Rugby union was introduced into France by the British in the early 1870s. It quickly began to flourish in the poorer, more rural south amongst workers in the wine trade. Rugby Union is still much more popular in the southern part of France than in the North. The French league, started in 1906, was the first truly national league anywhere in the rugby union playing world.
France have been playing in the Six Nations Championship (then known as the Five Nations) since 1910. They were expelled in 1932 following accusations of professionalism in the French league as well as on-field violence and poor organisation and were not allowed to rejoin until 1939. During this time many French players turned to rugby league, which soon became the dominant game in France.
During the German occupation of France in World War II, Vichy France forcibly merged the French rugby league into the French rugby union, declaring that there was only one rugby. After this, the union code was dominant in France again.
They finally won the Five Nations in 1959 and since then have gone on to be one of the strongest competitors.
The late 1960s and early 1970s was a golden era, with the French running the Welsh every step of the way, winning the Five Nations in 1967 and 1968 and sharing the top spot in 1970 and 1973. Titanic battles raged between Barry John, Gareth Edwards, Dai Morris, John Taylor and Gerald Davies for the Welsh and Jo Maso, Claude Dourthe, Jean-Pierre Lux, Guy Camberabero and Pierre Villepreux for the French.
In the 1980s, France won two Grand Slams under the coaching of former international Jacques Fouroux and with such famous names as Philippe Sella, Daneil Dubroca and Serge Blanco. They reached the final of the inaugural World Cup. Knocked out in the last eight in 1991, they were desperately unlucky to lose in the semi-finals to the hosts South Africa in 1995 and, after finishing wooden-spoonists in the last ever Five Nations, upset the odds with their finest achievement reaching the final of the 1999 Rugby Union World Cup after a surprise victory over New Zealand in the semi-final.
Since the advent of the Six Nations in 2000, France has won the competition twice (2002 and 2004), completing a Grand Slam both times.