Castres Olympique (, ) is a French

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club located in the Occitanian city of

Castres Castres (; ''Castras'' in the Languedocian dialect, Languedocian dialect of Occitan language, Occitan) is the sole Subprefectures in France, subprefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department in the Occitania (adminis ...

and is currently competing in the

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the National Rugby League (France), France National Rugby League, also ...

, the top level of the French league system. Founded in 1898, the club took its current name in

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

. They play at the Stade Pierre-Fabre, which is one of the smallest in Top 14 with a capacity of 12,500. The team wear blue and white kits. The team won five French top-division championships in 1949, 1950, 1993 (in a match decided by an irregular try accorded by the referee), 2013, and 2018 as well as one Coupe de France in 1948.

History

1898 Events January * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queen ...

several

alumni Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. Th ...

of Castres' municipal college met in a city centre bar and decided to create a team allowing them to play their favourite sport,

. For the first few years this team was part of a multisport club until

. Unhappy with the dominating position

cycling Cycling, also known as bicycling or biking, is the activity of riding a bicycle or other types of pedal-driven human-powered vehicles such as balance bikes, unicycles, tricycles, and quadricycles. Cycling is practised around the world fo ...

had within the club, the members of the rugby section decided to leave and create a club of their own, solely dedicated to their sport. It was decided that this club would be named Castres Olympique and its colours would be changed from yellow and black to its current blue, white and grey. The new club reached the top flight after only 15 years of existence and has remained there ever since, bar for a couple of years during the 80s when the club was in the then Section B of the 1st division. The club has never left the 1st division since 1921. For a while Castres Olympique would experience mixed fortunes until

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The current Constitutions of Constitution of Italy, Italy and of Constitution of New Jersey, New Jersey (both later subject to amendment) ...

when they reached and won their first

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

. The prestigious championship would follow a year later, and again in

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

. From the 1960s the club would experience a stream of mediocre seasons and steady decline until Pierre Fabre, the founder of a local

pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

company, decided to take over the club and restore it to its former relative glory in 1988. In 1993, Castres played the final of the

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

French Rugby Union Championship against

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

, a team who was nicknamed "the mammoths", because of its incredibly physical forward pack, coached by the former French national team manager Jacques Fouroux. Castres won its third national title 14–11, in a controversial match. Indeed, a try of Olivier Brouzet is denied to Grenoble and the decisive try by Gary Whetton was awarded by the referee, Daniel Salles, when in fact the defender Franck Hueber from Grenoble touched down the ball first in his try zone. This error gave the title to Castres. Salles admitted the error 13 years later. Jacques Fouroux, being already suspicious before the match of the referee, saw in this outcome a conspiracy of his enemies from inside the rugby union French Federation. The club reached the final again in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

losing 31–16 to

Stade Toulousain Stade Toulousain () (), also referred to as Toulouse, is a professional rugby union club based in Toulouse, France. They compete in the Top 14, France's top division of rugby, and the European Rugby Champions Cup. Toulouse is the most successfu ...

. Castres won the 2012–13 French Rugby Union Championship beating

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

19–14 in the final. The team's owner, Pierre Fabre, the founder of Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, died on 20 July 2013. Castres home stadium, previously known as Stade Pierre-Antoine, was renamed in his memory during ceremonies in conjunction with Castres match with

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

on 9 September 2017. Castres won the 2017–18 French Rugby Union Championship beating

29–13 in the final. After finishing first in the 2021-2022 Top 14, Castres played a semi-final against the

of Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack, beating them 24–18. The final is a rematch of 2018, but this time, Montpellier win 29–10.

Honours

* French championship Top 14 ** Champions (5):

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

** Runners-up (3):

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

European Rugby Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...

** Runners-up (2):

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

* European Shield ** Champions (1):

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

* French Cup ** Champions (1): 1948 * Challenge Yves du Manoir ** Runners-up (1): 1993 * Group B French Champions ** Champions (1): 1989

Finals results

French championship

European Rugby Challenge Cup

European Shield

Current standings

Current squad

The Castres squad for the 2024–25 season is:

Espoirs squad

Notable former players

* Horacio Agulla * Rafael Carballo * Ignacio Fernández Lobbe * Santiago González Bonorino * Ramiro Herrera * Mario Ledesma * José María Núñez Piossek * Mauricio Reggiardo *

Michael Cheika Michael Cheika (born 4 March 1967) is an Australian professional rugby union and rugby league coach, and former rugby union player. He is head coach of Leicester Tigers in England's Premiership Rugby. Cheika was the coach of the Australia r ...

* Taylor Paris * Martin Kafka * Phil Christophers * Marcel Garvey *

Paul Volley Paul William Volley (born 2 November 1971 in Beckenham, Kent) is an English former rugby union player. As an open-side flanker, he played for London Wasps for 16 years. He joined as a 16-year-old from Chinnor. Volley was first called up to ...

* Seremaia Bai * Semi Kunatani * Alexandre Albouy * Marc Andreu * Grégory Arganese * Éric Artiguste * David Attoub * Yoan Audrin * Frédéric Banquet * Mathieu Barrau * Armand Batlle * Pierre Bérard * Pierre Bernard * Didier Bès * Alexandre Bias * Mathieu Bonello * Paul Bonnefond * David Bory * Mathieu Bourret * René Bousquet * Marcel Burgun * Yannick Caballero * Alain Carminati * Romain Cabannes *

Thomas Castaignède Thomas Castaignède (born 21 January 1975) is a rugby union footballer from Mont-de-Marsan. Born in Mont-de-Marsan, Aquitaine, Castaignède played as a junior and senior for Stade Montois in various positions, initially as fly-half or centre, ...

* Frédéric Cermeno * Albert Cigagna * Gerard Cholley * Antonie Claassen * René Coll * Arnaud Costes * Michel Courtiols *

Yann David Yann David (born 15 April 1988 in Lyon, France) is a French professional rugby union centre and winger currently playing for Castres Olympique in the Top 14. He is 1.85m tall and weighs 105 kg. David studied at the private school St.Jose ...

Yann Delaigue Yann Delaigue (born 5 April 1973) is a retired French international rugby union player. A highly talented player, nicknamed « Little Mozart », he played the first two matches of the 1995 Rugby World Cup. In 2001 he was part of the French Bar ...

* Ibrahim Diarra * Richard Dourthe * Luc Ducalcon * Brice Dulin * Antoine Dupont * Florian Faure * Yannick Forestier * Romain Froment * Alessio Galasso * Camille Gérondeau * Karim Ghezal * Rémy Grosso * Raphaël Ibañez * Vincent Inigo * Anthony Jelonch * Benjamin Kayser * Daniel Kötze *

Laurent Labit Laurent Labit (born 8 May 1973) is a retired French rugby union footballer and manager. Early life Labit was born in Revel, France. He began his playing career in his home town of Rugby Club Revélois before moving to Castres. Career He start ...

* Thierry Lacrampe * Thierry Lacroix * Pierre-Gilles Lakafia * Remi Lamerat * Benjamin Lapeyre * Thibault Lassalle * Christophe Laussucq * Romain Martial * Jean Matheu * Lionel Mazars * Ugo Mola * Yohan Montès * Lionel Nallet * Mathieu Nicolas * Pascal Papé * Jean-Baptiste Peyras-Loustalet * Lucas Pointud * Julien Puricelli * Ludovic Radosavljevic * Marc-Antoine Rallier * Nicolas Raffault * Matthias Rolland * David Roumieu * Christophe Samson * Olivier Sarraméa * Maurice Siman * Nicolas Spanghero * Scott Spedding * Patrick Tabacco *

Rémi Talès Rémi Talès (born 2 May 1984) is a French rugby union player. His position is fly-half and he currently plays for Mont-de-Marsan in the Pro D2. He began his career with Stade Montois before moving to La Rochelle. He established himself as a ...

* Guilaume Taussac * Romain Teulet * Sébastien Tillous-Borde * Julien Tomas * Christophe Urios * Akvsenti Giorgadze * Paliko Jimsheladze * Anton Peikrishvili * Tim Barker * Jeremy Davidson * Justin Fitzpatrick * Pablo Canavosio * Ramiro Pez * Fabio Staibano * Cristian Stoica * Ismaila Lassissi * Djalil Narjissi * Kees Lensing *

Norm Berryman Norman Rangi Berryman (15 April 1973 – 22 June 2015) was a New Zealand rugby union player who played as a winger and centre. Accessed 1 March 2009 He played one Test for the All Blacks, and represented Northland, the Crusaders and the Chief ...

* Frank Bunce * Brad Fleming * Carl Hoeft * Daniel Kirkpatrick * Chris Masoe * Cameron McIntyre * Kees Meeuws * Kevin Senio * Sitiveni Sivivatu * Gary Whetton * Karena Wihongi * Rudi Wulf * Jannie Bornman * Robert Ebersohn * Darron Nell * Pedrie Wannenburg * Dragoș Dima * Adrian Lungu * Mihai Lazăr * Alexandru Manta * Kirill Kulemin * Piula Faʻasalele * Laloa Milford * Joe Tekori * Freddie Tuilagi * Romi Ropati * Max Evans * Richie Gray * Glenn Metcalfe * Gregor Townsend * José Díaz * Cedric Garcia * Pierre-Emmanuel Garcia * Rodrigo Capó Ortega * Salesi Sika

References

External links

* {{Authority control

Rugby clubs established in 1906 Sport in Tarn (department) 1906 establishments in France