Jump to content

2024–25 Top 14 season

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2024–25 Top 14
Countries France
Date7 September 2024 – 28 June 2025

The 2024–25 Top 14 competition is the 126th French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).

Format

[edit]

The top six teams at the end of the regular season (after all the teams played one another twice, once at home, once away) enter a knockout stage to decide the Champions of France. This consists of three rounds: the teams finishing third to sixth in the table play quarter-finals (hosted by the third and fourth placed teams). The winners then face the top two teams in the semi-finals, with the winners meeting in the final at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. The LNR uses a slightly different bonus points system from that used in most other rugby competitions. It trialled a new system in 2007–08 explicitly designed to prevent a losing team from earning more than one bonus point in a match,[1] a system that also made it impossible for either team to earn a bonus point in a drawn match. LNR chose to continue with this system for subsequent seasons.[2]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:[2]

  • 4 points for a win.
  • 2 points for a draw.
  • 1 bonus point for winning while scoring at least 3 more tries than the opponent. This replaces the standard bonus point for scoring 4 tries regardless of the match result.
  • 1 bonus point for losing by 5 points (or fewer). The margin had been 7 points until being changed prior to the 2014–15 season.

From the 2017–18 season onwards, only the 14th placed team is automatically relegated to the Pro D2. The 13th placed team play the runner-up of the Pro D2 play-off, with the winner taking up the final place in the Top 14 for the following season.[3]

Teams

[edit]
Locations of clubs competing in the 2024–25 Top 14.

Fourteen clubs will compete in the 2024–25 Top 14 season, 13 of them returning. Oyonnax were relegated to Pro D2 after finishing at the bottom of the table the previous season. Vannes is the sole promoted club, finishing second in the Pro D2 the previous season and winning the Pro D2 playoffs. Montpellier, who finished 13th in the previous Top 14 season, defeated Grenoble in the relegation playoffs to retain their place.

2024–25 Top 14 clubs
Club City Stadium Capacity Prev
Bayonne Bayonne Stade Jean Dauger 16,934 12th
Bordeaux Bègles Bordeaux Stade Chaban-Delmas[a] 33,500 3rd
Castres Castres Stade Pierre-Fabre 12,500 7th
Clermont Clermont-Ferrand Stade Marcel-Michelin 19,022 8th
La Rochelle La Rochelle Stade Marcel-Deflandre 16,700 5th
Lyon Lyon Matmut Stadium de Gerland 25,000 11th
Montpellier Montpellier Altrad Stadium 15,697 13th
Pau Pau Stade du Hameau 14,588 9th
Perpignan Perpignan Stade Aimé Giral 14,593 10th
Racing Nanterre Paris La Défense Arena 30,681 6th
Stade Français Paris Stade Jean-Bouin 20,000 2nd
Toulon Toulon Stade Mayol[b] 18,200 4th
Toulouse Toulouse Stade Ernest-Wallon[c] 18,754 1st
Vannes Vannes Stade de la Rabine 11,500 2nd (D2)
2024–25 Top 14 clubs by region
Teams Region Team(s)
4  Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bayonne, Bordeaux Bègles, La Rochelle, Pau
 Occitanie Castres, Montpellier, Perpignan, Toulouse
2  Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Clermont, Lyon
 Île-de-France Racing, Stade Français
1  Brittany Vannes
 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Toulon
  1. ^ In recent years, Bordeaux Bègles has taken occasional home matches to Matmut Atlantique.
  2. ^ In recent years, Toulon has taken occasional home matches to Stade Vélodrome in Marseille and Allianz Riviera in Nice.
  3. ^ Toulouse often takes high-demand home matches to the city's largest sporting venue, Stadium de Toulouse.

Table

[edit]
2024–25 Top 14 Table
Pos Team Pld W D L PF PA PD TF TA TB LB Pts Qualification
1 Toulouse 9 6 0 3 268 145 +123 33 18 3 3 30 Qualification for Playoff semi-finals and European Rugby Champions Cup
2 Bordeaux Bègles 9 6 0 3 304 209 +95 42 28 3 2 29
3 La Rochelle 9 6 0 3 229 206 +23 30 22 3 0 27 Qualification for Playoff semi-final qualifiers and European Rugby Champions Cup
4 Bayonne 9 6 0 3 245 221 +24 30 29 1 1 26
5 Toulon 9 5 0 4 193 201 −8 22 23 1 2 23
6 Clermont 9 5 0 4 214 245 −31 28 27 3 0 23
7 Castres 9 5 0 4 271 239 +32 31 25 1 2 23 Qualification for European Rugby Champions Cup
8 Racing 92 9 5 0 4 238 228 +10 27 25 0 2 22
9 Perpignan 9 4 0 5 178 222 −44 17 24 2 1 19 Qualification for European Rugby Challenge Cup
10 Lyon 9 4 0 5 245 261 −16 28 30 1 1 18
11 Montpellier 9 3 0 6 191 194 −3 18 21 0 3 15
12 Pau 9 3 0 6 199 244 −45 24 33 2 1 15
13 Stade Français 9 3 0 6 185 252 −67 20 31 1 1 14 Qualification for Relegation play-off
14 Vannes 9 2 0 7 226 319 −93 27 41 0 3 11 Relegation to Pro D2
Updated to match(es) played on 3 November 2024. Source: Top 14


Playoffs

[edit]

Bracket

[edit]
Semi-final Qualifiers Semi-finals Final
1  
4    
5    
 
2  
3    
6  

Leading scorers

[edit]

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

As of 12 October 2024[4]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "French try out new bonus point system". Planet-rugby.com. 27 June 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
  2. ^ a b "Article 330, Section 3.2. Points "terrain"" (PDF). Règlements de la Ligue Nationale de Rugby 2008/2009, Chapitre 2 : Règlement sportif du Championnat de France Professionnel (in French). LNR. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
  3. ^ Mortimer, Gavin (18 August 2016). "French rugby enjoys a popularity boom as it looks to the future". Rugby World. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  4. ^ "Les joueurs du Top 14". Top 14, Ligue National de Rugby. Retrieved 12 October 2024.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2024–25_Top_14_season&oldid=1260246395"