Coupe de France Lord Derby

Following in the footsteps of his father Frederick, patron of ice hockey's Stanley Cup,[6] Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, donated the silver trophy that bears his name to inaugural French Cup champions US Lyon-Villeurbanne in 1935.[7] Stanley was honorary president of the Rugby Football League, a former minister and former British ambassador in Paris.[6] The actual name of the trophy, as engraved on the bowl, is Coupe de Lord Derby, although the more natural-sounding "Coupe Lord Derby" is almost always preferred. Among the rugby league crowd, the cup is affectionately known as The Old Lady (French: La vieille dame).[8][9] Since 2017, each player from the winning team has received a replica of the cup for him to keep.[10]

For much of the tournament's history, games played at predetermined or mutually agreed upon neutral sites were the norm. While Toulouse struggled to field a stable team in the new code until 1937, it was still the go-to host city for many games during the tournament's formative years,[11] both because it was viewed as a key market and because the relationship with rugby union authorities was much less contentious there than elsewhere in the country.[12] In fact, Stade Toulousain considered renting its Stade Ernest-Wallon to the French Rugby League for the 1939 Lord Derby Cup final, before organizers settled on Stade du TOEC.[11] In the modern era, games at predetermined sites were gradually reduced to encourage fan attendance, and are typically only used in the last two rounds.[5]

While all divisions have been actively encouraged to send teams in recent times,[5] the level of amateur participation has varied over the years.[8]

Toulouse Olympique has endured many heartbreaks in the Lord Derby Cup, losing all of its first six finals, including three straight between 1962 and 1964. One of star player Georges Ailleres' career regrets was never hoisting the Lord Derby Cup while playing for his longtime club, despite making it to four finals with them.[13] Ironically, he won the trophy in his only season played away from Toulouse, in 1965 with Lézignan.[14] Toulouse would eventually break the curse in 2014, in their seventh final appearance.[9][15]

The Lord Derby Cup has historically been dominated by first division teams. Nonetheless, one-off wins by lower division clubs are not unheard of, and a handful of underdogs have produced cinderella runs over the years. In 1983, fourth-level side Le Soler advanced to the semifinals, beating top-flight club Pia in the process, before losing to powerhouse XIII Catalan.[16] In 2005, third-level team Salses beat two Elite 1 teams (Lyon-Villeurbanne and Villeneuve-sur-Lot) before bowing out in the semifinals as well, this time to Limoux.[16]

In 2016, Saluzzo Rugby, an Italian rugby union team from Piedmont (a province with close historical ties to francophone culture), switched codes and joined the fourth level of French rugby league. Thanks to the readmission of lower-tier teams into the Lord Derby Cup in 2017–18, they also became eligible for the tournament.[17] However, with limited success on the field and mounting financial costs, the club withdrew from French rugby league altogether in 2019.[18]

The equivalent of the Lord Derby Cup for Under-19 players is the Luc Nitard Cup (French: Coupe Luc-Nitard), whose final is played as a curtain-raiser to the Lord Derby Cup final.[5]

To provide minor league clubs with a more accessible level of competition, the French federation has maintained a trio of secondary cup tournaments which are reserved for them. Each of these tournaments is marketed as a "Coupe de France" in its own right, although in practice they more closely fit the definition of a league cup.[5] They are:

• The Georges Aillères Cup (French: Coupe Georges-Aillères), for clubs at the Elite 2 level[19]
• The Paul Dejean Cup (French: Coupe Paul-Dejean), for clubs at the National Division level[5]
• The Albert Falcou Cup (French: Coupe Albert-Falcou), for clubs at the Federal Division level.[5]

1. Both semifinals were scheduled for 5 May 1940. Côte Basque beat XIII Catalan 14–5 in Bordeaux for the first final spot,[23] but prior commitments at Toulouse's Stade des Minimes forced the postponement of the second semifinal between Pau and Carcassonne to 12 May.[12] On 10 May, German troops invaded Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, forcing the cancellation of the remainder of the competition, whose final was scheduled for 19 May 1940 in Bordeaux.[24]
2. The final between AS Carcassonne and XIII Catalan was cancelled as a result of a game-ending brawl involving XIII Catalan at the championship final the previous week.[25]

• Bonnery, Louis (1996). Le rugby à XIII le plus français du monde. Limoux: Cano & Franck.
• Rylance, Mike (1999). The Forbidden Game: The Untold Story of French Rugby League. Brighouse: League Publications. ISBN 978-1901347050.