Coupe de France Lord Derby

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, 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. 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. In the 2023–24 season, only teams in the top two divisions, Elite 1 and Elite 2, took part in the competition. ==Trophy==

Following in the footsteps of his father Frederick, patron of ice hockey's Stanley Cup, Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby, donated the silver trophy that bears his name to inaugural French Cup champions US Lyon-Villeurbanne in 1935. Stanley was honorary president of the Rugby Football League, a former minister and former British ambassador in Paris. The trophy was actually not presented to the Lyon players during the French Cup final. Rather, it was handed over to them one week later on 12 May 1935 by John Wilson, general secretary of the Rugby Football League, at Stade Buffalo near Paris, during a special Cup Winners' Match against Challenge Cup champions Castleford, for which Lyon had qualified by virtue of their domestic cup win. 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 La vieille dame ('The Old Lady'). Since 2017, each player from the winning team has received a replica of the cup for him to keep, which is slightly smaller than the original at in height. ==Notable cup runs==

Cinderella runs 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. 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. Ironically, he won the trophy in his only season played away from Toulouse, in 1965 with Lézignan. Toulouse would eventually break the curse in 2014, in their seventh final appearance. ==Satellite tournaments==

Junior French Cup The equivalent of the Lord Derby Cup for Under-19 players is the Coupe Luc-Nitard ('Luc Nitard Cup'), whose final has traditionally been played as a curtain-raiser to the Lord Derby Cup final. • The Coupe Paul-Dejean ('Paul Dejean Cup'), for clubs at the National Division level • The Coupe Albert-Falcou ('Albert Falcou Cup'), for clubs at the Federal Division level. == List of Finals ==

Roanne-Villeneuve XIII 1938-05.png|Roanne vs Villeneuve in the 1938 Final XIII Catalan-Toulouse XIII 1939-05.png|Catalan vs Toulouse in the 1939 Final 10.05.64 Finale Toulouse-Villeneuve (1964) - 53Fi540.jpg|Villeneuve vs Toulouse in the 1964 Final Coupe de france lord derby presentation 2009 asc v limoux.png|Carcassonne celebrating winning the 2008-09 competition ==See also==