US Oyonnax

The 2018 rebrand said the quiet part out loud: a club that had spent over a century calling itself Union sportive d'Oyonnax started presenting itself simply as Oyonnax Rugby, a team representing the whole of the Ain and the Jura mountains. The name change followed the shape the club had already taken on the pitch — a side that keeps arriving in the Top 14 and then getting sent back down, promoted in 2013 and relegated three years later, promoted again in 2017 and knocked back out after losing a play-off to FC Grenoble, promoted a third time in 2023 and relegated again in 2024.

The club's own roots go back further than its current legal identity. Jules Verchère founded the original Club sportif oyonnaxien in 1909; the Union sportive d'Oyonnax that exists today was stitched together in 1942, when the Vichy regime ordered local sports clubs to merge, folding in Avenir d'Oyonnax and Club des sports ouvriers alongside Verchère's original outfit. Three Pro D2 titles, in 2013, 2017 and 2023, mark the seasons that sent the club back up; a Championnat de France de Nationale crown in 2001 and a Coupe de l'Espérance in 1991 sit further back in the record.

Stade Charles-Mathon holds around 11,500 and sits roughly 532 metres above sea level, higher than any other ground used by a professional rugby club in France.

None of it carries quite the edge of the Derby de l'Ain, the fixture against US Bressane that gives Oyonnax its sharpest test of the season.