Fixtures

DateRHome vs Away-
03/23 14:00 19 Toulon vs Montpellier View
03/23 16:00 19 Oyonnax vs Perpignan View
03/23 16:00 19 Castres vs Racing Metro View
03/23 16:00 19 Clermont vs Pau View
03/23 16:00 19 Stade Francais vs Lyon View
03/23 20:05 19 Bayonne vs La Rochelle View
03/24 20:05 19 Bordeaux vs Toulouse View
03/30 14:00 20 Montpellier vs Stade Francais View
03/30 16:00 20 Perpignan vs Castres View
03/30 16:00 20 La Rochelle vs Oyonnax View
03/30 16:00 20 Lyon vs Bordeaux View
03/30 16:00 20 Racing Metro vs Clermont View

Results

Date R Home vs Away -
03/10 21:00 18 Racing Metro vs Toulon 20-6
03/09 20:05 18 Perpignan vs Toulouse 27-17
03/09 16:00 18 Montpellier vs Bordeaux 10-3
03/09 16:00 18 Lyon vs Castres 34-19
03/09 16:00 18 Clermont vs Oyonnax 15-15
03/09 16:00 18 Pau vs Bayonne 42-40
03/09 14:00 18 La Rochelle vs Stade Francais 23-3
03/03 20:05 17 La Rochelle vs Clermont 42-3
03/02 20:05 17 Bordeaux vs Racing Metro 21-5
03/02 16:00 17 Toulon vs Perpignan 44-22
03/02 16:00 17 Stade Francais vs Pau 25-12
03/02 16:00 17 Oyonnax vs Montpellier 35-39

Wikipedia - Top 14

The Top 14 (French pronunciation: [tɔp katɔʀz]) is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the France National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism of LNR. There is promotion and relegation between the Top 14 and the next level down, the Rugby Pro D2. The fourteen best rugby teams in France participate in the competition, hence the name Top 14. The competition was previously known as the Top 16.

The league is one of the three major professional leagues in Europe (along with the English Premiership and the United Rugby Championship, which brings together top clubs from Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Italy and South Africa), from which the most successful European teams go forward to compete in the European Rugby Champions Cup, the pan-European championship which replaced the Heineken Cup after the 2013–14 season.

The first ever final took place in 1892, between two Paris-based sides, Stade Français and Racing Club de France, which were the only teams playing the competition that year, with the latter becoming the inaugural champions. Since then, the competition has been held on an annual basis, except from 1915 to 1919—because of World War I—and from 1940 to 1942—because of World War II. Each year, the winning team is presented with the Bouclier de Brennus, a famous trophy awarded from 1892. Toulouse is the most successful club in the competition with 22 titles.

History

Early years

Rugby union introduction

Football was introduced in France by British traders and workers around the 1870s. The first known club to have practiced a form of football was the Havre Athletic Club in 1872, playing an hybrid code called the "combination".
The first true club to have played rugby union was the English Taylors RFC in 1877, followed by the Paris Football Club in 1878.
In the idea to copy the British model of public school, a lot of students' clubs appeared as well to practice athleticism and rugby, like the Racing Club de France (creation of Lycée Condorcet students in 1882), the Stade Français (creation of Lycée Saint-Louis students in 1883) and the Olympique (creation of Lycée Michelet (Vanves) students in 1887).
At the same time, rugby was also introduced via the port of Bordeaux to south-western France, and quickly merged with popular local traditions of ball games.

First title

Arbitrated by Pierre de Coubertin, the first title of France champion was played on one match, between the Racing and the Stade Français, on 20 March 1892. The Racing Club de France won the match 4–3. This embryonic league was played between only Parisian teams, and no more than six of them, until 1898. The Stade Français won 5 titles, and lost one final to the Olympique in this early stage of the league.

Bordeaux domination

The 1898–99 season saw a change in the format of the championship. The champion of Paris now met in a final for the national title the champion of the "province" (the rest of France). That changed again in 1904 with the creation of 16 regional leagues, the champions of which were qualified for a round of 16.

The championship, now truly on a national scale, saw the emergence of the first true dynasty of French rugby, with the domination of the Stade Bordelais, who played 12 of the 13 finals between 1899 and 1911, winning 7 of them. The reign was stopped by three consecutive elimination in semi-finals, and other south-western cities' clubs, like Perpignan, Bayonne and Toulouse, took charge of the sport.

After the WWI

Toulouse first dynasty

Due to WWI, operations were suspended for a number of years. In its place, a competition known as the Coupe de l'Espérance was held, which involved mostly young boys who had not been drafted. The competition was held four times, but is not normally considered a full championship. The normal competition returned for the 1920 season, and Stadoceste Tarbais became the first post-war champions, defeating the Racing Club de France in the final.
During the 1920s Stade Toulousain initiated its now famous rugby history, winning five Championships during the decade (Stade's very first feat took place in 1912 when they were crowned champions without losing a single game throughout the season: the team was nicknamed "la Vierge Rouge" — the Red Virgin, a reference to the club shirt color). USA Perpignan also won two championships (their 1925 final victory was actually a second match, as a previous final had ended in a nil-all draw).

Crisis

The 1930 Championship final, won by Agen over US Quillan, was the first to go into extra time. The 1930s were dominated by the Biarritz Olympique (four finals and two championship titles) and the Lyon Olympique Université (three finals and two titles). However, those dominations were sour, because of extra-sportive turmoil who shake french rugby union in this decade. Brawl on the pitch and in the stand, and disguise professionalism (nickname "brown amateurism") had become quite common.

The most stunning example of brown amateurism was the US Quillan, a club of a 3000 inhabitants village who manage to go to three final and win one of them because Jean Bourrel, the owner of the village hat factory, wanted to use the club as advertising billboard for its product, and offer paid position in his factory to rugby players.

On the 24 of January 1931, 14 rugby union club, amongst them 7 former french champion, secede from the French Rugby Federation to protest against the abuses who tarnished rugby union image in the country. Despite a reintegration of those club in 1932, this event had deep consequences.

The four British team decided after this incident to ban France from the Five Nations. Coupled to the effect of the economical crisis, the number of club affiliated to the FFR dropped, from 784 in 1930 to 558 in 1939. This crisis also quickstarted rugby league in France, who go from no club existing in the country in 1934 to 225 in 1939, among them 14 fully professional.

After WWII

WWII

As during the First World War, the championship was suspended. Rugby union was one of the least affected sports by the German occupation, as it conformed to the amateur vision of sport cultivated by fascist ideology, and its location mainly in the unoccupied south meant that it was far removed from overly severe repression.
The Vichy regime tried to turn rugby union into a kind of national amateur sport for all, by banning all professional sports in 1941, which dealt a terrible blow to football association and rugby league.
In 1942, the rugby union league was reinstated, with Jean Dauger's Bayonne, Puig-Aubert's USA Perpignan and Albert Ferrasse and Guy Basquet's Agen among the big team.

Lourdes dynasty

Rugby union experienced a wave of growth after the war, thanks to the civilian population's desire to forget the horrors of war, France's reintegration into the prestigious Five Nations Tournament and the return of clubs that had opted for rugby league before the war to the FFR fold, such as Béziers. The retention of a large number of teams in the championship (between 40 and 80 until 1991) also helped local identification with rugby. The 40s saw the appearance of the Tarn department on the French rugby map, with Castres double and US Carmaux victory, but above all the emergence of a new dynasty.
With a core group of 8 international players - Antoine Labazuy, Jean and Maurice Prat, Thomas Mantérola, Louis Guinle and Roger Martine - FC Lourdes contested 10 finals between 1945 and 1960, winning 7 titles.
The 60's were highly contested, with 8 different winner, including three SU Agen titles.
Lourdes were also the champions of the 1968 season, but due to the May 1968 events, the final was played three weeks behind normal schedule. At the end of regulation time the score was tied at 6–6, and then 9–9 after extra time. Lourdes were declared champions because they had scored two tries to Toulon's none and also because there was no time to schedule a third final as the France national team were about to leave on a tour to New Zealand and South Africa.

Béziers dynasty

Although Béziers won their first Championship in the 1961 season, it would be the 1970s which would see a golden era for the club, under the command of the coach Raoul Barrière, as they would win ten Championships between 1971 and 1984, as well as being runners-up in 1976. The club also established a lot of record : a 100–0 win against Montchanin in September 1975, 11 years and 9 months of invicibility at home, and five entire season (1961, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1978) without a single defeat. In the mid-1970s, after being held in Toulouse, Lyon and Bordeaux, the final was fixed on a permanent basis to the newly reconstructed Parc des Princes in Paris.

Teachers against Teacher

Former number eight of the club in the 60's, and teacher in highschool and university, Daniel Herrero was named as headcoach of RC Toulon in 1983. He transformed the RCT, go 7 years invincible at home and to three finals, winning in 1987. Its main opponent was the resurgence of the Stade Toulousain, with a generation nicknamed "the gymnastic professor team", because of the job of 8 of them. Toulouse won in 1989 the tenth title of his history.

The first match of the 1990s went into extra time, as the Racing Club de France defeated Agen, winning their first Championship since 1959. Bègles, Toulon, Castres and Toulouse would win the following finals.

The decade saw the league going more and more toward professionalism, with a reduction of the number of team authorized to play in the elite from 40 in 1995 to 16 in 2001.

Professionalism Era

15 years between three teams...

The 15 first years of the newly professional were dominated by three teams. Including their 1994 & 1995 victory, Toulouse won four championships in succession, and three others in 1999, 2001 and 2008.
Biarritz won in 2002 its first title since 1939, then two others in 2005 and 2006, with a core of players like Marc and Thomas Lièvremont, Joe Roff and Dimitri Yachvili. But the team who benefits the most of professionalism was the Stade Français. After the success at the beginning of the sport, this club had been stuck for a long period in the inferiors division of french rugby. Bought by Max Guazzini, the owner of the successful radio station NRJ, the club came back from nowhere with a core of young and exciting players coached by Bernard Laporte to claim five title between 1998 and 2007

Then 8 champions in 14 years

Encouraged by the Stade Français experience, other fortunate individuals invested in Top 14 : Mohed Altrad in Montpellier, Mourad Boudjellal in Toulon, assembled teams of star to compete for the title. Those rich newcomers, however, have not completely topple the traditional teams.
Since 2010, Toulouse, driven by his powerful academy, won 5 title, while Clermont and Castres, the two other team to have never been relegated in the professional era, both won two.

Rising popularity

Top 14 logo used through the 2011–12 season.

The competition saw an enormous rise in popularity in 2005–06, with attendance rising to an average of 9,600, up by 25% from 2004 to 2005, and numerous sellouts. On 15 October 2005, Stade Français drew a crowd of 79,502 at Stade de France for their home match against Toulouse; this broke the previous French attendance record for a regular-season league match in any sport (including football) by over 20,000. That record was broken on 4 March 2006, when Stade Français drew 79,604 to a rematch of the 2004–05 final against Biarritz at Stade de France. It was broken again on 14 October 2006 with 79,619 as the same two opponents met, and a fourth time on 27 January 2007, with 79,741 for another Stade Français-Toulouse match. During the regular season 2010–2011, the average attendance per match reached 14,184.

In 2011, Canal+ indicated that evening matches were being watched by between 800,000 and 850,000 viewers while afternoon matches were watched by around 700,000 viewers.

In recent years, numerous foreign players have joined Top 14 teams.

Changes afoot

In August 2016, LNR released a strategic plan outlining its vision for French rugby through the 2023 Rugby World Cup. The plan includes significant changes to the top levels of the league system, although the changes were more dramatic for Pro D2 than for the Top 14. Changes affecting the Top 14 are:

  • Starting with the 2017–18 season, the only club to be automatically relegated from Top 14 will be the bottom club on the league table. That club will be replaced by the Pro D2 champion.
  • From 2017 to 2018, the second-from-bottom team on the Top 14 table will enter a playoff with the Pro D2 runner-up, with the winner taking up the final Top 14 place.

On 13 March 2017, the Top 14 was rocked by the announcement that Racing 92 and Stade Français planned to merge into a single club effective with the 2017–18 season. Stade Français players soon voted almost unanimously to go on strike over the proposed merger, and within days LNR held an emergency meeting to discuss the Paris clubs' plans. The clubs announced on 19 March that the planned merger had collapsed.

Controversy

The 1993 French Rugby Union Championship was won by Castres, who beat Grenoble 14–11 in the final, a match decided by an irregular try. A try by Grenoble's Olivier Brouzet was ruled out and the decisive try by Gary Whetton of Castres was awarded by the referee, Daniel Salles, when in fact Grenoble scrum-half Franck Hueber had touched the ball down first in his try zone. This error gave the title to Castres. Salles admitted his mistake 13 years later. Jacques Fouroux, then coach of Grenoble, came into conflict with the French Rugby Federation after claiming the match had been fixed.

The French Rugby Championship, also known as the Top 14, is the premier professional rugby union tournament in France. It is widely regarded as one of the most competitive and prestigious domestic rugby competitions in the world.

The tournament features 14 teams from across France, including some of the most historic and successful rugby clubs in the country. These teams compete against each other in a round-robin format, with each team playing each other twice, once at home and once away.

The French Rugby Championship showcases the highest level of rugby talent in France, attracting both domestic and international players of exceptional skill and ability. The tournament is known for its physicality, fast-paced gameplay, and tactical brilliance, making it a thrilling spectacle for rugby fans.

Matches are played in state-of-the-art stadiums across France, with passionate supporters filling the stands to cheer on their favorite teams. The atmosphere is electric, with fans creating a vibrant and intense environment that adds to the excitement of the matches.

The French Rugby Championship has a rich history, dating back to its inception in 1892. Over the years, it has produced some of the greatest rugby players in the world and has been a breeding ground for talent that has gone on to represent the French national team.

The tournament culminates in a knockout stage, where the top six teams from the regular season compete for the title of French Rugby Champions. The final is a highly anticipated event, drawing a large television audience and showcasing the pinnacle of French club rugby.

The French Rugby Championship not only provides thrilling rugby action but also plays a significant role in the development and promotion of rugby in France. It serves as a platform for young players to showcase their skills and gain exposure, contributing to the growth and success of the sport in the country.

Overall, the French Rugby Championship is a prestigious and fiercely contested tournament that embodies the passion, skill, and tradition of rugby in France. It is a must-watch for rugby enthusiasts and a testament to the country's rich rugby heritage.