Stade Rochelais

Before the black and yellow meant anything on a European stage, La Rochelle's rugby grew out of a wider multi-sport society founded in 1896, with the rugby section itself taking shape two years later under Charles Guarrigues. For most of the following century that origin counted for little in terms of silverware: the club dropped out of the top flight in 1985, again in 2002, and once more in 2010, a pattern that left it better known for survival than for ambition.

What changed the trajectory was money and leadership rather than results at first. Vincent Merling, a local coffee magnate who had spent 25 years around the club, took the presidency in 2017 after already steering the 2015 "Grow Together" campaign that pulled the finances back from the brink. Permanent promotion to the Top 14 followed in 2014, giving the project a stable base to build from.

The real turn came with Ronan O'Gara's appointment as head coach in 2019. Rochelais reached a Top 14 final in 2021, lost, and reached another in 2023, lost again — both times to Stade Toulousain. But in Europe the story ran differently: in 2022 they beat Leinster 24-21 in Marseille for a first Champions Cup, then beat Leinster again, 27-26 in Dublin, to retain it in 2023. Grégory Alldritt captained the side through that run, the club's defining stretch after decades of just staying afloat.