We have always tried to watch and support a local rugby team. In yorkshire it was Leeds (now Yorkshire) Carnegie. Here in France we tried our local team Brioude, but the stadium and team didn’t really click with us. So this season we have started visiting Issoire Rugby who play in the french regional Federal 2 division.
They are towards the bottom of the table at the moment, but won the match on Sunday, Issoire 30 – Malemort 23. Their discipline was terrible and they should have won by much more except for the stream of penalties against them. The bonus for this match was the availability of vin chaud at 1€ a glass.
The ground is in a lovely situation as the photo – taken at another match – shows.
As I have a new camera, which is much better for live action than my last camera, I took the opportunity to put the telephoto lens through its paces and was very pleased with the results.
Allez, allez les mauves et noirs!
750 metres 
Some fantastic images here. I’m not sure who our local team is …. we tend to shout for Clermont, of course but I should check out the closer teams and give it a go … thank you for the nudge!
Aurillac possibly? They are in Pro 2 way above our side!
I’ll check out their fixtures – thank you again 🙂