Don't know who to follow in French Rugby's third tier? We've whittled down 48 contenders to one lucky team. Find out who we're backing...

Here at Le Rugby we're firm believers that sport is best enjoyed when you have someone to support. Not for us the headbobbing neutrals who rabbit on for 80 minutes before making a beeline for loyal supporters at the final whistle just to tell them where their team is going wrong, nor the mysterious 'purists' who, according to the press, rarely enjoy many matches anyway.

No, we're shameless rugby whores who like to get in amongst the noisetteurs, wear their colours, learn their songs, drink their vin rouge and snog their missuses when the bar shuts.

OK, maybe not the last bit but we do have our own pecking order when it comes to watching Top 14 games. We'll support Bayonne over Biarritz, Toulouse over Toulon, Racing-Metro over Relegated Albi and everyone ahead of Stade Francais.

But when it comes to the hard underbelly of French rugby that is Federale 1, where do we start? It would have been easy to put our efforts behind fallen giant Beziers, rising stars Carcassonne or Basque hopefuls St Jean de Luz. We could have gone with the Lomu-mania at Marseille-Vitrolles or put our faith in another miracle at Lourdes.

Too easy. Instead, in true Le Rugby style, we opted for a more scientific method of choosing which club we'd be backing in this year's Federale 1 - which club name looked most like 'Le Rugby'.

The process was exhaustive. Bobigny took an early lead, US Bressane and Bedarrides put up a strong argument, but there, at the very bottom of the last of the six pools, we found our pot of gold.

Step forward Le Bugue.

Formed in 1902, Bugue Athletic Club Rugby hail from the small Dordogne town of Le Bugue, home to 2,800 Buguois and set on the banks of the River Vézère. According to its Wikipedia entry, people have lived in the area since prehistoric times (and a couple can still be found propping up the bar of the local PMU), but the last big thing to happen in the town was the building of the bridge and the arrival of the Perigeux-Agen railway line in the late 19th century.

Le Bugue's rise to the top of French Rugby's amateur tree has been rapid. Only at the end of the 2006/07 season did Les Chevalliers de Albuga - the Knights of Albuga - climb out of Federale 3, reaching the last 16 of the play-offs to win promotion and rubbing it in by winning the league title, beating Villeneuve-de-Marsan 21-16 in the final.

Federale 2 was obviously not to les buguois' liking, as the club went straight up to the first Federale division, romping to the top of their 12-team group before being thrashed by eventual champions Carcassonne in the play-off quarter-final.

Le Bugue's first season in Federale 1 was one of consolidation, with several big names joining the mostly home-grown squad, including former Gloucester and Brive centre Terry Fanolua. At the end of the pool phase, Le Bugue narrowly missed the cut, finishing fifth from eight, and went on to escape relegation by some distance. And talk about a perfectly average season - les buguois won 10 and lost 10 of their 20 games, scoring 389 poi nts and conceding 390!

With an eye on improvement this year, Le Bugue embarked on a summer of reinforcement, bidding 'adieu' to 17 French players and bringing in three Algerians, two Georgians, a pair of Fijians (including Fiji international Naisake Tarogi), a Tongan, an Argentian in former Brive and Lyon prop Daniel Rodriguez and Welshman Tomos Marks. And just for good measure, six Frenchmen.

With our blue and white scarves on order, our club membership posted to Monsieur Le President Louis Neissen and our Michelin map No.432 on its way so we can find the place, expect Le Rugby to bring you all the news from Stade Renaud-Cruveiller as the season progresses.

Altogether now... Allez Le Bugue!

Now, how do we pronounce it?

How did Le Bugue fare in the first round of Federale 1 matches? Find out here...