The 2008–09 Top 14 Competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). It ran from late August 2008 through the final at Stade de France on June 6, 2009, in which Perpignan lifted the Bouclier de Brennus with a 22–13 win over Clermont.

This year's edition of the Top 14 welcomed Toulon, winners of the 2008 title in the second-level Pro D2, and Mont-de-Marsan, victors in the 2008 promotion playoffs between the second- through fifth-place teams in Pro D2. They took the place of Auch and Albi, relegated at the end of the 2007–08 Top 14. Auch, which had been promoted to the Top 14 for 2007–08, finished bottom of the table and went down. The other newly promoted team in 2007–08, Dax, finished second-from-bottom, but were reprieved when French sporting authorities forcibly relegated 12th-place Albi to Pro D2 due to financial issues.

Teams

ClubCity (department)StadiumCapacityPrevious season Bayonne Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) Stade Jean Dauger 16,934 9th Biarritz Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) Parc des Sports Aguiléra 15,000 6th Bourgoin Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère) Stade Pierre Rajon 9,441 10th Brive Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze) Stade Amédée-Domenech 15,000 11th Castres Castres (Tarn) Stade Pierre-Fabre 11,500 5th Clermont Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) Stade Marcel-Michelin 16,574 Runners up (1st in league) Dax Dax (Landes) Stade Maurice Boyau 16,170 13th (not relegated) Mont-de-Marsan Mont-de-Marsan (Landes) Stade Guy Boniface 22,000 Promoted from Pro D2 (play-offs) Montauban Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) Stade Sapiac 12,600 7th Montpellier Montpellier (Hérault) Stade Yves-du-Manoir 15,789 8th Perpignan Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) Stade Aimé Giral 16,593 Semi-finals (4th in league) Stade Français Paris, 16th arrondissement Stade Jean-Bouin 12,000 Semi-finals (4th in league) Toulon Toulon (Var) Stade Mayol 13,700 Promoted from Pro D2 (champions) Toulouse Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) Stade Ernest-Wallon 19,500 Champions (2nd in league)

Competition format Each club plays every other club twice. The second half of the season is conducted in the same order as the first, with the club at home in the first half of the season away in the second. As in previous seasons, the top four clubs at the end of the home-and-away season advanced to a single-elimination playoff. The semifinals were held at neutral sites on May 29 and 30, with the final at Stade de France on June 6.

Going into the season, the top six clubs were guaranteed of berths in the 2009–10 Heineken Cup, with the possibility of a seventh if a French club had advanced further in the 2008–09 Heineken Cup than any team from England or Italy. However, the seventh French berth did not materialize this season, as the only Top 14 club to make the knockout stage, Toulouse, were eliminated in the quarterfinals, while England's Leicester Tigers reached the final (where they lost to Irish side Leinster). The sixth-place team would have been relegated to the 2009–10 European Challenge Cup if 11th-place Bourgoin had won the 2008–09 Challenge Cup final on 22 May; however, Bourgoin were defeated by English side Northampton Saints.

The bottom two teams are provisionally relegated to Pro D2, with the possibility of one or both of the bottom teams to be reprieved if a team above them fails a postseason financial audit (mandatory for all clubs in the league).

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, a system that also makes it impossible for either team to earn a bonus point in a drawn match. LNR chose to continue with this system for 2008-09.

France's bonus point system operates as follows:

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 7 points (or less).

Season synopsis While the four playoff teams—Perpignan, Toulouse, Clermont, and Stade Français—separated themselves from the pack fairly early in the season, it was Toulouse who were the form team in the first half of the season; they had a Top 14-record streak of 11 wins from Round 5 through Round 15. However, Perpignan surged in the second half of the season, finishing level with Toulouse on the season log; the Catalans claimed the top seed on the first tiebreaker of head-to-head competition points. Biarritz used a late-season surge to claim fifth place, while the final Heineken Cup berth was ultimately decided in the final round, when Brive's draw with Bourgoin combined with Bayonne's win over Stade Français without a bonus point left Brive and Bayonne level on the log; Brive won on the second tiebreaker of head-to-head scoring.

At the other end of the ladder, Mont-de-Marsan were rarely competitive and finished bottom. The second relegation place finally fell on Dax, after Bourgoin, Castres, and the highly ambitious Toulon spent time in relegation trouble.

For much of the season, Bourgoin faced another type of relegation trouble—financial. At the end of each season, all teams in both divisions of LNR must pass a financial audit conducted by DNACG (Direction nationale d'aide et de contrôle de gestion), LNR's financial arm, to be able to keep their professional licenses. The club were able to satisfy DNACG that they had sufficient financial guarantees to participate in Top 14 and were thus allowed to stay in the top flight.

Second division: 2008–09 Rugby Pro D2 season

Table

Fixtures & Results Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Round 23

Round 24

Round 25

Round 26

Knock-out stages Semi-finals

Final

FB 15 Jérôme PoricalRW 14 Farid SidOC 13 David Marty IC 12 Maxime MermozLW 11 Julien Candelon FH 10 Gavin Hume SH 9 Nicolas Durand N8 8 Damien Chouly OF 7 Jean-Pierre Pérez BF 6 Grégory Le Corvec RL 5 Olivier Olibeau LL 4 Rimas Álvarez KairelisTP 3 Nicolas Mas (c) HK 2 Marius Țincu LP 1 Perry Freshwater Replacements:HK 16 Guilhem Guirado PR 17 Kisi Pulu LK 18 Guillaume Vilaceca FL 19 Gerrie Britz SH 20 David Mélé CE 21 Jean-Philippe Grandclaude WG 22 Philip Burger PR 23 Sebastian Bozzi Coach: Jacques Brunel FB 15 Anthony FlochRW 14 Benoît BabyOC 13 Aurélien Rougerie (c)IC 12 Gonzalo CanaleLW 11 Napolioni Nalaga FH 10 Brock JamesSH 9 Pierre MignoniN8 8 Julien BonnaireOF 7 Alexandre Audebert BF 6 Jamie Cudmore RL 5 Thibaut Privat LL 4 Julien PierreTP 3 Martín Scelzo HK 2 Mario Ledesma LP 1 Thomas Domingo Replacements:HK 16 Benoît Cabello PR 17 Laurent Emmanuelli LK 18 Loïc Jacquet N8 19 Elvis Vermeulen SH 20 John SenioFH 21 Seremaia Bai CE 22 Pierre-Emmanuel GarciaPR 23 Davit Zirakashvili Coach: Vern Cotter

Leading scorers Note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals.

Top points scorers

Rank Player Club Points 1 Brock James Clermont 324 2 Andy Goode Brive 235 3 Lionel Beauxis Stade Français 212 4 Benjamin Boyet Bourgoin 207 5 Romain Teulet Castres 195 6 Dimitri Yachvili Biarritz 193 7 Jérôme Porical Perpignan 176 8 Antoine Vignau-Tuquet Dax 160 9 Fabien Fortassin Montauban 148 10 Cédric Garcia Bayonne 116

Top try scorers Rank Player Club Tries 1 Napolioni Nalaga Clermont 21 2 Vilimoni Delasau Montauban 10 Takudzwa Ngwenya Biarritz 10 Sam Gerber Bayonne 10 3 Julien Candelon Perpignan 9 Anthony Floch Clermont 9 4 Mathieu Bastareaud Stade Français 8 5 Byron Kelleher Toulouse 7 Maxime Médard Toulouse 7 Neumi Nanuku Dax 7 Aurélien Rougerie Clermont 7

Attendances

Attendances do not include the semi-finals or final as these are at neutral venues.

ClubHomeGamesTotalAverageHighestLowest% Capacity Bayonne 13 175,382 13,491 18,840 10,938 79% Biarritz 13 118,151 9,089 13,104 7,000 61% Bourgoin 13 91,679 7,052 18,014 4,428 67% Brive 13 125,756 9,674 14,066 7,892 64% Castres 13 103,075 7,929 9,451 6,615 69% Clermont 13 190,622 14,663 15,853 12,207 88% Dax 13 95,704 7,362 10,204 5,057 46% Mont-de-Marsan 13 91,270 7,021 10,468 5,445 32% Montauban 13 91,309 7,024 12,589 5,068 56% Montpellier 13 150,402 11,569 14,570 9,503 73% Perpignan 13 166,629 12,818 14,578 11,671 77% Stade Français 13 325,539 25,041 79,842 7,443 79% Toulon 13 206,631 15,895 56,953 11,482 91% Toulouse 13 277,839 21,372 34,993 15,665 93%

See also 2008–09 Heineken Cup 2008–09 Rugby Pro D2 season

Notes

References

"Ligue Nationale de Rugby". lnr.fr. Accessed July 27, 2008.

External links Ligue Nationale de Rugby - Official website Top 14 on Planetrugby.com Top 14 - 2008/2009 on itsrugby.co.uk