The debut was supposed to happen a week ago, when Oyonnax was scheduled to host the Irish club Ulster, another former champion. But the match was postponed after the terrorist attacks in Paris. Oyonnax had also planned “72 hours in Red and Black,” a three-day festival of events celebrating its debut, but that, too, was called off.

“It should have been a great occasion, but of course there was too much emotion and sadness, and we had to show solidarity with Paris,” said Emin. “We could not possibly play or hold our festival.”

New dates for four other matches postponed in France have still to be agreed upon, as clubs and organizers wrestle with schedules already overcrowded by the compression of this season to accommodate the World Cup. A further match, Stade Français versus Munster, scheduled to be played Sunday in Paris, has also been postponed.

Top-class rugby offers opportunities not just for the club, but an entire community. Oyonnax has some claims to fame. A significant center for the French plastics industry, it markets itself as “Plastics Valley” — local expertise went into the synthetic 3G turf field at U.S.O.’s Stade Charles-Mathon — and it was also one of about 20 communities honored collectively after the World War II for resistance to Nazi occupation. “This is very important for the town,” said Emin, who combines his club role with running his family-owned 150-employee cardboard box manufacturing company. “It is an unmatched opportunity to promote not only our rugby, but the town as a whole.”

Emin has been president since last year, and his connection to the club goes back to its previous period of greatest success in the 1980s, when he was captain of the team as a No.8 forward. “We were in the first division then, but it was rather different to the modern Top 14 competition,” he said, referring to the current highest level of France’s domestic competition. “It was amateur, and there were 64 teams in the first division.”