Section Paloise

Every Gascon derby against Aviron Bayonnais carries a weight the fixture list can't explain by itself; the two clubs have measured themselves against each other for so long. A quieter, older rivalry runs against FC Oloron, the Béarn derby.

Green and white have not always been La Section's colours. The club wore blue and black until 1912, a set of colours it inherited when it absorbed Stade palois in 1905, and only then settled on the identity it still carries. It won the Bouclier de Brennus three times, in 1928, 1946 and 1964, and added a European Challenge Cup in 2000, beating Castres Olympique in Toulouse. Robert Paparemborde, a French international prop who played for the club through the 1970s and into the 1980s, still holds the appearance record.

The 2005–06 relegation cut deeper than a normal drop. Financial and playing troubles sent Section down to Pro D2, and it took nine years before the club found its way back, winning the second-division title in 2015 to return to the Top 14. Staying there has not always been straightforward, but an eighth-place finish in 2024–25 was enough to send the club into the Champions Cup for the first time in 25 years.

Pau itself sits at the foot of the Pyrenees, and the Stade du Hameau, home since 1990 after eighty years at the Stade de la Croix du Prince, holds not quite 15,000.