EPCR Challenge Cup · 2026-27
RC Vannes
RC Vannes in every competition →
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Results
About RC Vannes
- Founded
- 1950
- Home town
- Vannes
- Ground
- Stade de la Rabine
- Colours
- Website
- rugbyclubvannes.bzh (opens in a new tab)
Honours
Pro D2 champions · 1
2024
Notable players and coaches
- Edmond Gauthier — Fly-half newly posted from Pau, the first captain in 1950 and one of the founders; father of Jean-Yves, Bernard and Michel, who led the 1990s revival
- André Carrier — Paratrooper and co-founder, with his umbrella and his rallying cry: 'Always forward, never back'
- Jo Courtel — President when the club first went up to Nationale 3 in 1970; a ground in Vannes bears his name
- Alain Berthe — President in 1997, when a play-off win over Hendaye made Vannes the first Breton club in Fédérale 2
- Goulven Le Garrec — The first Breton to turn professional (Bordeaux-Bègles, 1997); as coach he took Vannes into Fédérale 1 in 2006 after twelve straight wins
- Clément Payen — Captain of the 2016 side that beat Massy and took a Breton club into Pro D2 for the first time
- Anthony Bouthier — Full-back whose 80-metre solo try turned the 2016 play-off against Massy; at Vannes from 2014 to 2019 and again since 2025
- Jean-Noël Spitzer — Coach of the 2020-21 side: second in Pro D2 with a record 99 points
History
Rugby Club Vannes was founded on Monday 6 November 1950 by paratroopers from the camp at Meucon, most of them from the South-West, then under Colonel Massu; the club met at the Bar de la Marine by the Porte Saint-Vincent, and its first captain was the fly-half Edmond Gauthier, newly posted from Pau. In 1953 it reached the semi-finals of the French Honneur championship but had to forfeit: its players had been sent to Indochina. Revived in 1962 by returning veterans, it went up to Nationale 3 unbeaten in 1970 under president Jo Courtel and opened the Saint-Guen ground that September. In 1980 the props Gilles Nebinger and Daniel Perrot were lost at sea in the Bay of Biscay. On 18 May 1997 a play-off win over Hendaye, 28–22, made Vannes the first Breton club in Fédérale 2; Fédérale 1 followed in 2006 under Goulven Le Garrec, and on 14 May 2016 a 25–13 win over Massy at La Rabine took a Breton club into Pro D2 for the first time. After Pro D2 semi-finals in 2019, 2021 and 2023, Vannes won the title in 2024, 16–9 against Grenoble in the final, and went up to the Top 14.
Sources: rugbyclubvannes.bzh · top14.lnr.fr · en.wikipedia.org (opens in a new tab)