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With just four rounds of the Top 14 rugby season to go, James Harrington looks at the clubs’ successes and failures on – and in some cases off – the pitch.
1. La Rochelle
You can’t argue with La Rochelle’s epic pundit-defying season. Top of the Top 14, already certain of a play-off place, and with a home semifinal in the European Challenge Cup. In the second week of the season they became the only visiting side so far this season to win at Castres Olympique’s Stade Pierre Antoine, a mere 518 days after their they had last won on the road. They only had to wait another seven days for their next away victory, and have barely stopped winning since. They have not lost, at home or away, in the Top 14 since November – and could even make sure of a top-two finish, with a bye week in the playoffs, before their difficult last two games against Montpellier at home and Clermont at Stade Marcel Michelin.
2. Clermont
There’s something about Clermont. They really should win everything going – and yet they haven’t lifted a title of any sort since 2010, when they lifted they Top 14’s Bouclier de Brennus. But that’s not the whole story. They were losing finalists in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2015. In 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2016, they were knocked out in the semifinals. They lost the 2013 and 2015 Champions Cup finals – and have only the 2007 Challenge Cup to their name. Now, as another season draws to a close, they are in contention on two fronts. It’s just the ghost of big-game chokes past that keeps them off top spot in the rankings.
3. Montpellier
French rugby fans haven’t quite got to grips with the direct, muscular, winning rugby played by Jake White’s Montpellier. They don’t like it. They prefer sexy rugby, and can even cope with a loss or two as long as it has style. Which is odd, given some of the stodge that the Top 14 throws up in the winter months is about as far from sexy as it’s possible to get. Regardless of what the fans think – and many will be delighted to welcome Vern Cotter back to the Top 14 fold when he takes over at the Altrad Stadium next season – Montpellier are almost impossible to beat at home, and just as difficult to beat away.
4. Pau
Fun fact: sixth-placed Pau – or Section Paloise, to use their Sunday name – have the fourth-smallest budget of all the clubs in the Top 14. First-placed La Rochelle have the third smallest, and fifth-placed Castres the fifth-smallest. And yet, here they all are, making up three of the top five slots in this inaugural French league power ranking. Something to make bigger clubs think. Earlier this season, Pau went on an eight-match unbeaten run to race up the table. They have since had their wings clipped first at Clermont and then back at home against La Rochelle – and have lost influential ex-All Blacks Colin Slade and Conrad Smith to injury, which is why they are fourth and not third.
5. Castres Olympique
At the start of the season head coach Christophe Urios described Castres at the Atletico Madrid of French rugby. A fraction of the budget of the big-spending Barcelonas and Reals of the Top 14, but always there or thereabouts. He’s probably not far off the mark. Many are surprised when the self-effacing Castres reach the playoffs and qualify for the Champions Cup, but the fact is they have managed to do just that in six of the past seven seasons – winning the title in 2013 and reaching the final in 2014. Once again they’re in the mix, so maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise any more.
6. Toulon
Three head coaches in one season – and a couple of backroom staffers thrown in for good measures. Were it not for Racing 92 and Stade Francais, the award for most spectacular self-destruction in a Top 14 supporting role would go to Toulon. And that’s not the worst of it – this season the three-time European champions are reduced to a supporting role. They could even finish outside the Champions Cup places, which would be … bizarre.
7. Brive
The club with the smallest budget in the Top 14 continues to punch above its weight, thanks in no small part to Gaetan Germain. The fullback with the howitzer boot can nail a penalty from just about anywhere. Don’t be fooled into thinking Brive are a one-man team, though – they also provided young forwards Julien Le Devedec and Fabien Sanconnie to the French national side during the Six Nations. They’re part of a team that’s tough, stubborn and almost impossible to beat at home. And give away a penalty within 60m of the posts at your peril.
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8. Bordeaux
Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Bordeaux were beautiful to watch. They were so attack-minded they could, in the right light, have been mistaken for a Super Rugby side. Their defence, such as it was, lived – and sometimes died spectacularly – on the unquenchable belief that they could always outscore their opponents. They were the anti-Montpellier. And everyone loved them, for all that they could not break into the all-important top six. Charming coach Raphael Ibanez was touted as the next great hope for national rugby. Then Guy Noves got the France job everyone believed was Rafa’s, and backs coach Vincent Etcheto left in something of a coup, replaced by the more muscular Emile N’Tamack. And it all went wrong. Ibanez’s star has fallen. He’s out on his ear at the end of the season. The defence is stronger, but the stodge has taken over, and unlike Montpellier, they still can’t win enough games to break into the top six.
9. Toulouse
Things aren’t quite as bad at Toulouse as they are at some other big-budget clubs in the Top 14 (*cough*Stade*cough*) – but things are far from rosy in the Rose City heading into the closing four rounds of the regular season. They looked lost against Munster in the Champions Cup quarterfinal last week, but things are even worse in the Top 14. Toulouse has never failed to reach the playoffs in their history, but they’re 10th in the league and face a tough run-in, with trips to play-off-chasing Toulon and Castres, and home matches against Racing 92 and Bayonne. The fact is the four-time European Champions could be playing Challenge Cup rugby. That last sentence would have been branded heretical as recently as last season.
10. Lyon
Perennial French yo-yo outfit Lyon escape the bottom four only by not being in the relegation zone and not being a Paris side that tried to merge with a rival. They have the sixth-largest budget of all the clubs in the Top 14, but – proof that money does not necessarily translate to success in this game – are way down in 11th place and lasted all of six games in the Challenge Cup. The LOU really should do better, but despite another massive recruitment drive after running away with the ProD2 championship, which saw them bag the likes of Freddie Michalak, Delon Armitage and Virgil Bruni, they are finding wins hard to come by, even at home. At least this time it doesn’t look as if they’re heading back down after just one season.
11. Racing 92
Deep breath… Embarrassingly bundled out of the Champions Cup. Almost but not quite out of the running for a Top 14 end-of-season playoff place, which would mean no Champions Cup rugby next season. Still playing at the historic dump that is Colombes’ Stade Yves du Manoir when they should be at their shiny new U Arena. The Johan Goosen palaver. The merger that wasn’t. Dan Carter done for drink driving. Dan Carter’s face not plastered all over the shiny new U Arena to market the shit out of the place. Dan Carter, Joe Rokococo and Juan Imhoff being investigated (and cleared) by the French anti-doping agency, before being investigated (and cleared) a second time. Brice Dulin and Yannick Nyanga also being investigated over a separate incident… and cleared. Ali Williams busted for buying cocaine. The definition of a season from hell. Oh, and one piece of silverware in the decade since billionaire Jacky Lorenzetti bought the club. The definition of a dismally low return on investment.
12. Stade Francais
Was it really only two seasons ago that Stade Francais were Top 14 champions with a side that was mostly ‘Made in France’? Hard to believe now, but yes it was. Now, they’re 12th, hemorrhaging players, and trying desperately to save some face after the horror show that was the planned merger with Racing 92. Now, president Thomas Savare is desperate to sell the club he saved from extinction only six years ago – if he can’t, Stade may go the way of the dodo. The only thing saving their season is an extended run in the Challenge Cup, but even that could be a double-edged sword. The match against Castres that was postponed during the merger farce could – court case permitting – be replayed on April 19, four days after a Top 14 match against Pau and three before the Challenge Cup semi-final against Bath.
13. Grenoble
In recent seasons, Grenoble have started their Top 14 campaigns pretty well, but collapsed in the second half of the season having, apparently, enjoyed Christmas a bit too much. This season, they didn’t bother to wait until Christmas for it all to start going wrong and began to undo their pre-season good work from the opening round.
14. Bayonne
ProD2 leaders Oyonnax have a better Top 14 power ranking than Bayonne. Hell, Bourgoin, who are about to be relegated from the ProD2, probably have a better Top 14 power ranking than Bayonne. There have been worse seasons in the French top flight – Mont de Marsan back in 2012/13, and Oyonnax last season for example – but this has been one campaign to forget for the Basque Country side.
