History of the France national rugby union team
Rugby was introduced to the Le Havre region of France by British merchants and students in the 1870s and was subsequently spread throughout the schools and colleges.
[1] The first involvement a national rugby union side had was at the 1900 Paris Olympics, where a French team took part in the tournament and defeated Britain (represented by Mosley Wanderers RFC) 27 – 8 and Germany 27–17 to win the gold medal.
France had mediocre results on field during the latter end of the decade and the start of the 1930s, but showed definite signs of improvements in the Five Nations.
However, they were expelled from the Five Nations in 1932 following accusations of professionalism in the French league as well as on-field violence and poor organisation and were not allowed to rejoin until 1939.
[6] During this time many French players turned to rugby league, which began to build in popularity, as the latter code was excluded from the Five Nations.
In 1939, the FFR was invited to send a team to the Five Nations Championship for the following season, but when war was declared, international rugby was suspended.
Lucien Mias was the innovative captain whose line-out ploys brought a new attacking dimension to forward play.
Led by Lucien Mias, in the absence of tour skipper Michel Celaya who had been injured, the underestimated French drew the first Test 3–3 at Newlands and then produced an even bigger shock by beating the Springboks 9–5 at altitude at Ellis Park.
Victories over Scotland and Wales at the Stade Colombes, together with a 3–3 draw with England at Twickenham earned France their first outright Five Nations title in 1959.
The Springboks formidable 1960/61 touring side defeated Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales but were held to a 0–0 draw at Stade Colombes.
The title came down to the last match of the championship against Ireland at Lansdowne Road which France won 11–6, only a 9–8 defeat by Scotland preventing them from winning a Grand Slam.
Fifty-eight years after contesting their first Five Nations tournament, France won their first 'Grand Chelem' with a 14–9 win over Wales at the Arms Park in 1968.
France imploded the following year, losing their first three matches to Scotland, Ireland and England but draw with Wales to deny them a Grand Slam.
In 1972, in the final international played at the Yves du Manoir Stadium at Colombes, France marked the occasion by scoring six tries to one and racking up their biggest ever win against England 37–12.
In the 1978 five nations championship, France met Wales in a Grand Slam decider at the Cardiff Arms Park, the Welsh ran out 16–9 victors.
France overcame a first Test defeat to beat the All Blacks in New Zealand for the first time 24–19 on Bastille day 14 July 1979 at Eden Park.
At the end of the year, they met Wales, who had beaten them in their last game of the Five Nations, though this time France won, 40 to 33, though this was followed by two losses to the Springboks at home.
At the end of the year, France defeated Italy, Romania and Argentina at home, and against host South Africa for a two Test series, losing both, the second by 40 points.
Despite performing poorly against the southern hemisphere teams of Australia and South Africa in 1997, France successfully defended their Five Nations title, and again completed a grand slam of the tournament, even defeating Wales 51 to nil.
After mixed results during the mid-year, France stormed through the group stages at the 1999 World Cup to finish atop of their pool.
After defeating Argentina 47 to 26 in the quarter-finals, France proceeded to the semi-finals, where they met red hot favourites, the All Blacks.
France lost two matches at the 2003 Six Nations, including their opening game with England, who would go on to win a grand slam.
France won their opening match against Fiji at Brisbane's Suncorp Stadium, which saw them continue undefeated through the rest of the pool stages.
The following year France completed a tournament grand slam of the 2004 Six Nations, including a win over World Champions England.
After a short successful tour of North America, France played southern hemisphere teams, Australia, Argentina and the All Blacks; losing all three.
At the end of the year, France continued Australia's run of losses, and completed heavy wins over Canada and Tonga, and a close victory over South Africa.
Despite beating Scotland, Italy and Ireland, France's Grand Slam dreams went up in smoke after a poor, aimless performance against England.
At this time, the players rebelled against Lièvremont, with Harinordoquy telling the French rugby publication Midi Olympique after the tournament, "We had to free ourselves from his supervision.
"[12] The team responded by defeating England 19–12 in the quarter-final and controversially beating Wales 9–8 in the semi-final after Welsh captain Sam Warburton was sent off.
[14] The French proved admirable opponents in the final, losing out to New Zealand 8–7 to finish second for the third time in a Rugby World Cup.
