Albi

Albi sits in the Tarn.

The Vichy years left the strangest mark on its record. Forced to merge with the town's rugby league club, the side played as Albi Olympique and won the Challenge Français in both 1942 and 1943. The club's colours, black and yellow, gave it the nickname Les Jaune et Noir.

Since the war, the club's business has mostly been the traffic between Pro D2 and the Top 14, won and lost through playoffs rather than settled by finishes at the top of the table: promotion came via the playoffs in 2006 and again in 2009, and a Pro D2 final was lost in 2011. Three second-place finishes in Nationale 1, in 2000, 2001 and 2002, mark the years the club spent working its way back up from the third tier.

Home games are played at the Stadium Municipal d'Albi, holding just over 13,000 since work in 2007 added space beyond the 8,000 seats. It is a rugby ground only — Albi's football club, US Albi, plays elsewhere in the town, at the Stade Maurice Rigaud — a distinction that matters in a town where the two codes have shared more than a name over the years.