2014–15 Top 14 season

| highest attendance = 79,000 (play-offs)Stade Français v Clermont13 June 201564,819 (league stage)Toulon v Toulouse28 March 2015 | lowest attendance = 5,000Stade Français v Lyon23 August 2014 | top point scorer = Jonathan Wisniewski (Grenoble)325 points Click on the tabs for "Joueurs" and "Meilleurs réalisateurs". | top try scorer = David Smith (Toulon)13 tries Click on the tabs for "Joueurs" and "Meilleurs marqueurs". | website = www.lnr.fr/rugby-top-14 | prevseason = 2013–14 | nextseason = 2015–16

The 2014–15 Top 14 competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Two new teams from the 2013–14 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this season, Lyon and La Rochelle in place of the two relegated teams, Perpignan and Biarritz Olympique. Home-and-away play began on 16 August 2014 and ended on 23 May 2015. This was followed by a playoff stage involving the top six teams, culminating in the final on 13 June 2015.

Teams

Club City (department) Stadium Capacity Bayonne Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) Stade Jean Dauger 17,000 Bordeaux Bègles Bordeaux (Gironde) Stade Chaban-Delmas (Bordeaux)Stade André Moga (Bègles) 34,700 10,000 Brive Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze) Stade Amédée-Domenech 16,000 Castres Olympique Castres (Tarn) Stade Pierre-Antoine 11,500 Clermont Auvergne Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) Stade Marcel-Michelin 18,030 Grenoble Grenoble (Isère) Stade LesdiguièresStade des Alpes 12,00020,068 La Rochelle La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) Stade Marcel-Deflandre 15,000 Lyon Lyon (Rhône) Matmut Stadium 11,805 Montpellier Montpellier (Hérault) Altrad Stadium 14,700 Oyonnax Oyonnax (Ain) Stade Charles-Mathon 11,400 Racing Métro 92 Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) Stade Yves-du-Manoir 14,000 Stade Français Paris Paris, 16th arrondissement Stade Jean-Bouin 20,000 Toulon Toulon (Var) Stade Mayol 15,400 Toulouse Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) Stade Ernest-Wallon 19,500

Competition format 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 Stade de France.

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 5 points (or less). This is a change from previous seasons, in which the margin was 7 points or less.

Table

+ 2014–15 Top 14 tableClubPlayedWonDrawnLostPoints ForPoints AgainstPoints DifferenceTries ForTries AgainstTry BonusLosing BonusPoints 1 Toulon (SF) 26 16 0 10 740 525 +215 81 52 7 5 76 2 Clermont (RU) 26 16 1 9 630 464 +166 58 40 5 4 75 3 Toulouse (SF) 26 16 0 10 573 504 +69 53 37 3 3 70 4 Stade Français (CH) 26 15 1 10 591 576 +15 60 54 6 2 70 5 Racing Métro (QF) 26 13 3 10 551 497 +54 52 37 3 4 65 6 Oyonnax (QF) 26 14 0 12 514 507 +7 37 43 2 4 62 7 Bordeaux 26 12 0 14 701 578 +123 66 45 4 9 61 8 Montpellier 26 11 2 13 537 516 +21 44 46 2 5 55 9 La Rochelle 26 10 5 11 520 659 –139 43 67 2 2 5410 Brive 26 12 0 14 502 619 −117 40 66 3 2 5311 Grenoble 26 11 0 15 626 735 –109 54 70 3 6 5312 Castres 26 11 0 15 509 627 −118 50 63 4 4 5213 Bayonne (R) 26 10 1 15 522 548 −26 44 46 5 5 5214 Lyon (R) 26 8 1 17 469 630 −161 42 58 0 7 41If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Competition points earned in head-to-head matches Points difference in head-to-head matches Try differential in head-to-head matches Points difference in all matches Try differential in all matches Points scored in all matches Tries scored in all matches Fewer matches forfeited' Classification in the previous Top 14 season

Relegation Normally, the teams that finish in 13th and 14th places in the table are relegated to Pro D2 at the end of the season. In certain circumstances, "financial reasons" may cause a higher placed team to be demoted instead. This last happened at the end of the 2009–10 season when 12th place Montauban were relegated thereby reprieving 13th place Bayonne.

Fixtures The outline fixtures schedule was announced on 16 May 2014. Detailed fixtures information evolved as the season progressed (i.e. specific kick off times).

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

Playoffs

All times are in Central European Summer Time (UTC+2).

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

FB 15 Djibril Camara RW 14 Julien AriasOC 13 Waisea Nayacalevu IC 12 Jonathan DantyLW 11 Jérémy SinzelleFH 10 Morné Steyn SH 9 Julien Dupuy N8 8 Sergio Parisse (c) OF 7 Raphaël LakafiaBF 6 Antoine Burban RL 5 Alexandre FlanquartLL 4 Hugh Pyle TP 3 Rabah Slimani HK 2 Rémi Bonfils LP 1 Heinke van der Merwe Substitutions:HK 16 Laurent Sempéré PR 17 Sakaria Taulafo LK 18 Pascal Papé N8 19 Jono Ross SH 20 Jérôme Fillol FH 21 Meyer Bosman CE 22 Geoffrey Doumayrou PR 23 Davit Kubriashvili Coach: Gonzalo Quesada FB 15 Nick AbendanonRW 14 Jean-Marcellin ButtinOC 13 Aurélien Rougerie IC 12 Benson Stanley LW 11 Napolioni NalagaFH 10 Camille Lopez SH 9 Morgan Parra N8 8 Fritz LeeOF 7 Julien Bardy BF 6 Damien Chouly (c)RL 5 Sébastien VahaamahinaLL 4 Paul Jedrasiak TP 3 Davit Zirakashvili HK 2 John Ulugia LP 1 Thomas Domingo Substitutions:HK 16 Benjamin Kayser PR 17 Raphaël Chaume LK 18 Julien Pierre FL 19 Alexandre Lapandry SH 20 Ludovic Radosavljevic FH 21 Brock James FB 22 Mike Delany PR 23 Clément Ric Coach: Franck Azéma

Top scorers 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.

Top points scorers RankPlayerTeamPoints 1 Jonathan Wisniewski Grenoble 325 2 Benjamín Urdapilleta Oyonnax 297 3 Gaetan Germain Brive 278 4 Pierre Bernard Bordeaux Bègles 234 5 Jules Plisson Stade Français 183 6 Toby Flood Toulouse 163 7 Rory Kockott Castres 154 8 Martín Bustos Moyano Bayonne 149 9 Maxime Machenaud Racing Métro 146 10 Brock James Clermont 136

Top try scorers RankPlayerTeamTries 1 David Smith Toulon 13 2 Julien Arias Stade Français 11 3 Alipate Ratini Grenoble 10 Metuisela Talebula Bordeaux Bègles 5 Blair Connor Bordeaux Bègles 9 Waisea Nayacalevu Stade Français 7 Jonathan Danty Stade Français 8 Rémy Grosso Castres Benito Masilevu Brive Napolioni Nalaga Clermont Joe Rokocoko Bayonne Silvère Tian Oyonnax

Attendances

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

ClubHomeGamesTotalAverageHighestLowest% Capacity Bayonne 13 174,569 13,428 17,000 10,851 79% Bordeaux Bègles 13 307,859 23,681 33,099 7,979 82% Brive 13 151,340 11,642 13,612 9,794 73% Castres 13 114,744 8,826 12,084 6,846 74% Clermont 13 221,881 17,068 17,741 15,934 95% Grenoble 13 195,562 15,043 18,812 11,427 81% La Rochelle 13 188,684 14,514 14,907 13,888 97% Lyon 13 132,797 10,215 11,805 8,723 87% Montpellier 13 157,476 12,114 14,600 10,692 82% Oyonnax 13 116,712 8,978 9,862 7,771 79% Racing Metro 13 110,577 8,506 13,476 5,756 57% Stade Francais 14 185,769 13,269 19,677 5,000 66% Toulon 13 252,026 19,387 64,819 12,146 92% Toulouse 14 223,808 15,986 18,836 11,732 82%

Notes

References

See also 2014–15 Rugby Pro D2 season

External links Ligue Nationale de Rugby – Official Top 14 website Midi Olympique