2014–15 Top 14 season

2014–15 Top 14
Countries	France
Date	16 August 2014 – 13 June 2015
Champions	Stade Français (14th title)
Runners-up	Clermont
Relegated	Lyon, Bayonne
Matches played	187
Attendance	2,692,804 (average 14,400 per match)
Highest attendance	79,000 (play-offs) Stade Français v Clermont 13 June 2015 64,819 (league stage) Toulon v Toulouse 28 March 2015
Lowest attendance	5,000 Stade Français v Lyon 23 August 2014
Tries scored	735 (average 3.9 per match)
Top point scorer	Jonathan Wisniewski (Grenoble) 325 points[1]
Top try scorer	David Smith (Toulon) 13 tries[2]
Official website
www.lnr.fr/rugby-top-14
← 2013–14 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.^[3] This was followed by a playoff stage involving the top six teams, culminating in the final on 13 June 2015.^[4]

Club	City (department)	Stadium	Capacity
Bayonne	Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Stade Jean Dauger[a 1]	17,000
Bordeaux Bègles	Bordeaux (Gironde)	Stade Chaban-Delmas (Bordeaux) Stade André Moga (Bègles)[a 2]	34,700 10,000
Brive	Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze)	Stade Amédée-Domenech	16,000
Castres Olympique	Castres (Tarn)	Stade Pierre-Antoine[a 3]	11,500
Clermont Auvergne	Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme)	Stade Marcel-Michelin	18,030
Grenoble	Grenoble (Isère)	Stade Lesdiguières Stade des Alpes[a 4]	12,000 20,068
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[a 5]	Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine)	Stade Yves-du-Manoir[a 6]	14,000
Stade Français Paris	Paris, 16th arrondissement	Stade Jean-Bouin[a 7]	20,000
Toulon	Toulon (Var)	Stade Mayol[a 8]	15,400[a 9]
Toulouse	Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)	Stade Ernest-Wallon[a 10]	19,500

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.^[3]

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,^[5] 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.^[6]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:^[7]

• 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.

2014–15 Top 14 table

	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Difference	Tries For	Tries Against	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
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	54
10	Brive	26	12	0	14	502	619	−117	40	66	3	2	53
11	Grenoble	26	11	0	15	626	735	–109	54	70	3	6	53
12	Castres	26	11	0	15	509	627	−118	50	63	4	4	52
13	Bayonne (R)	26	10	1	15	522	548	−26	44	46	5	5	52
14	Lyon (R)	26	8	1	17	469	630	−161	42	58	0	7	41
If 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
Green background (rows 1 and 2) receive semi-final play-off places and receive berths in the 2015–16 European Rugby Champions Cup. Blue background (rows 3 to 6) receive quarter-final play-off places, and receive berths in the Champions Cup. Yellow background (row 7) indicates the team that advances to a play-off against the winner of the Aviva Premiership vs Pro12 play-off, or 2014–15 European Rugby Challenge Cup winner if they have not already qualified for the Champions Cup.[8] Plain background indicates teams that earn a place in the European Rugby Challenge Cup. Red background (row 13 and 14) will be relegated to Rugby Pro D2. Updated 26 April 2015[9]

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.

The outline fixtures schedule was announced on 16 May 2014.^[4][3] Detailed fixtures information evolved as the season progressed (i.e. specific kick off times).^[10]

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Final
						1	Toulon	16
	4	Stade Français	38			4	Stade Français	33
	5	Racing Métro	15								4	Stade Français	12
											2	Clermont	6
						2	Clermont	18
	3	Toulouse	20			3	Toulouse	14
	6	Oyonnax	19

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

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FB 15 Djibril Camara  66' RW 14 Julien Arias OC 13 Waisea Nayacalevu  79' IC 12 Jonathan Danty LW 11 Jérémy Sinzelle FH 10 Morné Steyn SH 9 Julien Dupuy  69' N8 8 Sergio Parisse (c) OF 7 Raphaël Lakafia BF 6 Antoine Burban  65' RL 5 Alexandre Flanquart LL 4 Hugh Pyle  26' TP 3 Rabah Slimani HK 2 Rémi Bonfils 33' to 40+1'  56' LP 1 Heinke van der Merwe  63' Substitutions: HK 16 Laurent Sempéré  33'  40+1'  56' PR 17 Sakaria Taulafo  63' LK 18 Pascal Papé  26' N8 19 Jono Ross  65' SH 20 Jérôme Fillol  69' FH 21 Meyer Bosman  79' CE 22 Geoffrey Doumayrou  66' PR 23 Davit Kubriashvili Coach: Gonzalo Quesada

FB 15 Nick Abendanon RW 14 Jean-Marcellin Buttin OC 13 Aurélien Rougerie IC 12 Benson Stanley  69' LW 11 Napolioni Nalaga FH 10 Camille Lopez  51' SH 9 Morgan Parra  69' N8 8 Fritz Lee OF 7 Julien Bardy 14' to 24'  69' BF 6 Damien Chouly (c) RL 5 Sébastien Vahaamahina LL 4 Paul Jedrasiak  51' TP 3 Davit Zirakashvili  73' HK 2 John Ulugia  20' LP 1 Thomas Domingo  73' Substitutions: HK 16 Benjamin Kayser  20' PR 17 Raphaël Chaume  73' LK 18 Julien Pierre  51' FL 19 Alexandre Lapandry  69' SH 20 Ludovic Radosavljevic  69' FH 21 Brock James  51' FB 22 Mike Delany  69' PR 23 Clément Ric  73' Coach: Franck Azéma

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.

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

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% 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[a 11]	14	185,769	13,269	19,677	5,000	66%
Toulon	13	252,026	19,387	64,819	12,146	92%
Toulouse[a 12]	14	223,808	15,986	18,836	11,732	82%

• 2014–15 Rugby Pro D2 season

• (in French) Ligue Nationale de Rugby – Official Top 14 website
• (in French) Midi Olympique