heymans is a French former rugby union footballer who played mainly as a wing or a full-back for French Top 14 club Toulouse and the France national team.
Julien Bonnaire is a former French rugby union footballer, who played for CS Bourgoin-Jallieu in the Top 14 competition in France until the 2006–2007 season. He moved to ASM Clermont Auvergne during the summer of 2007. Bonnaire retired from International rugby after the 2012 Six Nations. However, he continued to play for club side, ASM Clermont Auvergne. Capping a decade of success between 2007 and 2017, before retiring and moving into coaching. He was most recently an assistant for France specialising in lineouts.
Tony Dale Woodcock is a New Zealand former rugby union player. His position was loosehead prop, and he played 111 tests for the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks. Woodcock played for the All Blacks from 2002 to 2015, scoring eight test tries. He was described by The Dominion Post as "widely regarded as the world's premier loosehead", and by The New Zealand Herald as having the "best range of skills of any prop on the planet". He is now the most capped All Black prop of all time, and is the second most capped player in Blues history, behind Keven Mealamu. He was a key member of the 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup winning squads, becoming one of only 20 players to have won multiple Rugby World Cups.
Stéphane Glas is a French rugby union footballer. He currently plays for Stade Francais Paris in the top level of French rugby, the Top 14 competition. He previously played for Bourgoin. He has also represented France 37 times between 1996 and 2001. His usual position is in the centres.
Christophe "Titou" Lamaison is a former French rugby union footballer who represented France at international level, and Brive, Agen and Aviron Bayonnais at professional club level. He won 37 caps, and at the time of his retirement was the all-time leading points scorer for France, with 380 points, a mark surpassed in August 2015 by Frédéric Michalak. Lamaison played most of his rugby as a centre, and possessed reliable distribution and kicking skills, which made up for his only real weakness, a lack of pace. He could also play at fly-half. He made his international debut against South Africa on 30 November 1996 in Paris, and rose to prominence as a key member of France's Grand slam-winning sides of 1997 and 1998. His goalkicking ability also helped Brive win the Heineken Cup in 1997 and reach the final in 1998.
Jean-François Coux is a French rugby union footballer. Coux's first professional club was Vinay whom he played for from 1998 to 1999. He moved to CS Bourgoin-Jallieu for the 1999-2000 Top 14 season and he left them in 2011 to join SU Agen. He mainly plays on the wing.
The National Rugby Union teams of France and New Zealand have been playing each other for over a century. The first encounter, during the historic 1905–1906 All Blacks tour of Europe and North America, which was also France's first test, took place in Paris in January 1906 and was won by New Zealand 38–8. It was not until their third meeting, in 1954, that France secured their first win over New Zealand 3–0.
The 2008–09 Top 14 Competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). It ran from late August 2008 through the final at Stade de France on June 6, 2009, in which Perpignan lifted the Bouclier de Brennus with a 22–13 win over Clermont.
Courtney Linford Lawes is an English professional rugby union player who plays as a flanker for Pro D2 club CA Brive and formerly for the England national team.
Morné Steyn, is a South African former professional rugby union player who played as a fly-half for the Bulls and played for the South Africa national team, up until his retirement from international test rugby in October 2021.
Owen Thomas Franks is a New Zealand rugby player who currently plays for Crusaders in the Super Rugby competition. His usual position is tighthead prop.
Mamuka Gorgodze is a Georgian former rugby union player, who played in the top French professional rugby competition, the Top 14. He played for Toulon, having signed with the club in 2014 after having played for Montpellier since 2005. His usual position is flanker or number eight, but he played his early career as a lock. Gorgodze played for the Georgia national rugby union team in 71 matches, including 13 as a captain. He appeared for the Georgia national team in three World Cups in 2007, 2011, and 2015. In May 2017, he announced his retirement from the national team. In 2019 he returned to the national team for the World Cup in Japan.
Mickaël Simon is a French rugby league footballer who plays as a prop for AS Carcassonne in the Elite One Championship and for France at international level.
Ronald John Cooke is a South African rugby union player, who most recently played domestically for the Eastern Province Kings. His usual position is centre or wing.
