Castres buck trend as urban game swallows up towns

If you drive up from Spain the first three towns you hit in France along the A9 are three big rugby strongholds … Perpignan, Narbonne and Beziers.

The Bouclier de Brennus, the French championship trophy, has been carried home to those three bastions on 20 occasions.

Perpignan won their seventh as recently as 2009, Narbonne their second in ’79, while Beziers, the third most successful in the country with 11 titles, dominated French rugby and won 10 crowns in 15 years to 1984.