French Rugby Team

French Rugby Team


The French Rugby Team is the Rugby Six Nation Champions, the Rugby European Champions and with the 2007 Rugby World Cup being held in France, they will be strong contenders for the 2007 Rugby World Cup as well.

The France national rugby union team is also known as les Bleus or les Tricolores. France is governed by the Federation Francaise de Rugby, which was formed in 1919. France competes in the Rugby Six Nations Championship against England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Italy each year and is the current title holder. The team was infamously expelled from the competition in the 1930s because of professionalism and other problems. France has won the competition outright on 14 occasions, shared in another 8 wins and completed 8 Grand Slams. The French are always serious competitors at the top level in Rugby.

Since the first World Cup in 1987, France has competed in all tournaments that have taken place. France appeared in the very first World Cup final, but lost to New Zealand. They were again losing finalists in the 1999 World Cup against Australia. In the last Rugby World Cup France finished top of their group table and made it to the semi-finals.

The French Rugby Team Coach is Bernard Laporte and the current French Rugby Team Captain is Fabien Pelous. The most capped player is Philippe Sella (111).

Rugby Rules

Rugby Rules

Referee’s Signalling

Try – The referee stands on the tryline and faces the team that scored. He raises his arm vertically and blows his whistle.

Penalty Kick – The referee faces the sideline and with his arm straight and angled upwards, points towards the non-offending team. The non-offending team has the option of a penalty kick or a scrum.

Scrum Feed – The referee faces the sideline and, with his arm horizontal and at waist height, points towards the team that gets the scrum feed, that is, the team to put the ball into the scrum.

Advantage – To indicate that a team has advantage, the referee stretches out his arm at waist height, pointing it towards the non-offending team for a period of approximately 5 seconds. The advantage is used to keep the game flowing. Rather than stop play to award a penalty, the referee has decided to give the non-offending team the advantage of continuing on with the ball, or continue their attacking move.

Forward Pass – The referee makes an exaggerated hand gesture as if he has just made an imaginary pass which has gone well forward.

Slow Release – When the referee considers a player has not released the ball immediately at the tackle, he makes a signal with both hands to his chest, as if he is holding an imaginary ball.

Knock on – The referee stretches out his arm above his head with a bent elbow and moves his open hand backwards and forwards.