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Stade Rochelais

French rugby union club, based in La Rochelle

Field	Value
teamname	Stade Rochelais
image	StadeRochelaisLogo.svg
imagesize	165px
fullname	Stade Rochelais
nickname	Les Maritimes (The Seaborn Men)
Les Jaune et Noir (The Yellow and Blacks)
Les Bagnards (The Convicts)
location	La Rochelle, France
founded
ground	Stade Marcel-Deflandre
capacity	16,700
chairman	Vincent Merling
coach	Ronan O'Gara
captain	Grégory Alldritt
Uini Atonio
league
season
position
url	https://www.staderochelais.com/
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Les Jaune et Noir (The Yellow and Blacks) Les Bagnards (The Convicts) Uini Atonio

Stade Rochelais (), commonly called La Rochelle, is a French professional rugby union club based in La Rochelle, France that competes in the Top 14. Founded in 1898 and wearing yellow and black, the club's first-team plays its home matches at Stade Marcel-Deflandre.

Alongside other French club Brive, La Rochelle is one of only two clubs that won the European Rugby Champions Cup (twice in its case; beating Leinster in both 2022 and 2023 finals) without succeeding in winning its domestic championship losing on both occasions against Toulouse in the final: the first time in 2021 and the second in 2023. Owned by several shareholders, including club president and coffee magnate Vincent Merling, the club is renowned for the fervour of its supporters and its continual sold-out home matches.

History

Originally formed in 1898, Stade Rochelais won three regional Atlantic championships in the early part of the 20th century, qualifying them for the French Championship, where they reached the quarter-finals twice and the semi-finals once. The popularity of rugby league in the area lessened the number of available players, and in 1935 Stade Rochelais merged with neighbours Union Sportive Rochelaise.

Occupation of La Rochelle by troops from Nazi Germany, accompanied by a banning of rugby league by the Vichy Government, forced the city's rugby league club La Rochelle-Etudiants XIII to also be merged into Stade Rochelais in 1941. This was overseen by club President Marcel Deflandre, who was later executed for his role as part of the French Resistance - the club's stadium is named Stade Marcel-Deflandre in his honour.

The club formed a school for training players and coaches in the 1950s, resulting in them reaching the French Championship quarter-finals three times in the 1960s. They were relegated in 1985, returning in 1997. They were again relegated in 2002, though they won the Challenge Yves du Manoir that same year. They retained the Challenge title the following year but were not promoted again until 2010. They spent one season in Top 16 before being relegated again.

Les Maritimes came third in the 2013–14 Rugby Pro D2 season and were promoting after beating Agen in the play-off final.

In May 2022, they won both their first ever trophy and first ever Champions Cup defeating Leinster 24–21 at the Stade Vélodrome.

In May 2023, they retained the Champions Cup again defeating Leinster this time 27–26 at the Aviva Stadium.

Honours

European Rugby Champions Cup
- Champions (2): 2022, 2023
- Runners-up (1): 2021
French championship Top 14
- Runners-up (2): 2021, 2023
European Rugby Challenge Cup
- Runners-up (1): 2019
League Cup
- Champions (2): 2002, 2003

Finals results

French Championship

17 June 2023	Stade Toulousain	29–26	Stade Rochelais	Stade de France, Saint-Denis	79,804

European Rugby Champions Cup

20 May 2023	FRA Stade Rochelais	27–26	IRE Leinster	Aviva Stadium, Dublin	51,711

European Rugby Challenge Cup

10 May 2019	FRA ASM Clermont	36–16	FRA Stade Rochelais	St James' Park, Newcastle	28,438

Current standings

Current squad

The La Rochelle squad for the 2025–26 season is:

Espoirs squad

Notable former players

ARG Facundo Bosch
ARG Ramiro Herrera
ARG Germán Llanes
ARG Federico Todeschini
AUS Zack Holmes
AUS Brock James
AUS Ryan Lamb
AUS Lopeti Timani
BEL Julien Berger
CAN Jason Marshall
ENG Lesley Vainikolo
FIJ Sireli Bobo
FIJ Eneriko Buliruarua
FIJ Norman Ligairi
FIJ Kini Murimurivalu
FIJ Jone Qovu
FIJ Seru Rabeni
FIJ Alipate Ratini
FIJ Savenaca Rawaca
FIJ Albert Vulivuli
FRA Marc Andreu
FRA Julien Audy
FRA Alexi Balès
FRA Jean-Pascal Barraque
FRA Steeve Barry
FRA Pierre Bérard
FRA Mohamed Boughanmi
FRA Benoît Bourrust
FRA Damien Cler
FRA Thomas Combezou
FRA Manoël Dall'igna
FRA Benjamin Dambielle
FRA Vincent Debaty
FRA Yacine Dekkiche
FRA William Demotte
FRA Geoffrey Doumayrou
FRA Luc Ducalcon
FRA Arnaud Élissalde
FRA Jean-Baptiste Élissalde
FRA Jean-Pierre Élissalde
FRA Sébastien Fauqué
FRA Lionel Faure
FRA Romain Frou
FRA Loann Goujon
FRA Jean-Philippe Grandclaude
FRA Gabriel Lacroix
FRA Damien Lagrange
FRA Grégory Lamboley
FRA Benjamin Lapeyre
FRA Benoit Lecouls
FRA Henri Magois
FRA Gérald Merceron
FRA Jean Pambrun
FRA Vincent Pelo
FRA Julien Pierre
FRA Jules Plisson
FRA Dany Priso
FRA Vincent Rattez
FRA Arthur Retière
FRA David Roumieu
FRA Christophe Samson
FRA Laurent Simutoga
FRA Jérémy Sinzelle
FRA Rémi Talès
TAH Jean-Teiva Jacquelain
GEO Gagi Bazadze
GEO Guram Papidze
GER Robert Mohr
ITA Gonzalo Canale
ITA Pietro Ceccarelli
ITA Leandro Cedaro
NZL Jason Eaton
NZL Hamish Gard
NZL Romana Graham
NZL David Raikuna
NZL Rene Ranger
NZL Victor Vito
NZL Ihaia West
ROU Petrișor Toderașc
SAM Alofa Alofa
SAM Piula Faʻasalele
SAM Tamato Leupolu
RSA Ricky Januarie
RSA Paul Jordaan

Arnaud, then his son Jean-Pierre and his grandson Jean-Baptiste all played for La Rochelle as scrum-halves.

Coaches

Well known former coaches include

Arnaud Élissalde
Jean-Pierre Élissalde
Patrice Collazo
Xavier Garbajosa
Ronan O'Gara

The club only had five head coaches from 1992 to 2025 including Ronan O'Gara since 2019.

Leadership and management

Vincent Merling, president as of 2017, had guided the club for 25 years. He was the driving force behind the "Grow Together" campaign launched in 2015 that persuaded 500 local businesses to support/sponsor the club.

References

"Local club La Rochelle now pressing claims at Europe's top table". The Irish Times.
(28 May 2022). "This article is more than 2 years old La Rochelle stun Leinster with late try to win Champions Cup for first time". The Observer.
(20 May 2023). "Champions Cup: Leinster 26-27 La Rochelle - French side edge thriller". BBC Sport.
(15 December 2023). "Effectif". Stade Rochelais.
(31 January 2025). "La Rochelle squad for season 2025/2026". All Rugby.
(26 March 2017). "Europe's team of the season are coming to Murrayfield".
(12 June 2019). "Ronan O'Gara returning to Top 14 as head coach with La Rochelle".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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