The 2009–10 Rugby Pro D2 was the second-level French rugby union club competition, behind the Top 14, for the 2009–10 season. It ran alongside the 2009–10 Top 14 competition; both competitions were operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).
Dax and Mont-de-Marsan, the two major clubs from the Landes département, got relegated at the end of the previous Top 14 season and replaced Racing Métro and Albi, who gained promotion to the Top 14. This season also welcomed Lannemezan and Aix-en-Provence, respectively Fédérale 1 champions and runners-up, who took the place of Bourg-en-Bresse and Béziers, the previous year's two bottom finishers.
Agen, who had been a favorite for promotion ever since they were relegated at the end of the 2006–07 season, finally lived up to the expectations and dominated the championship from the start, finishing with an 11-point margin over second-placed Lyon and thus earning promotion to the 2010–11 Top 14 season. Lyon and La Rochelle made the most of the home ground advantage to qualify for the promotion final with victories over Pau and Oyonnax, respectively, and faced each other in the final. La Rochelle, despite having lost both confrontations against Lyon during the regular season, triumphed 32–26 and earned the right to accompany Agen in the Top 14 after eight years spent in Pro D2.
The two newly promoted teams, Aix-en-Provence and Lannemezan, were not able to rival the other teams and from early on in the season occupied the bottom two places that they kept until the end. Lannemezan in particular finished with three wins out of thirty games (one of which was against arch-rivals Tarbes), amounting to 19 points, the poorest record in the Pro D2 since the introduction of the bonus points.
However, in a new twist of events, Montauban, who were already relegated to Pro D2 for financial reasons (thus saving Bayonne's spot in the Top 14), failed their audit on June 10, and were further relegated to Fédérale 1. Their decision not to appeal the DNACG's ruling also meant that Aix would be reprieved and compete again in Pro D2 for the next year.
Previous season
At the end of the previous season, Racing Métro were champions and thus automatically promoted to Top 14. They were eventually followed by Albi, who defeated Oyonnax in the final of the promotion playoffs to secure a spot in the 2009–10 Top 14. Bourg-en-Bresse, which had been newly promoted to Pro D2 for the 2008–09 season, finished second-to-bottom of the table and were initially relegated to Fédérale 1, but were further relegated by French sporting authorities to Fédérale 2 due to financial problems. Béziers finished bottom of the league; they would have however stayed in Pro D2 for the next season, had Tarbes not successfully appealed the decision of the DNACG (Direction nationale d'aide et de contrôle de gestion), the LNR's financial arm, to relegate them to Fédérale 1. The other promoted team in 2008–09, Colomiers, stayed up, finishing in 14th, the first safe spot.
Lannemezan and Aix-en-Provence earned promotion from Fédérale 1 for the 2009–10 season, while Dax and Mont-de-Marsan were relegated from the 2008–09 Top 14.
Competition format The top team at the end of the regular season (after all the teams played one another twice, once at home, once away), is declared champion and earns a spot in the next Top 14 season. Teams ranked second to fifth compete in promotion playoffs, with the semifinals being played at the home ground of the higher-ranked team. The final is then played on neutral ground, and the winner earned the second ticket to the next Top 14.
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 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.
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 table
{| class="wikitable" width="450px" style="float:left; font-size:95%; margin-left:15px;" | colspan="2" style="text-align:center; background:#fff;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"|Key to colors |- | style="background: #3fff00;" | |Champions automatically promoted to Top 14 |- | style="background: #fde910;" | |Winner of playoffs between second- through fifth-place teams for the second promotion place |- | style="background:#ccf;"| |Remaining participants in promotion playoffs |- | style="background: #ff79B4;" | |Bottom two teams are relegated to Fédérale 1(Aix were reprieved when Top 14's Montauban were relegated directly to Fédérale 1)
2009–10 Rugby Pro D2 TableClubPlayedWonDrawnLostPoints forPoints againstDiffBonus pointsPointsHead-to-head 1 Agen 30 21 2 7 724 378 +346 17 105 2 Lyon 30 18 6 6 644 431 +213 10 94 Lyon 8–2 3 La Rochelle 30 19 2 9 607 396 +211 14 94 4 Oyonnax 30 20 0 10 579 452 +127 9 89 5 Pau 30 16 5 9 545 425 +120 10 84 Pau 5–4 6 Grenoble 30 16 5 9 547 438 +109 10 84 7 Aurillac 30 17 0 13 575 518 +57 8 76 8 Narbonne 30 16 0 14 581 585 −4 9 73 9 Bordeaux-Bègles 30 15 1 14 507 501 +6 10 72 10 Tarbes 30 14 0 16 576 574 +2 14 70 11 Dax 30 13 2 15 542 594 −52 8 64 12 Mont-de-Marsan 30 14 2 14 528 554 −26 9 64 13 Auch 30 9 1 20 472 635 −63 14 52 14 Colomiers 30 7 4 19 438 623 −185 9 45 15 Aix-en-Provence 30 6 2 22 426 737 −311 7 35 16 Lannemezan 30 3 0 27 347 897 −550 7 19
: Mont-de-Marsan were docked five points by the DNACG due to their failure to act upon their financial difficulties. This penalty also causes them to finish behind Dax in the table despite a better head-to-head record (5–4).
Results
Key The score of the game is given by the middle (third and fourth) columns. The first and last column indicate the number of tries scored by the home and the away team, respectively. A blue border indicates that the team has earned an attacking bonus point (i.e. has scored at least three more tries than its opponent), a yellow one that the team has earned a defensive bonus point (defeat by 7 points or less). If a team earns both bonus points, this will be indicated by a green border.
Round 1 Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August 5Grenoble3910Lannemezan11Lyon1713Bordeaux-Bègles13Narbonne2812Pau03Auch3122Colomiers11Aurillac2516Oyonnax11Mont-de-marsan2221La Rochelle01Tarbes2215Aix-en-Provence01Dax1613Agen1 Round 2 Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September 0Mont-de-marsan912Grenoble02Bordeaux-Bègles2321Auch20Aurillac1216Pau12Colomiers1913Dax13Agen2621La Rochelle23Oyonnax2812Tarbes03Lyon3614Aix-en-Provence11Lannemezan1316Narbonne2
Round 3 Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September 3Auch283Lannemezan03Narbonne3312Bordeaux-Bègles00Pau913Lyon21Grenoble2212Colomiers03Tarbes3612Mont-de-marsan 01Aix-en-Provence1622La Rochelle13Dax276Oyonnax03Agen216Aurillac0 Round 4 Friday 18, Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September 1Grenoble1615Pau01Bordeaux-Bègles229Aurillac00Colomiers1212Lyon01Oyonnax136Narbonne00Mont-de-marsan2418Aix-en-Provence01La Rochelle166Tarbes02Lannemezan1123Dax30Auch319Agen1
Round 5 Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September 1La Rochelle226Lannemezan00Tarbes1512Bordeaux-Bègles01Pau1614Dax11Aurillac2212Colomiers00Lyon1822Oyonnax10Mont-de-marsan616Auch10Aix-en-Provence2419Narbonne11Agen2216Grenoble1 Round 6 Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October 0Narbonne1512Mont-de-marsan00Pau66La Rochelle01Colomiers1313Aix-en-Provence11Auch1419Tarbes10Dax99Lyon00Grenoble126Aurillac00Bordeaux-Bègles1529Agen33Lannemezan2435Oyonnax4
Round 7 Friday 16, Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October 3 Lyon26 6 Auch00Aix-en-Provence128Lannemezan11Mont-de-marsan1612Bordeaux-Bègles01Tarbes2223Pau11Aurillac236Dax00Oyonnax1210Agen13Colomiers1913La Rochelle14Narbonne320Grenoble0 Round 8 Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October 3Bordeaux-Bègles2110Aix-en-Provence12Agen2014Pau13Oyonnax3115Colomiers21Tarbes2818Grenoble23Dax2214Auch12Aurillac153Narbonne00La Rochelle18 19Lyon11Lannemezan1618Mont-de-marsan2
Round 9 31 October and 1 November Lyon – Tarbes was postponed to 15 November afteran H1N1 flu outbreak amongst Tarbes players Saturday 31 October, Sunday 1 and Sunday 15 November 2Colomiers17 13Lannemezan12Pau1711Bordeaux-Bègles10Aix-en-Provence316Oyonnax15Agen378Mont-de-marsan10Grenoble99La Rochelle03Auch3423Aurillac10Dax317Narbonne25Lyon4314Tarbes1 Round 10 Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November 1Oyonnax169Pau00Mont-de-marsan1515Lyon03Aurillac3819Aix-en-Provence13La Rochelle2910Dax10Auch1517Grenoble11Lannemezan1141Agen53Bordeaux-Bègles319Colomiers04Narbonne2720Tarbes3
Round 11 Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 November 3Pau2512Lannemezan01Aix-en-Provence1315Grenoble23La Rochelle206Auch03Lyon208Narbonne11Bordeaux-Bègles1710Oyonnax11Colomiers1621Agen21Mont-de-marsan165Dax11Tarbes1113Aurillac1 Round 12 Saturday 28, Sunday 29 November and Wednesday 23 December 5Agen293Aix-en-Provence01Aurillac2522La Rochelle31Dax1916Tarbes10Grenoble99Lyon00Auch2732Narbonne20Lannemezan916Bordeaux-Bègles15Oyonnax3610Mont-de-marsan14Pau385Colomiers1
Round 13 Friday 4, Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 December 1Lyon2210Aurillac10Tarbes1213Lannemezan14La Rochelle2713Bordeaux-Bègles12Aix-en-Provence2116Pau11Colomiers1015Mont-de-marsan21Oyonnax2518Auch20Dax158Grenoble11Narbonne2216Agen2 Round 14 Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 December 0Mont-de-marsan1814Pau11Tarbes2821Colomiers00Lyon910Agen14Auch3514Aix-en-Provence11Narbonne1613La Rochelle10Lannemezan916Aurillac12Bordeaux-Bègles1716Dax12Grenoble2113Oyonnax1
Round 15 18, 19 and 20 December Aurillac – Mont-de-Marsan was postponed to 14 Februarydue to poor climatic conditions in Aurillac Lannemezan – Lyon was postponed to 24 April due toheavy snowfalls in the Hautes-Pyrénées département Friday 18, Saturday 19, Sunday 20 December, Sunday 14 February and Sunday 24 April 0Pau33Auch01Bordeaux-Bègles1414Grenoble14Colomiers3513Narbonne14Agen3214Tarbes10Aix-en-Provence615Dax23La Rochelle2126Oyonnax25Aurillac3612Mont-de-marsan01Lannemezan1730Lyon2
Round 16 9 and 10 January Aix-en-Provence – Tarbes was postponed to 13 Februarydue to poor climatic conditions in Aix Colomiers – Auch and Agen – Dax were postponed to14 February due to a frozen pitch and heavy snowfalls,respectively Saturday 9, Sunday 10 January, Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 February 5Pau467Narbonne12Oyonnax1310Aurillac13La Rochelle2520Mont-de-marsan21Lannemezan1043Grenoble63Bordeaux-Bègles279Lyon01Aix-en-Provence1921Tarbes30Colomiers69Auch02Agen236Dax0 Round 17 Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 January 8Narbonne5610Lannemezan11Auch176Bordeaux-Bègles02Pau2114Aurillac11Dax100Colomiers01Tarbes139Oyonnax00Aix-en-Provence1212Lyon01La Rochelle2010Agen11Grenoble149Mont-de-marsan0
Round 18 Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 January 2Bordeaux-Bègles2112Narbonne01Colomiers1010Grenoble12Oyonnax2910Dax10Mont-de-marsan1812Tarbes04La Rochelle373Aix-en-Provence01Aurillac1917Agen21Lannemezan1017Auch11Lyon2222Pau1 Round 19 Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 January 4Dax348Lannemezan10Aurillac127Bordeaux-Bègles10Narbonne613Oyonnax12Agen216Auch02Aix-en-Provence2018Mont-de-marsan21Tarbes712La Rochelle02Pau263Grenoble07Lyon5010Colomiers1
Round 20 Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 February 0Grenoble1212Agen01Bordeaux-Bègles169Tarbes00Dax33Pau01Colomiers139Aurillac00Auch319Mont-de-marsan17Narbonne4310Aix-en-Provence13Oyonnax216Lyon01Lannemezan531La Rochelle3 Round 21 Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 February 1Mont-de-marsan176Narbonne02Agen2116Bordeaux-Bègles14Oyonnax290Lannemezan00Aix-en-Provence1225Colomiers11Tarbes1913Auch12Lyon266Dax00Aurillac2421Grenoble24La Rochelle320Pau0
Round 22 Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 February