RC Toulon

Full name	Rugby Club Toulonnais
Nickname(s)	Le RCT Les Rouge et Noir (The Red and Blacks)
Founded	3 June 1908; 117 years ago (1908-06-03)
Location	Toulon, France
Ground	Stade Mayol (Capacity: 17,500)
Chairman	Bernard Lemaître
Coach	Pierre Mignoni
Captain(s)	Charles Ollivon Baptiste Serin
Top scorer	Jonny Wilkinson (1,884)
League	Top 14
2024–25	3rd
1stkit 2ndkit
Official website
rctoulon.com

Rugby Club Toulonnais (French pronunciation:[ʁyɡbiklœbtulɔnɛ]), also referred to asRugby Club Toulon or simplyToulon, is a French professionalrugby union club based inToulon and competing in theTop 14. Located on theFrench Riviera, in theProvence region, the club plays its home games at the 17,500-capacityStade Mayol.

Founded in 1908, Toulon is one of the most important and widely supported rugby clubs in France. Domestically, the club has won a total of four league titles, twoPro D2 titles and twoChallenge Yves du Manoir. In international competitions, Toulon is the only one to have won theHeineken Cup/European Rugby Champions Cup three times in a row, and succeeded in winning the league/European cup double in 2014 too. Toulon has also won theEPCR Challenge Cup in 2023 after reaching the final on four occasions. The club established itself as a major force in domestic and European rugby in the 2010s whenJonny Wilkinson,Mathieu Bastareaud,Bakkies Botha,Matt Giteau and other rugby stars played at Mayol underBernard Laporte's management.

A club renowned for its fans fervour and its stadium atmosphere, Toulon has rivalries withToulouse andClermont and has traditionally worn a red and black home kit since its inception. The club's crest features a sprig oflily of the valley, symbol of the club's benefactor andBelle Époque singerFélix Mayol who used to wear one on his jacket. A few times per season, important home matches against major teams are played at the 67,394-capacityStade Vélodrome located in Marseille 50 kilometres (31 mi) away.

Rugby Club Toulonnais was founded on 3 June 1908 as a merger ofÉtoile Sportive Varoise and members of theStade Varois, a club based in nearbyLa Seyne-sur-Mer. It took the club 23 years to reach the top of French rugby, when they won the 1931 championship againstLyon Olympique Universitaire (6–3, 2 tries to 1). The players were greeted by 30,000 people when they returned fromBordeaux, where the final had been held.

Toulon remained one of the top French clubs, but they lost four finals scattered over 35 years (1948, 1968, 1971 and 1985). The 1985 extra-time defeat byStade Toulousain left them with many regrets, and playing a spectacular final (36–22) did nothing to alleviate the pain of losing. The Red and Black waited only two more years to finally lay their hands on the Bouclier de Brennus, as they defeatedRacing at theParc des Princes. The third title came in 1992, againstBiarritz Olympique, inSerge Blanco's last match and his last chance to win the title.

For eight years, Toulon were not particularly successful and were in heavy financial trouble (a 10 million franc deficit) forced theLigue Nationale de Rugby to demote them to the Second Division in July 2000. The club missed an immediate return the next year, going down in the final toMontauban, as only one club was promoted that year. It took them five more years to do so as Toulon went on to win thePro D2 title. But despite immense popular support (gates averaged more than 12,000), and much enthusiasm, they managed to win only three games out of 26 and were relegated after only a season.

A new president,Mourad Boudjellal, aToulonnais who made his fortune in thecomic strip business, promised to build a huge team. He said: "I invented the Top 15, with a team that could be competitive in the Top 14".^[1] He signed a high number of first-class players, some of them well above 30, likeJean-Jacques Crenca,Yann Delaigue,Gonzalo Quesada andDan Luger. He created buzz around the team as he managed to sign formerAll Blacks captainTana Umaga, who arrived in Toulon right after the end of theAir New Zealand Cup on 26 October 2006. The contract was rumoured to be around €300,000 (£200,000), which Boudjellal claimed to pay from his own pocket, for only eight to ten matches. In a 2010 interview, Boudjellal would say about his decision to pursue Umaga, "It was incredible, because we were in the second division and I was speaking with the best player in the world. But he said yes and came to play with Toulon."^[2]

Boudjellal continued to sign high-profile veteran players, includingAustralia captain and former all-time international caps leaderGeorge Gregan, reportedly paid €400,000 out of Boudjellal's pocket,^[3] All Blacks' former all-time scoring leaderAndrew Mehrtens,^[4][5] andJonny Wilkinson.

Back inPro D2 for the 2006–07 season, Toulon finish fourth in the league, putting them in the promotion playoffs for a place in theTop 14, but they lost in the promotion semi-finals 21–17 atLa Rochelle. The following season Toulon headed the table from early on, never dropping from the top spot on their way to clinching promotion with two rounds to spare. The 2008–09 season proved to be one of consolidation. Umaga had been handed the coaching reins, but as Boudjellal would later say, "The first season in the Top 14 was very difficult and I learned that Tana Umaga was not yet ready to give up playing – and that he's not a manager."^[2] The team managed to survive that season, using a late-season surge to avoid a relegation scare. Toulon had a much more successful 2009–10 campaign, with Wilkinson leading the charge. He would be named the top fly-half of the year in France by leading rugby publicationMidi Olympique,^[6] and would also be recalled to the England national team. Domestically, Toulon finished second on the league table, losing out toPerpignan for the top spot on a tiebreaker. This finish gave them a spot in the 2010–11 Heineken Cup, and also a first-round bye in that season's Top 14 playoffs. Toulon's domestic campaign ended in the semi-finals with a 35–29extra-time loss to eventual championClermont inSaint-Étienne.

Toulon's2009–10 Challenge Cup campaign proved more successful. They finished top of their pool and advanced to the knockout stage, crushingScarlets 38–12 in the quarterfinals and surviving a hard-fought match againstConnacht 19–12. Toulon got their preferred final venue of the Vélodrome on 23 May, where they lost to theCardiff Blues 28–21, missing out on silverware for the season.

In May 2013 Toulon won the2013 Heineken Cup Final by 16–15 againstClermont Auvergne.^[7]

On the day of his arrival in Paris, on 1 May 1895, just before his first concert, Félix Mayol was met by a female friend at the station, who gave him somelily-of-the-valley, a flower people traditionally exchange on 1 May in France. He pinned it on his lapel, his concert was a success and Mayol, who was superstitious, made the lily-of-the-valley his personal emblem. It was taken up by the rugby club in 1921.

In 1920, itsstadium was inaugurated. It is named afterFélix Mayol, a very popular concert hall singer fromToulon who had succeeded in Paris in the early 20th century. Shortly after World War I, he purchased what would be the stadium site and donated it to the club. It is one of the few French stadiums to be almost completely surrounded by the city and overlooks the Toulon bay and military harbour in the Mediterranean.

The club has played in cross-code charity matches with a half each of rugby union and football. On 18 July 2013 they playedOlympique de Marseille in the first ever match of the kind at the Stade Mayol to benefit a local charity withMarc Lièvremont andEric Cantona as the referees in either half, with Olympique de Marseille winning 36–35.^[8][9]

Two years later, the club played another such match to benefit a local children's charity at the Stade Mayol againstFrance 98, the charity association team composed ofFrance's1998 FIFA World Cup winners, and won 33–26.Bernard Laporte served as one of the referees.^[10]

• Heineken Cup /European Rugby Champions Cup
  • Champions (3):2013,2014,2015
• European Rugby Challenge Cup
  • Champions (1):2023
  • Runners-up (4):2010,2012,2020,2022
• French championship Top 14
  • Champions (4):1931,1987,1992,2014
  • Runners-up (9):1948,1968,1971,1985,1989,2012,2013,2016,2017
• Challenge Yves du Manoir
  • Champions (2): 1934, 1970
  • Runners-up (3): 1939, 1954, 1983
• Pro D2
  • Champions (2):2005,2008
  • Runners-up (1): 2001

Date	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Venue	Spectators
18 May 2013	RC Toulon	16–15	ASM Clermont	Aviva Stadium, Dublin	50,148
24 May 2014	RC Toulon	23–6	Saracens	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff	67,578
2 May 2015	RC Toulon	24–18	ASM Clermont	Twickenham, London	56,662

Date	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Venue	Spectators
23 May 2010	Cardiff Blues	28–21	RC Toulon	Stade Vélodrome,Marseille	48,990
18 May 2012	Biarritz Olympique	21–18	RC Toulon	The Stoop,London	9,376
16 October 2020	Bristol Bears	32–19	RC Toulon	Stade Maurice David,Aix-en-Provence	1,000
27 May 2022	Lyon OU	30-12	RC Toulon	Stade Orange Vélodrome,Marseille	51,431
19 May 2023	RC Toulon	43-19	Glasgow Warriors	Aviva Stadium,Dublin	31,514

The Toulon squad for the2025–26 season is:^[11][12]

Note: Flags indicate national union underWorld Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality.

Player Position Union Teddy Baubigny Hooker France Mickaël Ivaldi Hooker France Gianmarco Lucchesi Hooker Italy Jean-Baptiste Gros Prop France Daniel Brennan Prop France Beka Gigashvili Prop Georgia Nikoloz Narmania Prop Russia Dany Priso Prop France Kyle Sinckler Prop England Brian Alainu'uese Lock Samoa Matthias Halagahu Lock France David Ribbans Lock England Swan Rebbadj Lock France Esteban Abadie Back row France Jules Coulon Back row France Lewis Ludlam Back row England Zach Mercer Back row England Charles Ollivon Back row France Joe Quere-Karaba Back row France Patrick Tuifua Back row France

Player Position Union Clovis Le Bail Scrum-half France Baptiste Serin Scrum-half France Ben White Scrum-half Scotland Paolo Garbisi Fly-half Italy Mateo Garcia Fly-half France Ignacio Brex Centre Italy Antoine Frisch Centre France Ma'a Nonu Centre New Zealand Jérémy Sinzelle Centre France Mathieu Smaïli Centre France Gaël Dréan Wing France Rayan Rebbadj Wing France Setariki Tuicuvu Wing Fiji Gabin Villière Wing France Marius Domon Fullback France Mathis Ferté Fullback France Melvyn Jaminet Fullback France

Note: Flags indicate national union underWorld Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality.

Player Position Union Mathias Mazzoni Hooker France Jeremy Toevalu Hooker France Leo Amtella Prop France Giorgi Berdzenishvili Prop Georgia Pierre Damond Prop France Anto-Natale Ghipponi Prop France Lohann Gil Prop France Samuel Jean-Christophe Prop France Arthur Maza Prop France Samuel Renault Prop France Owen Sorhaindo Prop France Gaby Vercelloni Prop France Davit Baramia Lock Georgia Antonio Gamez Lock Spain Enzo Jean Lock France Christian Mendes Lock Spain Corentin Mézou Lock France Tom Vinel Lock France Fabio Zingone Lock France Louis Fritsch Back row France Noam Moreau Back row France Mikheili Shioshvili Back row Georgia Noe Soko Back row France Jovan Sreckovic Back row France

Player Position Union Giani Calleya Scrum-half France Giorgi Khonelidze Scrum-half Georgia Edouard Sabotin-Desclaud Scrum-half France Lucas Bonneau Fly-half France Antoine Dulau Fly-half France Finn Newton Fly-half England Andrea Azzolin Centre France Kyllian Beal Centre France Oliver Cowie Centre France Mateo Gracieux Wing France Esteban Morvan Wing France Barnabe Mechentel Fullback France

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This is a list of former players in alphabetical order showing nationality and the period played for the club.

• List of rugby union clubs in France
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