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The Coupe de France was a French rugby union competition which was founded early in the 20th century but was abandoned during World War II, and then restarted in 1943. All clubs were invited to participate, about 100 of them took part, with the first division teams joining in in the last rounds.

The 1951 final was so violent that the Rugby Football Union asked for it to be discontinued, otherwise France could have been expelled from the Five Nations Tournament which they had just rejoined in 1939. And this was exactly what the chairman of the French Federation did. It was replaced the next year by the Challenge Yves du Manoir which had been ended by the war.

The competition was reborn in the mid-1980s under the impulse of the then president of the French Federation, Albert Ferrasse, in parallel with both the championship and the Challenge Yves du Manoir. But low gates, an already crammed schedule doomed it after three seasons.

A final effort to resurrect it was made in 1996, when it was merged with the Challenge Yves du Manoir, which was called Trophée Du-Manoir Coupe de France. It lasted until 2003 under three different names. As a result, the final seven competitions are counted both in the Coupe de France and Challenge Du Manoir records.

[edit] Finals

Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up
1943	SU Agen	11-4	Stade Bordelais
1944	Toulouse Olympique Etudiants Club	19-2	Stade Bordelais
1945	SU Agen	14-13	AS Montferrand
1946	Stade Toulousain	6-3	Section Paloise
1947	Stade Toulousain	14-11	AS Montferrand
1948	Castres Olympique	6-0	FC Lourdes
1949	CA Bègles	11-6	Stade Toulousain
1950	FC Lourdes	16-3	AS Béziers
1951	FC Lourdes	6-3	Stadoceste Tarbais
1984	Stade Toulousain	6-0	FC Lourdes
1985	RC Narbonne	28-27 (a.e.t.)	AS Béziers
1986	AS Béziers	40-9	Stade Aurillacois
1996	CA Brive	12-6	Section Paloise
1997	Section Paloise	13-11	CS Bourgoin-Jallieu
1998	Stade Toulousain	22-15	Stade Français Paris
1999	Stade Français Paris	27-19	CS Bourgoin-Jallieu
2000	Biarritz Olympique	24-13	CA Brive
2001	ASM Clermont Auvergne	34-24	FC Auch
2002	Stade Rochelais	23-19	Biarritz Olympique
2003 (March)	Stade Rochelais	22-20	CS Bourgoin-Jallieu
2003 (November)	Castres Olympique	27-26	CS Bourgoin-Jallieu

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