Racing 92 (French pronunciation: [ʁasiŋ ka.tʁə.vɛ̃.duz]) is a French professional rugby union club based in the Hauts-de-Seine department, Paris' western inner suburbs, that competes in Top 14. The club plays its home matches at the 30,681-capacity domed stadium Plenitude Arena, located near the La Défense business district.
Founded in 1890 as the rugby union section of the Paris sports club Racing Club de France, Racing 92 is one of the oldest rugby clubs in France and has traditionally worn a sky blue and white hooped home kit since its inception. The club in its current form is the result of a merger with US Métro in 2001, having been rebranded Métro Racing 92 and then Racing Métro 92 from 2005 to 2015 when the club took its current name. 92 refers to the number of the Hauts-de-Seine department that henceforth supports the team. After a stint in the second division, Racing Métro 92 returned to the first division in 2009 and very quickly emerged as a flagship club thanks to ambitious recruitment and significant financial resources. Since the promotion, Racing 92 has always taken part in the Top 14 playoffs and won the Bouclier de Brennus on one occasion in 2016. The following year, the club left its forever home Stade Yves-du-Manoir for its new stadium, the Plenitude Arena.
Throughout its history, Racing 92 has won a total of six league titles including the inaugural edition of the French championship in 1892, one Pro D2 title and one Coupe de l'Espérance. The club also reached the European Rugby Champions Cup final three times in 2016, 2018 and 2020 but has never won the trophy. Racing 92 has a long-standing rivalry with nearby club Stade Français.
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History
Racing Club was established in 1882 (it became Racing Club de France in 1885) as an athletics club, one of the first in France. New sections were regularly added thereafter (17 as of 2006, accounting for some 20,000 members). A rugby section was founded in 1890, which became an immediate protagonist of the early French championship to which, until 1898, only Parisian teams were invited. On 20 March 1892 the USFSA organised the first-ever French rugby championship, a one-off game between Racing and Stade Français. The game was refereed by Pierre de Coubertin and saw Racing win 4–3. Racing were awarded the Bouclier de Brennus, which is still awarded to the winners of the French championship today.
Both clubs would contest the championship game the following season as well, though in 1893 it would be Stade Français who would win the event, defeating the Racing Club 7–3. Stade went on to dominate the following years and the Racing Club would make their next final appearance in the 1898 season, where they met Stade yet again. However the title was awarded after a round-robin with six clubs. Stade Français won with 10 points, Racing came in second with 6.
Racing contested the 1900 season final against the Stade Bordelais club, as provincial clubs had been allowed to compete in 1899. Racing easily won the match, defeating Stade Bordelais 37–7. The two clubs would meet again in the 1902 championship game, where Racing would again win, 6–0. A decade passed until Racing Club made another championship final, which would be on 31 March 1912, where they would play Toulouse in Toulouse. They lost the match 8–6.
Due to World War I the French championship was replaced with a competition called the Coupe de l'Espérance. The Racing Club won the competition in 1918, defeating FC Grenoble 22 points to 9. Normal competition resumed for the 1920 season. That season the Racing Club made their first final since 1912, though they lost 8 to 3 to Stadoceste Tarbais, a club from the Pyrénées.
After the 1920 season, the Racing Club would not win any championships for a number of years. In 1931 they created the Challenge Yves du Manoir competition. In the 1950s the club had some success, making their first championship final in 30 years, losing to Castres Olympique, 11 points to 8, becoming runners-up in the Challenge Yves du Manoir and winning the Challenge Rutherford in the 1952 season. After losing the 1957 final to FC Lourdes, the club then won the championship in the 1959 season, defeating Mont-de-Marsan 8 points to 3.
Identity
Aristocratic exclusivity
In France, early organised sport was a matter for rich people. Racing Club became the epitome of the exclusive athletics club, located in the heart of the Bois de Boulogne in the affluent western district of Paris. As the club's name, Racing, indicates, it was modelled after fashionable English sports organisations, whose ideal of mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body) appealed very much to its members. Many of them were actually aristocrats, and four nobles took part in the first championship final. Although fewer aristocrats belong to the club now, it is still very complicated to join it, and the identity and image is one of exclusivity.
Racing Club has also always defended the amateur spirit of the game and of sports in general. The creation of the Challenge Yves du Manoir responded to this ideal in a period (late 1920s–early 1930s) where French rugby was marred by violence and undergoing creeping professionalism. Yves du Manoir symbolised the romantic side of rugby, its carefree dimension, le jeu pour le jeu (playing for the fun of playing).
Modern eccentricity
In a very different vein, much later, in the 1980s, a talented generation of players revived the club's spirit. They carried it back to the top of French rugby thanks to their performances on the pitch, but they also wanted to bring the fun back into the game, to take rugby out of its Parisian anonymity. They did so through a combination of serious football, humour and self-mockery. Their famous antics were invented by the club's backs (including France flyhalf Franck Mesnel and France wing Jean-Baptiste Lafond) who once played a game in Bayonne with berets on their heads as a tribute to the tradition of the attacking play of the Basque club Aviron Bayonnais (11 Jan 1987). As members of a gang which they called le show bizz, they played other matches with black make-up on (10 April 1988 at Stade Toulousain), hair dyed yellow, bald caps (26 Feb 1989 against Béziers), wigs and even dressed up as pelote players (white shirts, black jackets and berets, again) in March 1990 at Biarritz Olympique. In April 1989, they wore long red and white striped shorts to celebrate the sans-culotte who took the Bastille on 14 July 1789. They wore long white trousers to look like players of old in the French championship semi-final on 26 April 1987—and won. Their best prank was in the next game though: they played the 1987 final against Toulon with a pink bow tie (2 May). Just before kick-off, Lafond presented French president François Mitterrand, who always attended the national final, with one of those bow ties. They lost that match but went on to play the 1990 final with the same bow ties. At half-time, they had a drink of champagne on the pitch to recover from the efforts of the first half—and won what proved to be the club's last top-flight title for a quarter-century.
They were also famous for their love of nightlife, which attracted a lot of criticism, especially because so many of them had international duties with France. All this contributed to the image of Racing Club as an eccentric institution, but these players have also been seen as trail blazers for Stade Français's president Max Guazzini, who a few years later, took up the provocative (such as the use of the pink colour) and imaginative spirit to boost his club's image and shake off the conservative traditionalism of French rugby.
As the club hit the front pages, five players capitalised on the success and went on to start a sportswear clothing business called Eden Park (after the famous Auckland stadium) in late 1987. Their development was boosted when the French Federation chose them as official suppliers of France's formal wear in 1998. The company has 270 outlets throughout the world. One of them is in Richmond as Eden Park developed a partnership with Harlequins. Others are to be found in Northampton, Leeds, Belfast, Dublin and Cardiff. In 2003, Eden Park became the official supplier of the Welsh Rugby Union's formal wear for the World Cup in Australia. Eden Park is also directly involved in the Racing 92 club since one of its founders, Eric Blanc—who happens to be Franck Mesnel's brother-in-law, is the club's vice-president.
Honours
French championship Top 14
Champions (6): 1892, 1900, 1902, 1959, 1990, 2016
Runners-up (7): 1893, 1898, 1912, 1920, 1950, 1957, 1987
European Rugby Champions Cup
Runners-up (3): 2016, 2018, 2020
Challenge Yves du Manoir
Runners-up (1): 1952
Coupe de l'Espérance
Champions (1): 1918
Division One Group A2/Rugby Pro D2
Champions (2): 1998, 2009
Finals results
Current squad
The Racing 92 squad for the 2025–26 season is:
Coaching staff
The following members were part of Racing 92 coaching staff for the 2024–25 season. Patrice Collazo replaced Stuart Lancaster as head coach on 1 February 2025.