WHEN it comes to rugby union, France’s famous wine-producing city of Bordeaux is toasting another European Champions Cup triumph.
By beating Leinster, a side full to the brim of Ireland internationals, 41-19 in Bilbao in May, Union Bordeaux Bègles completed a clean sweep of the continent’s major trophies for the country.
That’s after the national team won the Six Nations Championship and Montpellier defeated Ulster 59-26 in the Challenge Cup showpiece.
The Bègles have clinched consecutive Champions Cup successes, having seen off Northampton 28-10 at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium last year.
Put simply, the 15-a-side code is by far the biggest show in the port city on the Garonne River in the south-west of the country, and the Bègles are among the foremost clubs in the game.
But that hasn’t always been the case.
The Bègles’ defeat of Leinster in northern Spain came 30 years after Football Club des Girondins de Bordeaux reached the final of the old UEFA Cup, where a team including stars such as Bixente Lizarazu, Zinedine Zidane and Christophe Dugarry lost over two legs to Bayern Munich.
Meanwhile, 80 years ago, as French rugby league, which originated in the 1930s, was reborn post-Second World War after, in the wake of the German invasion of the country in 1940, having been notoriously ravaged by the collaborationist Vichy regime, it was the 13-a-side game drawing big crowds to the Stade Chaban Delmas, where the Bègles now play.
Paris St Germain might have featured in the historic opening Super League match against Sheffield in 1996 and the first two seasons of the summer competition, while the capital city hosted Catalans’ clash with Wigan in June.
But Perpignan-based Catalans, their Super League rivals Toulouse and the bulk of the 11 sides who contested this year’s domestic Super XIII competition are from the Occitanie region in the south-east, with those who aren’t, Avignon and Villeneuve, both close to it.
That wasn’t the case when rugby league was established in the wake of France being expelled from international rugby union due to allegations of professionalism.
On the back of an exhibition match between England and Australia in Paris, then a follow-up contest in the capital between a French XIII and England, the league was formed of ten teams in 1934, with only three, Albi, Beziers and Perpignan, from Occitanie.
The others were the first champions Villeneuve, Bayonne, Lyon, Paris, Pau, Roanne and Bordeaux, who boasted a star performer in Jean Duhau.
The dashing front-row forward, capped seven times in rugby union, had shone in the 32-21 defeat by England in front of more than 20,000 at the long-gone Stade Buffalo, managed by Louis Delblat, who, along with multi-sport athlete Jean Galia, the first France rugby league captain, was a key figure in the establishment of the code.
Its growth was rapid, and Bordeaux was a fertile location, becoming the first city other than Paris to host a France international, the 18-11 win over Wales in the 1935 European Championship, in which England pipped Les Bleus on points difference after a 15-15 draw between the pair at Stade Buffalo.
While Bordeaux were league runners-up in 1936 and champions in 1937, the Stade Chaban Delmas became a regular venue for internationals on both sides of the war, with more than 26,000 turning out to see the touring New Zealanders defeated 25-7 in early 1948.
A clash with Other Nationalities in 1950 drew 28,000 to see France win 16-3.
And 1954 proved a vintage year because the club again won the title while the stadium was among the six venues for the inaugural World Cup, the brainchild of another Frenchman, Paul Barrière.
French rugby league chiefs were keen to boost the coffers after the seizure of their assets during the hostilities, and Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand all arrived for the autumn tournament.
The Lions, skippered by Huddersfield’s Scottish loose-forward Dave Valentine, beat the Kangaroos 28-13 in Lyon and drew 13-13 with France, jointly coached by Duhau and René Duffort, in Toulouse before, in the final group game, facing New Zealand in Bordeaux.
In front of around 14,000, Valentine and co were 26-6 winners with the help of a try (worth three points) and four goals by Leigh fullback Jimmy Ledgard.
In the final at the Parc des Princes in Paris, where France, who fielded Bordeaux winger Raymond Contrastin and second-row Armand Save, had beaten the Kiwis 22-16 in the tournament opener, Great Britain were 16-12 winners with Leeds stand-off Gordon Brown going over twice, watched by 30,368.
The stage looked set for Bordeaux to flourish, but it became a case of slow decline, and the club dropped out of the top tier in 1975.
For quite a while, football was king, with Bordeaux winning three French titles in four years in the 1980s and in 2006 claiming the crown for the sixth time in the club’s history.
However, severe financial issues kicked in, and two years ago came bankruptcy and a drop into the amateur fourth tier.
When rugby union turned professional in 1995, Bordeaux had two principal clubs, CA Bègles and Stade Bordelais, but with neither coping particularly well with the transition, they merged in 2006 to form UBB.
Driven by visionary president Laurent Marti, the new club made the top flight in 2011 and moved into the Stade Chaban Delmas – and the rest, as they say, is history.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 522 (July 2026)