The Coupe Falcou is an annual knock-out competition organised by the Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII

Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII

The French Rugby League Federation is the governing body for the sport of rugby league football in France. The Federation was formed during 1934 and since then has organized and governed the French rugby league championship, the Lord Derby Cup and all of the clubs that are contained within those...

 for amateur rugby league

Rugby league

Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...

 clubs.

History

Introduced in 1937 the competition was originally known as the French Amateur Cup. The inaugural winners were the short-lived La Rochelle club (during WW2 the club were forced to merge with the town's rugby union club, Atlantique Stade Rochelais, by the Vichy Government of the time).

When rugby league was legalised again at the end of the war the cup was re-instituted as the National Cup and was played between the years 1945 and 1962. Two now defunct clubs dominated the post war years; Facture from near Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

 in the Gironde

Gironde

For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...

won the cup five times and Lavardac from Aquitaine, who folded in the eighties, won it on four occasions.

The cup was not played for in the years 1963 to 1976.

Relaunched in 1977 for amateur clubs the cup was known as the French Federal Cup. From 1992 the competing clubs have vied for the Coupe Falcou, named in memory of Albert Falcou (1911–1990) who devoted his life to the cause of rugby league.

Since 1977 the cup has been won by no less than nineteen different clubs.

Past winners

French Amateur Cup

• 1937 : La Rochelle
• 1938 : Arcachon
• 1939 : Saint-Gaudens

National Cup

• 1945 : Orange
• 1946 : Orange
• 1947 : Figeac
• 1948 : Carpentras
• 1949 : Arachon
• 1950 : Lavardac
• 1951 : Lavardac
• 1952 : Lavardac
• 1953 : Lavardac
• 1954 : La Réole
• 1955 : Facture
• 1956 : Limoux
• 1957 : Facture
• 1958 : Facture
• 1959 : Miramont
• 1960 : Facture
• 1961 : Saint-Gaudens
• 1962 : Facture

Federal Cup

• 1977 : La Réole
• 1978 : Not Played
• 1979 : EBT Montpellier
• 1980 : Clairac
• 1981 : ASPET
• 1982 : Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salle
• 1983 : Apt
• 1984 : Palau
• 1985 : Not Played
• 1986 : Lescure
• 1987 : Sainte-Livrade
• 1988 : La Réole
• 1989 : Le Pontet
• 1990 : Tonneins
• 1991 : Lescure

Coupe Falcou

• 1992 : Cabestany
• 1993 : Cabestany
• 1994 : Sainte-Livrade
• 1995 : GIFI Bias
• 1996 : Saint-Cyprien
• 1997 : Morières
• 1998 : Castelnau
• 1999 : Le Barcarès
• 2000 : Sainte-Livrade
• 2001 : Palau
• 2002 : Sainte-Livrade
• 2003 : GIFI Bias
• 2004 : Salses
• 2005 : Salses
• 2006 : Baroudeurs de Pia
• 2007 : Sauveterre de Comminges
• 2008 : Baroudeurs de Pia

External links

• Coupe Falcou section of the FFR XIII website