Coupe de France (rugby)
The French Rugby Cup (French Coupe de France ) was a cup competition for rugby union teams in France.
It was first held from 1906 to 1939 but then suspended because of World War II and 1943, re-introduced. All French teams were eligible to participate, with the best intervene only in the later rounds of the action. The final match in 1951 was so violent, that the English Rugby Football Union demanded the dismissal of the competition. Otherwise, the French national team would be excluded from the Five Nations Championship again, to which she had been admitted in 1939 after a multi-year lock. The Fédération Française de Rugby ( FFR) corresponded to that wish.
Mid-1980s, the cup competition was revived at the initiative of the then FFR President Albert Ferrasse. But after three sweeps he had to be stopped again because the game calendar was already crowded with the championship and the Challenge Yves du Manoir; and spectator interest was modest. A last attempt to revive the Cup there was 1996, when he was merged with the Challenge Yves du Manoir to Trophée Du- Manoir Coupe de France. He continued to exist until 2003 under various names.