Major honours
France embodies unpredictability itself in world rugby. It played its first Test against New Zealand in 1906 and formed the French Rugby Federation in 1919, but was expelled from the Five Nations in 1931 over allegations of covert professionalism and only returned in 1947. France has reached three World Cup finals — 1987, 1999 and 2011 — and lost all three, yet it remains the only title-less nation to reach the quarterfinal or better in all ten tournaments. Two matches sum up the team's character: the 1999 semifinal at Twickenham, where France overturned a 24-10 deficit against New Zealand to win 43-31, and the 2007 quarterfinal in Cardiff, where it beat tournament favorite New Zealand 20-18. In the 2020s, under coach Fabien Galthié and captain Antoine Dupont, France won the 2022 Grand Slam and rose to number one in the world, before falling again at the final hurdle, losing 28-29 to South Africa in the quarterfinal of its home tournament in 2023. The domestic Top 14 remains the richest rugby league in the world.
Record comparison
Bars are scaled to the strongest team in this list.
Club legends
Rivalry
Le Crunch against England carries the full weight of the two nations' history, while the match against New Zealand — thanks to the 1999 and 2007 upsets — has become the fixture the All Blacks fear most.