Beziers

In the final of the 1984 French Championship, Béziers and Agen could not be separated after eighty minutes and extra time, finishing level at 21–21.

That decade and the one before it are why people still call the side Le Grand Béziers . Under coach Raoul Barrière and president Georges Mas, the club won the French Championship eleven times between 1961 and 1984, and in three of those seasons — 1971–72, 1974–75 and 1976–77 — it swept every major domestic competition in what became known as a Grand Slam. A single Coupe de France followed in 1986, beating Stade Aurillacois 40–9, but by then the great run was already behind them.

Barrière's name now sits on the club's ground. What had been the Stade de la Méditerranée was renamed Stade Raoul-Barrière in 2019.

The decline was as steep as the rise. Béziers dropped out of the top flight in 1994, again in 1999, in 2005 and again in 2009, climbing back up in 1996, 2000 and, more lastingly, in 2011. Founded in 1911 from the merger of Sporting Club biterrois and Midi Athletic Club, the club has spent the years since chasing a way back to the level it once dominated.

The Derby du Languedoc against Narbonne remains the fixture that matters most in the region. Béziers now play in Pro D2, working game by game toward a return to the Top 14.