The 1995–96 French Rugby Union Championship was played by 20 teams in the first division ("A1")
In the "A1" group were abstent historical clubs like Béziers, Biarritz, Tarbes, and FC Lourdes.
The teams were divided in two pool of 10, and the first 4 were directly qualified to the "Last 16" round, while the ranked from 5th to 8th were admitted to a "barrage" with eight teams from "A2" group.
Stade Toulousain won their 13th title winning the final against CA Brive, who lost their 4th final.
Four team were relegated to lower level: Bayonne, Racing club de France, Montpellier, RC Nice et FCS Rumilly that were replaced by Béziers, Biarritz, Périgueux, Dijon, and Paris Université Club.
Stade Toulousain won his 14th title beating in the final the Bourgoin, at his first final.
Preliminary round Pool 1 Pos Team Points 1 Toulouse 43 2 Grenoble 41 3 Toulon 40 4 Narbonne 38 5 Agen 36 6 Perpignan 36 7 Nîmes 34 8 Nice 33 9 Bayonne 32 10 Racing club de France 27 Pool 2 Pos Team Points 1 CA Brive 42 2 Bourgoin 41 3 Castres 38 4 Bordeaux-Begles 38 5 Montferrand 38 6 Pau 36 7 Dax 36 8 Colomiers 34 9 Rumilly 33 10 Montpellier 24
Barrage may ‘96Nice-ES Catalane9–12 may ‘96Biarritz-Montferrand3–40 may ‘96Dax-Lourdes49–13 may ‘96Beziers-Perpignan18–31 may ‘96Auch-Colomiers9–24 may ‘96Agen-Dijon35–3 may ‘96PUC-Pau28–54 may ‘96Périgueux-Nîmes18–15
Last 16 may ‘96Toulouse-ES Catalane27–16 may ‘96Narbonne-Montferrand23–20 may ‘96Dax-Grenoble28–14 may ‘96Toulon-Perpignan16–15 may ‘96Brive-Colomiers24–18 may ‘96Agen-Bordeaux-Begles25–18 may ‘96Castres-Pau6–14 may ‘96Périgueux-Bourgoin12–26
Last 8 may ‘96Toulouse-Narbonne12–9 may ‘96Dax-Toulon25–11 may ‘96Brive-Agen13–12 may ‘96Pau-Bourgoin21–18
Semifinals may '96Toulouse-Dax36–23 may '96Brive-Pau23–21
Final
FB 15 Stéphane OugierRW 14 Émile Ntamack (c)OC 13 Philippe Carbonneau IC 12 Thomas Castaignède LW 11 David BertyFH 10 Christophe Deylaud SH 9 Jérôme Cazalbou N8 8 Sylvain Dispagne OF 7 Hervé ManentBF 6 Didier Lacroix RL 5 Franck BelotLL 4 Hugues Miorin TP 3 Claude Portolan HK 2 Patrick Soula LP 1 Christian Califano Substitutions:HK 16 Christophe Guiter PR 17 Pascal Lasserre FL 18 Jean-Luc Cester FL 19 Richard Castel CE 20 Olivier Carbonneau CE 21 Éric Artiguste FB 22 Ugo Mola Coach: Guy Novès FB 15 Sébastien Paillat RW 14 Sébastien Carrat OC 13 Romuald Paillat IC 12 Jean-Marie SoubiraLW 11 Christophe LucquiaudFH 10 Alain Penaud (c) SH 9 Sébastien Bonnet N8 8 Thierry Labrousse OF 7 Alain Carminati BF 6 Loïc Van der Linden RL 5 Laurent BonventreLL 4 Éric Alégret TP 3 Richard Crespy HK 2 Vincent Moscato LP 1 Didier Casadeï Substitutions:PR 16 Sotele Puleoto PR 17 Arnaud Boudie LK 18 Yvan Manhès N8 19 François Duboisset SH 20 Bruno Marty WG 21 Didier Faugeron FB 22 Alain Guettache Coach: Laurent Seigne