Resources and reputation mean little at the end of the decade in rugby union – no one is too big to fail
“Our story is not an imaginary adventure.” They are the concluding words in a short history of Lourdes
Football Club on its website, although the rugby miracle that took place in the small town that nestles in the foothills of the Pyrenees between 1948 and 1968 seems all but forgotten.
Lourdes won the Top 14 title eight times in that period and were instrumental in the rise of
France as an international force, culminating in the 1968 grand slam, the year the club last won the title. They now languish in the fourth tier of the French system, bottom of Federale 2 without a victory this season.