Record champions of the Bouclier and the Heineken Cup, Toulouse are the undisputed kings of French and European rugby. Here's the lowdown...

Full name: Stade Toulousain

Colours: Red and black. Flirted with a Paris-style pink centenary shirt in 2007 (Toulouse is known as La Ville Rose - the Pink City) but the normal away colours of white and red returned for 2008.

Founded: 1907

Stadium: Stade Ernest-Wallon. Ernest Wallon was president of Stade Olympien des Etudiants de Toulouse, who contested a French championship final in 1903. Four years later he helped found Stade Toulousain and when he died, the stadium he helped build at Ponts-Jumeaux took his name. Toulouse also play occasional Top 14 and Heineken Cup fixtures at the 38,000-seater Stade de Toulouse.

Capacity: 19,000

Brief history: Founded in 1907, Toulouse have won 16 French championships since their first back in 1912, an unbeaten season which earned the club the nickname La Vierge Rouge - the Red Virgin. A first golden era in the 1920s yielded six titles, before the club re-emerged in the 1980s to break a 38-year drought, making up for lost time by winning four in a row from 1994 to 1997. After a relative drought, in 2008 they won their first title for seven years, and with four Heineken Cup victories to their credit in 1996, 2003, 2005 and 2010 and two more final appearances, Toulouse are also the undisputed kings of Europe.

Jour de gloire: Any of their four Heineken Cup victories - Toulouse are the only team to have won the trophy more than twice.

British equivalent: Leicester. Their styles of play have been adopted by their national sides with great success, and both have dominated European competition.

Zut alors! In 1986, Toulouse hosted the World Club Championship, and promptly established themselves as the best team in the world by beating Wests of Brisbane 11-6 in the final. They are the only club to have competed in all 15 Heineken Cup competitions, and as though to confirm their domestic dominance, have never lost to another French club in European competition.

A la carte... Smooth, rich and classically French, Toulouse are the Roquefort of the rugby world. This King of Cheeses has a distinctive mouth-watering flavour all of its own, but is prone to crumbling under pressure.

In a nutshell: The aristocrats of French rugby. Toulouse have made the ambitious, open running game of French legend their own, and 17 titles and 3 Heineken Cups speak for themselves.