Grenoble

History of Football Club de Grenoble Rugby

The Grenoble Rugby Club was founded in 1911, when the local sides in Grenoble merged to create a more successful team. This strategy worked and the team reached the final of the Coupe de l’Espérance in 1918.

That said, the club remained fairly quiet until the 1950s, where they kicked the decade off with a Pro D2 win in 1951. Then, in 1954, the Grenoble rugby team contested one of the most famous matches in the club’s history when they won their first French Championship, defeating US Cognac 5-3. 

It took nearly 40 years for the Grenoble rugby team to reach the final of the competition again. In 1993, the club missed out on becoming French champions after a series of refereeing errors. 13 years later, the referee involved admitted his mistakes, but the 14-11 victory for Castres still stands.

Since the disputed title of 1993, the Grenoble rugby team has struggled for prominence and has bounced between the first and second divisions of French rugby. However, the team has still enjoyed their fair share of glorious moments.

In 2000, they competed in the European Rugby Champions Cup for the first time and were the only team in the competition to beat Northampton, who were the tournament's eventual champions.

Unfortunately, in 2005, the team were relegated to the amateur Fédérale 1 after financial problems were discovered. The team has recovered well since then and have fluctuated between the Pro D2 and the Top 14. In recent seasons, they’ve been challenging at the top end of the Pro D2. In fact, they finished as the competition’s runners-up in both 2023 and 2024. However, on both occasions, they lost in the Pro D2 final and then lost in the promotion/relegation play-off match. 

With plenty of success under their belts already, we can’t wait to see what the future holds for the talented team.