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1996–97 French Rugby Union Championship
Countries	France
Champions	Toulouse (14th title)
Runners-up	Bourgoin
Relegated	Nîmes, Périgueux, PUC, Dijon
←  1995–96 1997–98 →

The 1996–97 French Rugby Union Championship was played by 20 teams

Stade Toulousain won their 14th title, beating Bourgoin in the final.

Preliminary round

The 20 team were divided in the preliminary phase in two pools of 10. The first eight team of each pool were admitted to "Round of 16". The last two were relegated in second division.

Last 16

Last 8

Semifinals

Final

FB 15 Stéphane Ougier RW 14 Michel Marfaing OC 13 Nicolas Martin  80+2' IC 12 Thomas Castaignède LW 11 David Berty FH 10 Christophe Deylaud ( c) SH 9 Jérôme Cazalbou N8 8 Sylvain Dispagne OF 7 Régis Sonnes BF 6 Didier Lacroix RL 5 Franck Belot LL 4 Hugues Miorin TP 3 Jean-Louis Jordana  66' HK 2 Patrick Soula LP 1 Christian Califano Substitutions: HK 16 Philippe Capelleri PR 17 Pascal Lasserre  66' LK 18 David Couzinet FL 19 Jean-Marie Bisaro SH 20 Julien Tilloles CE 21 Olivier Carbonneau  80+2' FB 22 Xavier Garbajosa Coach: Guy Novès

FB 15 Nigel Geany RW 14 Laurent Leflamand OC 13 Alexandre Péclier IC 12 Stéphane Glas  24' LW 11 Ludovic Saunier FH 10 Gilles Cassagne SH 9 Dominique Mazille N8 8 Pierre Raschi  72' OF 7 Michel Malafosse BF 6 Alexandre Chazalet RL 5 Jean Daudé  59' LL 4 Marc Cécillon ( c) TP 3 David Morgan  51' HK 2 Jean-Pierre Sanchez LP 1 Philippe Vessiller Substitutions: HK 16 Jean-François Martin-Culet PR 17 Laurent Gomez  51' LK 18 Frédéric Nibelle  59' N8 19 Julien Frier  72' SH 20 Nicolas Guilhot CE 21 Pascal Fernandez  24' WG 22 Laurent Belligoi Coach: Michel Couturas