Stade Français

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Stade Français CASG (also known as just Stade Français) are a French professional rugby union club based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The club plays in the Top 14 domestic league in France and are one of the most successful French clubs of the modern era. The club took part in the first ever French championship final of 1892, and went onto win numerous titles during the early 1900s. The club spent about 50 years in the lower divisions of French rugby, until entrepreneur Max Guazzini took over in 1992, overseeing a rise to prominance, which saw them return to the elite division in just five seasons, and capture every major rugby title.

Stade Français were founded in 1883 and currently play their home matches at Stade Jean-Bouin, though they have recently had a relationship with the 80,000 Stade de France, taking two matches their last season. The club was founded in its current form in 1995 with the merger of the rugby sections of the Stade Français and Comitie Athletic St Germain (CASG).

History

The side quickly emerged as a powerful club in the competition and captured two more titles in a row that decade, winning the championship in 1894 as well as 1895. The club lost the 1895 championship match but did win the next two seasons, 1896 and 1897. The club were also losing finalists in the 1899 championship match, going down 5 to 3.

The beginning of the 1900s saw a decade of dominance by the club, starting with championship wins in 1901 as well as 1903. The club made it to the next four championship matches, from 1904 through to 1907, but were unfortunant not to win any of them. In 1908, after four unsuccessful finals, the again won the championship.

It would not be until 1927, until the club would feature in another grand final. The side lost the championship in the 1927 season, being defeated by Stade Toulousain 19 points to 19. No championship success would materialise for a long time, as Stade Français spent around 50 years in the lower divisions of rugby in France.

Entrepreneur Max Guazzini wished to bring back top class rugby to Paris. Guazzini took over the club in 1992, when they were in the third division. Guazzini's takeover of the club saw a huge rise in player recruitment, as well as a club mereger with the Comitie Athletic St Germain (CASG) in 1995. It was this same year that the club finally returned to the elit division, with Bernard Laporte leading the way as coach. In the late 90s the club headed a vigorous recruitment drive, something which the style of play was frowned upon by the south.

The club matched its success of the early 1900s, as they won four championships over six years. The era of success started with a championship win over USA Perpignan in the final of the 1998 season, this was the first championship to be moved to Stade de France, thus having a capacity crowd of 78,000. Although Guazzini had seen his dream come true, Paris Rugby rising from third division to French champions in the space of just five seasons, Paris Rugby still had along way to go in the city, as home crowds were still fairly low at this stage, and the club had very little support.

Despite having low support in Paris as well as facing constant criticism from the south, the squad, which had seven different nationalities within it, became a very close group of players, which became one of their biggest strengths. After being crowned the champions of France in 1998, they followed this up with a Coupe de France championship in 1999.

Laporte left the club in November of 1999 to become the had-coach of the national team. He was succeeded by George Coste. Stade Français found immediate success, making it to the final of 2000 French chamhpionship. The club captured their second title since Guazzini had arrived at the club in 1992, defeating the US Colomiers in the final.

Stade Français soon had another head coach in John Connolly. Connolly took the club to the final of the 2000-2001 European Rugby Cup. The club went down to the Leicester Tigers at Parc des Princes. Connolly left the club in 2002 and was replaced by South African Nick Mallett.

Three years later the club defeated Stade Toulousain in the final as well. The following year, season 2004, the defending champions successfully held on to their title, by defeating USA Perpignan in the grand final. Crowds were now on the rise, though they were still not excellant, and support at away games was still fairly low, at least in comparison to other French teams.

The 2004-05 season was mixed for the fans as popular coach Mallett parted ways with the club, returning to South Africa for family reasons. Former Stade footballer, as well as France captain Fabien Galthie, who had previously had no coaching experience, was appointed as the head coach at the club. Galthie's appointment as coach brought further success to Paris, as they again made it to the final of the European Rugby Cup, but lost in the 2005 decider to fellow French club Toulouse, in extra-time. Despite losing the Heineken Cup, Stade could still capture the French championship, sitting at the top of the league table. They defeated Heinekn Cup winners Toulouse in the finals to make it to the final in 2005, but lost the match to Biarritz Olympique, the fact that it was also after extra-time, was very hard for the Paris fans.

Stadium

A Stade Français match.

They teams home stadium is Stade Jean-Bouin which has a capacity of 12,000. Guazzini made a decesion to take a European semi against Newcastle to the significantly larger Parc des Princes, which is only a short walk from Stade Jean-Bouin. The move was greeted somewhat anxiously by the fans and players, most likely due to superstitions regarding the 2001 loss to Leicester. Guazzini ensured that the 48,000 stadium was full, selling cheap tickets, and targeting school and junior clubs. Jonny Wilkinson even made an appearance at Town Hall, though he actually did not end up playing.

Guazzini wanted to book Parc des Princes for the two biggest games of the following season; Leicester and Toulouse. However the Paris St Germain president refused - citing possible "pitch damage".http://www.sportnetwork.net/main/s103/st84093.htm?fromrss=1 Although Parc was unavailable, the national stadium of France, the 80,000 Stade de France - was. Guazzini gambled on it, and booked the Toulouse match for it. The gamble paid off, with just under 80,000 turning up for the game, absolutely smashing the regular season attendance record - for any football code in France. At the end of the match, Guazzini announced that he had booked the venue for the Biarritz match - a rematch of the 2004-05 final. Stade Français drew an even larger crowd to the game, toppling the previous record set that same season. The Leicester match however, could not be played at Stade de France due to fixture clashes. Numerous football clubs offered to host the match, as well as Brussels offering their national stadium. After a period of muchspeculation, the match was taken to the Stade de Charlety, remaining in Paris.

Support

The colourful support for Stade Français at Parc des Princes.

The club currently holds the record for the highest crowd at a regular season match in any football code in France, a record they broke twice during the 2005-06 season. After Guazzini took over the club in 1992, there very much a lack of support for the team in Paris, due obviously to the club spending half a century in the lower divisions of the French league system. After the team returned to the elite division in the mid 1990s, it still took a while to re-establish rugby in the city. Despite finding early success in the French championship in the late 1990s, the club did not have huge support, especially at away matches.

Following the clubs two extra-time losses in the Heineken Cup and Top 14 finals, the crowds were now at a very large level. They had now really started to pull in the Parisian fans. A young peoples' supporters group - Le Virage des Dieux, brought drums and introduced a singing atmosphere to home games, which had traditionally been known to be quieter than other fans. There has also been an increase in away support, though this still remains hard, as the nearest away match is at Clermont Ferrand, which is 265 miles away.

Club honours

• French premiership
• *Original club: 1893, 1894, 1895, 1897, 1898, 1901, 1905, 1908
• *Current club: 1998, 2000, 2003, 2004
• Heineken Cup Runner-up, 2001 and 2005

Finals results

French championship

Heineken Cup

Leicester Tigers

Stade Français

Stade Toulousain

Stade Français

Current squad

Famous players

• Mauro Bergamasco (Italy)
• Mirco Bergamasco (Italy)
• Sergio Parisse (Italy)
• Diego Dominguez (Argentina and Italy)
• Christophe Dominici
• Fabien Galthié
• Christophe Juillet
• Marc Lièvremont
• Agustín Pichot (Argentina)
• Serge Simon
• Juan Martín Hernandez (Argentina)

References