ToulouseThink of Toulouse and numerous images are conjured: The trick of the light reflected off the bricks that gave this city in the Haute-Garonne its nickname (the “ville rose”); aircraft, because of Blagnac, which is where Airbus has its assembly lines; or the Orchestre National du Capitole, a major focus for classical music.
But Toulouse is also one of rugby’s major epicentres. The Stade Toulousain team, which has provided a good many international players down the years, has been champion of France 17 times and went down in the history of the sport by becoming the first European clubs champion in 1996, a title that it won again in 2003.
Students began playing rugby locally in 1890 and it was in 1907 that Stade Toulousain was established. It won the first French championship title two years later, in 1909.
The Sept-Deniers sports facility, which is where the Toulousain team plays (approximately 20,000 seats at the Ernest-Wallon Stadium), is however not the venue selected for the next Rugby World Cup. This honour went to La Stadium, a bastion of soccer (37,000 seats).
For major matches, the Stade Toulousain rugby club has itself used the football club’s facility, construction of which was initiated in 1936 and completed in 1949.
In those days, it was also a major centre for bullfighting, although it is not particularly well suited to this activity. The football club established itself there some years later and, thanks to its French Cup victory over Angers in 1957, established soccer once and for all in this rugby region.
The stadium, brand new for the Soccer World Cup in 1998, was seriously damaged in the AZF industrial disaster of September 2001 - its structure cracked and weakened forcing its closure - but since then it has regained its lustre and is ready to welcome the best rugby players in the world for the 2007 showpiece.
|
