# 1995–96 French Rugby Union Championship

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 PosTeamPoints 1Toulouse43 2Grenoble41 3Toulon40 4Narbonne38 5Agen36 6Perpignan36 7Nîmes34 8Nice33 9Bayonne32 10Racing club de France27 | Pool 2 PosTeamPoints 1CA Brive42 2Bourgoin41 3Castres38 4Bordeaux-Begles38 5Montferrand38 6Pau36 7Dax36 8Colomiers34 9Rumilly33 10Montpellier24 |

## 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 ||