Tarbes Pyrénées Rugby is a French rugby union team that currently takes part in Nationale, the third level of the country's league system. They were founded in August 2000 as a result of a merger between Stadoceste Tarbais and the senior side of Cercle Amical Lannemezanais. They play in red and white. They are based in Tarbes, the capital of the Hautes-Pyrénées département, in Occitania, and play at the Stade Maurice Trélut. Several clubs from the Bigorre region have been part of the history of rugby union in France, but none of them was able to keep up with the times when professionalism appeared. Stadoceste Tarbais, the big regional gun, a two-time French champion, was struggling in the amateur leagues, like FC Lourdes (8 times French champion) and Stade Bagnérais. However, at the end of the 1999-2000 season, CA Lannemezan reached Pro D2 for the first time ever. But the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, which operates the French professional leagues, blocked the promotion, fearing that a club in a town of 6 000-odd inhabitants would never survive as a professional outfit. Stadoceste Tarbais, which had just been promoted to the 4th division (Fédérale 2), made CA Lannemezan an offer to join forces in order to build a strong viable club and reach Top 14 in the near future. Tarbes and Lannemezan are 35 km apart. The plan was backed by the local government of Hautes-Pyrénées, which would only support one top level club in the area. FC Lourdes and Stade Bagnérais were offered to join but rejected the offer as they feared that they would lose their identity in a bigger club which, in all likelihood, would play in the capital of the department, Tarbes. The board of CA Lannemezan originally rejected the merger 73%–27%, but the club president managed to get it done. More information...
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