A club renowned for its fans fervour and its stadium atmosphere, Toulon has rivalries with Toulouse and Clermont and has traditionally worn a red and black home kit since its inception.

A few times per season, important matches against major teams are played at the 67,394-capacity Stade Vélodrome located in Marseille 50 kilometres (31 mi) away.

The 1985 extra-time defeat by Stade Toulousain left them with many regrets, and playing a spectacular final (36–22) did nothing to alleviate the pain of losing.

The Red and Black waited only two more years to finally lay their hands on the Bouclier de Brennus, as they defeated Racing at the Parc des Princes.

For eight years, Toulon were not particularly successful and were in heavy financial trouble (a 10 million franc deficit) forced the Ligue Nationale de Rugby to demote them to the Second Division in July 2000.

A new president, Mourad Boudjellal, a Toulonnais who made his fortune in the comic strip business, promised to build a huge team.

[1] He signed a high number of first-class players, some of them well above 30, like Jean-Jacques Crenca, Yann Delaigue, Gonzalo Quesada and Dan Luger.

He created buzz around the team as he managed to sign former All Blacks captain Tana Umaga, who arrived in Toulon right after the end of the Air New Zealand Cup on 26 October 2006.

The following season Toulon headed the table from early on, never dropping from the top spot on their way to clinching promotion with two rounds to spare.

He would be named the top fly-half of the year in France by leading rugby publication Midi Olympique,[6] and would also be recalled to the England national team.

They finished top of their pool and advanced to the knockout stage, crushing Scarlets 38–12 in the quarterfinals and surviving a hard-fought match against Connacht 19–12.

[7] On the day of his arrival in Paris, on 1 May 1895, just before his first concert, Félix Mayol was met by a female friend at the station, who gave him some lily-of-the-valley, a flower people traditionally exchange on 1 May in France.