Castres Olympique

History

In 1898 several alumni of Castres' municipal college met in a city centre bar and decided to create a team allowing them to play their favourite sport, rugby union. For the first few years this team was part of a multisport club until 1906. Unhappy with the dominating position cycling had within the club, the members of the rugby section decided to leave and create a club of their own, solely dedicated to their sport. It was decided that this club would be named Castres Olympique and its colours would be changed from yellow and black to its current blue, white and grey.

The new club reached the top flight after only 15 years of existence and has remained there ever since, bar for a couple of years during the 80s when the club was in the then Section B of the 1st division. The club has never left the 1st division since 1921.

For a while Castres Olympique would experience mixed fortunes until 1948 when they reached and won their first Coupe de France. The prestigious championship would follow a year later, and again in 1950.

From the 1960s the club would experience a stream of mediocre seasons and steady decline until Pierre Fabre, the founder of a local pharmaceutical company, decided to take over the club and restore it to its former relative glory in 1988.

In 1993, Castres played the final of the 1993 French Rugby Union Championship against Grenoble, a team who was nicknamed "the mammoths", because of its incredibly physical forward pack, coached by the former French national team manager Jacques Fouroux. Castres won its third national title 14–11, in a controversial match. Indeed, a try of Olivier Brouzet is denied to Grenoble{{Cite web |access-date=21 August 2013 This error gave the title to Castres.{{Cite web |access-date=March 25, 2019 |archive-date=February 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190212011813/http://lesportdauphinois.com/2016/11/19/michel-ringeval-part-2-bout-dun-quart-dheure-jai-compris-quon-ne-gagnerait/ |url-status=dead |access-date=24 October 2013}}{{Cite web |access-date=24 October 2012

Jacques Fouroux, being already suspicious before the match of the referee, saw in this outcome a conspiracy of his enemies from inside the rugby union French Federation.{{Cite book |access-date=March 25, 2019 |access-date=March 25, 2019

The club reached the final again in 1995 losing 31–16 to Stade Toulousain.

Castres won the 2012–13 French Rugby Union Championship beating Toulon 19–14 in the final.{{Cite web |access-date=3 June 2013}}

The team's owner, Pierre Fabre, the founder of Laboratoires Pierre Fabre, died on 20 July 2013. Castres home stadium, previously known as Stade Pierre-Antoine, was renamed in his memory during ceremonies in conjunction with Castres match with Montpellier on 9 September 2017.

Castres won the 2017–18 French Rugby Union Championship beating Montpellier 29–13 in the final.

After finishing first in the 2021-2022 Top 14, Castres played a semi-final against the Stade Toulousain of Antoine Dupont and Romain Ntamack, beating them 24–18. The final is a rematch of 2018, but this time, Montpellier win 29–10.

Honours

• French championship Top 14
  • Champions (5): 1949, 1950, 1993, 2013, 2018
  • Runners-up (3): 1995, 2014, 2022
• European Rugby Challenge Cup
  • Runners-up (2): 1997, 2000
• European Shield
  • Champions (1): 2003
• ** French Cup**
  • Champions (1): 1948
• Challenge Yves du Manoir
  • Runners-up (1): 1993
• Group B French Champions
  • Champions (1): 1989

Finals results

French championship

European Rugby Challenge Cup

European Shield

Current standings

Current squad

The Castres squad for the 2025–26 season is:

Espoirs squad

Notable former players

• ARG Horacio Agulla
• ARG Rafael Carballo
• ARG Ignacio Fernández Lobbe
• ARG Santiago González Bonorino
• ARG Ramiro Herrera
• ARG Mario Ledesma
• ARG José María Núñez Piossek
• ARG Mauricio Reggiardo
• AUS Michael Cheika
• CAN Taylor Paris
• CZE Martin Kafka
• ENG Phil Christophers
• ENG Marcel Garvey
• ENG Paul Volley
• FIJ Seremaia Bai
• FIJ Semi Kunatani
• FRA Alexandre Albouy
• FRA Marc Andreu
• FRA Grégory Arganese
• FRA Éric Artiguste
• FRA David Attoub
• FRA Yoan Audrin
• FRA Frédéric Banquet
• FRA Mathieu Barrau
• FRA Armand Batlle
• FRA Pierre Bérard
• FRA Pierre Bernard
• FRA Didier Bès
• FRA Alexandre Bias
• FRA Mathieu Bonello
• FRA Paul Bonnefond
• FRA David Bory
• FRA Mathieu Bourret
• FRA René Bousquet
• FRA Marcel Burgun
• FRA Yannick Caballero
• FRA Alain Carminati
• FRA Romain Cabannes
• FRA Thomas Castaignède
• FRA Frédéric Cermeno
• FRA Albert Cigagna
• FRA Gerard Cholley
• FRA Antonie Claassen
• FRA René Coll
• FRA Arnaud Costes
• FRA Michel Courtiols
• FRA Yann David
• FRA Yann Delaigue
• FRA Ibrahim Diarra
• FRA Richard Dourthe
• FRA Luc Ducalcon
• FRA Brice Dulin
• FRA Antoine Dupont
• FRA Florian Faure
• FRA Yannick Forestier
• FRA Romain Froment
• FRA Alessio Galasso
• FRA Camille Gérondeau
• FRA Karim Ghezal
• FRA Rémy Grosso
• FRA Raphaël Ibañez
• FRA Vincent Inigo
• FRA Anthony Jelonch
• FRA Benjamin Kayser
• FRA Daniel Kötze
• FRA Laurent Labit
• FRA Thierry Lacrampe
• FRA Thierry Lacroix
• FRA Pierre-Gilles Lakafia
• FRA Remi Lamerat
• FRA Benjamin Lapeyre
• FRA Thibault Lassalle
• FRA Christophe Laussucq
• FRA Romain Martial
• FRA Jean Matheu
• FRA Lionel Mazars
• FRA Ugo Mola
• FRA Yohan Montès
• FRA Lionel Nallet
• FRA Mathieu Nicolas
• FRA Pascal Papé
• FRA Jean-Baptiste Peyras-Loustalet
• FRA Lucas Pointud
• FRA Julien Puricelli
• FRA Ludovic Radosavljevic
• FRA Marc-Antoine Rallier
• FRA Nicolas Raffault
• FRA Matthias Rolland
• FRA David Roumieu
• FRA Christophe Samson
• FRA Olivier Sarraméa
• FRA Maurice Siman
• FRA Nicolas Spanghero
• FRA Scott Spedding
• FRA Patrick Tabacco
• FRA Rémi Talès
• FRA Guilaume Taussac
• FRA Romain Teulet
• FRA Sébastien Tillous-Borde
• FRA Julien Tomas
• FRA Christophe Urios
• GEO Akvsenti Giorgadze
• GEO Paliko Jimsheladze
• GEO Anton Peikrishvili
• IRE Tim Barker
• IRE Jeremy Davidson
• IRE Justin Fitzpatrick
• ITA Pablo Canavosio
• ITA Ramiro Pez
• ITA Fabio Staibano
• ITA Cristian Stoica
• CIV Ismaila Lassissi
• MAR Djalil Narjissi
• NAM Kees Lensing
• NZL Norm Berryman
• NZL Frank Bunce
• NZL Brad Fleming
• NZL Carl Hoeft
• NZL Daniel Kirkpatrick
• NZL Chris Masoe
• NZL Cameron McIntyre
• NZL Kees Meeuws
• NZL Kevin Senio
• NZL Sitiveni Sivivatu
• NZL Gary Whetton
• NZL Karena Wihongi
• NZL Rudi Wulf
• RSA Jannie Bornman
• RSA Robert Ebersohn
• RSA Darron Nell
• RSA Pedrie Wannenburg
• ROU Dragoș Dima
• ROU Adrian Lungu
• ROU Mihai Lazăr
• ROU Alexandru Manta
• RUS Kirill Kulemin
• SAM Piula Faʻasalele
• SAM Laloa Milford
• SAM Joe Tekori
• SAM Freddie Tuilagi
• SAM Romi Ropati
• SCO Max Evans
• SCO Richie Gray
• SCO Glenn Metcalfe
• SCO Gregor Townsend
• ESP José Díaz
• ESP Cedric Garcia
• ESP Pierre-Emmanuel Garcia
• URU Rodrigo Capó Ortega
• USA Salesi Sika

References

References

1. (2013-07-20). "Pierre Fabre, founder of pharmaceutical giant, dies". [[France 24]].
2. (12 August 2017). "Castres : ce sera le Stade Pierre-Fabre". [[La Dépêche du Midi.
3. (27 January 2025). "Effectif". Castres Olympique.
4. (27 January 2025). "Castres squad for season 2025/2026". All Rugby.