Stade Jean-Dauger
Paris (Bayonne), Île-de-France, France
Stade Jean-Dauger, Paris (Bayonne), France — opened 21 September 1935, 5 rugby league games hosted, home of primarily the home of Aviron Bayonnais (rugby union); rugby league club Côte Basque XIII (founded 1934) also used the ground, particularly 1941-1948, before a series of mergers and its eventual 1958 folding.
Sourcing caveat: Our directory's region field for this venue reads "Paris (Bayonne)" — a genuine data quirk inherited from Rugby League Project's own venue records (whose individual match pages likewise list the venue as "Stade Jean-Dauge (Paris)"), not an error introduced by us; Bayonne is in fact in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, nowhere near Paris. Wikipedia's Côte Basque XIII club history states the club only took up this ground "after resuming operations following WWII," which sits awkwardly against the confirmed pre-war 1935/1937/1938 matches recorded here — most likely those were one-off touring fixtures at the ground before the club's postwar tenancy properly began, but no source states this explicitly, so it is flagged as unresolved rather than asserted as fact. Attendance was not recorded for the first three matches; capacity and floodlight details for the 1935-1963 era were not found.
Ground facts
| Opened | 21 September 1935 (Built on former military land (Camp Saint-Léon) purchased by the city in 1928; inaugurated for rugby on 21 September 1935 (ASB Bayonne 8-3 Bordeaux Étudiants Club) under its original name, Parc des Sports de Saint-Léon, with a further construction phase completed and reopened 29 May 1939. It was not renamed Stade Jean-Dauger until 3 June 2001 — decades after all five rugby league matches recorded here, which were therefore played at a ground known by its earlier name, not its modern one. English Wikipedia separately gives a less precise "1937" opening date, which we judge less well corroborated than the French-sourced 1928/1935/1939 timeline.) |
| Home club | primarily the home of Aviron Bayonnais (rugby union); rugby league club Côte Basque XIII (founded 1934) also used the ground, particularly 1941-1948, before a series of mergers and its eventual 1958 folding |
| Games hosted (rugby league, on record) | 5 |
| Top recorded crowd | 12,000 |
| Test matches hosted | 4 |
| Surface | grass |
| First rugby league match | 3 November 1935 — Côte Basque 8-23 English League XIII, 1935-36 Northern RL XIII Tour (attendance not recorded) |
| Years used | 1935–1963 |
| Location | Paris (Bayonne), Île-de-France |
Name history
- Parc des Sports de Saint-Léon — 1935–2001, the name in use throughout the rugby league era described here
- Stade Jean-Dauger — since 3 June 2001, honouring Aviron Bayonnais great Jean Dauger (1919-1999)
Rugby league history
The ground's own modern namesake, Jean Dauger, was himself a rugby league international before switching codes: he played for RC Roanne XIII from 1938, winning the Lord Derby Cup (1938) and French rugby league championship (1939) and earning 5 caps for the France rugby league team, before Vichy France's 1941 ban on the code forced him back to rugby union at Bayonne, where he later won 3 France union caps. It is a striking detail for a stadium whose own five recorded rugby league fixtures long predate its current name: touring Northern RL and Kangaroo/Kiwi sides played Côte Basque's representative XIII here across the late 1930s, 1948 and 1963, reflecting Bayonne and the Basque Country's genuine, if now largely forgotten, place in French rugby league's mid-20th-century history — a code otherwise almost entirely eclipsed locally by Aviron Bayonnais' rugby union.
The long-standing home of Aviron Bayonnais (rugby union, Top 14).
Historic Test matches, Cup & Grand Finals hosted
- 4 February 1937 — Côte Basque 8-28 English League XIII, 1936-37 Northern RL XIII Tour (attendance not recorded)
- 22 January 1938 — Côte Basque 8-33 Australia, 1937-38 Kangaroos Tour (attendance not recorded)
- 24 January 1948 — Basques de France 3-3 New Zealand, 1947-48 Kiwis Tour (attendance 12,000, our recorded top crowd)
- 12 December 1963 — Basque/Béarnaise XIII 5-18 Australia, 1963-64 Kangaroos Tour (attendance 4,261) — independently corroborated by Wikipedia's tour article, which gives an identical date, score and attendance
Pre-dates the site's structured match-by-match records for these competitions, so listed here as sourced facts rather than linked match pages.
Sources
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
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