Pont-de-Marot
Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Aquitaine, France
Pont-de-Marot, Villeneuve-sur-Lot, France — opened Not confirmed, 2 rugby league games hosted, home of Villeneuve XIII.
Ground facts
| Opened | Not confirmed (A private ground dating to the early 1900s on the right bank of the Lot river, opposite Villeneuve XIII's later home -- no precise founding date found. It was superseded when the municipality built a new stadium across the river in 1955-56 (today the Complexe Sportif Robert de La Myre Mory, whose rugby pitch was renamed Stade Max-Rousie in 2011 after a France international who played both codes). No source confirms whether the original Pont-de-Marot ground was demolished or simply abandoned.) |
| Home club | Villeneuve XIII |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 2 |
| Top recorded crowd | 8,000 (8,000 for Villeneuve's 3-26 defeat to the touring 1937/38 Australian Kangaroos -- we could not find independent secondary corroboration of this figure; both English Wikipedia's Kangaroo tour articles for 1937-38 and 1952-53 omit the French leg of each tour entirely, so this rests on Rugby League Project alone.) |
| Years used | 1938–1952 |
| Location | Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Aquitaine |
Name history
Rugby league history
Villeneuve-sur-Lot has arguably the deepest rugby league heritage of any town in France: Villeneuve XIII was founded in May 1934 by Jean Galia, the founder of French rugby league itself, and became the first French club, winning the inaugural 1934 championship and touring England that September (Warrington, Hull FC, Oldham, Leeds) as the first French club to do so. Nine-time French champions and nine-time Lord Derby Cup winners, the club remains an active professional side today at its later ground, the Stade Max-Rousie. Pont-de-Marot, its original home, hosted two touring Kangaroos fixtures: a 3-26 loss on 29 January 1938 in front of 8,000 (the ground's recorded top crowd), and an 11-18 loss on 21 December 1952 in front of 2,262.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
← Rugby League · Champions list · All-time records · Grand Final results · World Cup · All competitions · Teams · Players