Nevers

Alivereti Loaloa and Ilikena Bolakoro arrived at the Stade du Pré Fleuri. The club had spent most of its existence below the professional tiers, and it took until 2015 for Les Jaunets to win the Fédérale 1B title, a result that reopened a path they climbed two years later, in 2017, when a win over SO Chambéry sent them up into Pro D2. It was the first time the club had reached that level, and it has stayed there since.

Nevers began life in 1903 as the Peloton d'avant-garde, formed under president Gustave Bossut, and only became Union sportive nivernaise two decades later. The current identity, Union sportive olympique nivernaise, dates to 1956, when the club merged with Olympique de Nevers; the name USON Nevers Rugby itself was not adopted until 2016, the year after the promotion campaign began in earnest. A training centre opened in 2010 fed the squad that would eventually push the club into Pro D2 and, in 2022, into a Pro D2 semi-final, the furthest the team has gone at that level.

The town wears yellow and blue for a side still known locally as Les Nivernais as much as Les Jaunets, and Sermoise-sur-Loire's Stade du Pré Fleuri holds 7,500 for a club that has never yet pushed on from a semi-final into the promotion race for the Top 14.