2017–18 Top 14 season

2017–18 Top 14
Countries	France
Date	26 August 2017 – 2 June 2018
Champions	Castres (5th title)
Runners-up	Montpellier
Relegated	Brive, Oyonnax
Matches played	187
Attendance	2,681,834 (average 14,341 per match)
Highest attendance	78,442 (play-offs) Montpellier v Castres 2 June 2018 42,000 (league) Toulon v Montpellier 14 April 2018
Lowest attendance	5,678 Stade Français v Agen 24 February 2018
Top point scorer	Ben Botica (Oyonnax) 315 points
Top try scorer	Chris Ashton (Toulon) 24 tries
Official website
www.lnr.fr/rugby-top-14
← 2016–17 2018–19 →

The 2017–18 Top 14 competition is the 119th French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Two new teams from the 2016–17 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 (Oyonnax and Agen) in place of the two relegated teams, Grenoble and Bayonne. It marks the second time in a row that both promoted teams had returned on their first opportunity after relegation (Oyonnax and Agen were both relegated during the 2015–16 Top 14 season).

Teams[]

Club	City (department)	Stadium	Capacity
Agen	Agen (Lot-et-Garonne)	Stade Armandie	14,000
Bordeaux Bègles	Bordeaux (Gironde)	Stade Chaban-Delmas Matmut Atlantique	34,694 42,115
Brive	Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze)	Stade Amédée-Domenech	13,979
Castres	Castres (Tarn)	Stade Pierre-Fabre[a 1]	12,500
Clermont	Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme)	Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin	19,022
La Rochelle	La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime)	Stade Marcel-Deflandre	16,000
Lyon	Lyon (Métropole de Lyon)	Matmut Stadium de Gerland	25,000
Montpellier	Montpellier (Hérault)	Altrad Stadium	15,697
Oyonnax	Oyonnax (Ain)	Stade Charles-Mathon	11,400
Pau	Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Stade du Hameau	18,324
Racing 92	Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine)	Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir U Arena[a 2][a 3]	14,000 30,681[4]
Stade Français	Paris, 16th arrondissement	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000
Toulon	Toulon (Var)	Stade Mayol[a 4]	18,200
Toulouse	Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)	Stade Ernest-Wallon[a 5]	19,500

Number of teams by regions[]

Teams	Region or country	Team(s)
5	Nouvelle-Aquitaine	Agen, Bordeaux Bègles, Brive, La Rochelle, and Pau
3	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	Clermont, Lyon, and Oyonnax
	Occitanie	Castres, Montpellier, and Toulouse
2	Île-de-France	Racing 92 and Stade Français
1	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	Toulon

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 the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.

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:^[6]

• 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 fewer). The margin had been 7 points until being changed prior to the 2014–15 season.

Table[]

2017–18 Top 14 Table · · · discuss
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Diff.	Tries For	Tries Against	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	Montpellier (RU)	26	17	0	9	752	559	+193	98	59	11	2	81
2	Racing (SF)	26	18	0	8	622	478	+144	73	45	5	3	80
3	Toulouse (QF)	26	16	1	9	719	595	+124	80	62	4	4	74
4	Toulon (QF)	26	14	0	12	766	507	+259	93	52	9	8	73
5	Lyon (SF)	26	15	0	11	689	545	+148	78	54	7	3	70
6	Castres (CH)	26	15	0	11	638	624	+14	69	66	4	5	69
7	La Rochelle	26	14	1	11	686	531	+155	81	52	6	3	67
8	Pau	26	15	0	11	590	584	+6	58	66	2	4	66
9	Clermont	26	11	1	14	629	687	–58	67	76	4	4	54
10	Bordeaux	26	10	1	15	557	623	–66	54	74	2	4	48
11	Agen	26	10	0	16	537	757	–220	59	96	2	4	46
12	Stade Français	26	9	0	17	540	740	–200	58	87	2	4	42
13	Oyonnax (R)	26	7	3	16	566	824	–258	55	101	1	4	39
14	Brive (R)	26	7	1	18	485	726	–241	50	83	1	5	36
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 2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup. Blue background (rows 3 to 6) receive quarter-final play-off places, and receive berths in the Champions Cup. Plain background indicates teams that earn a place in the 2018–19 European Rugby Challenge Cup. Pink background (row 13) will qualify to the Relegation play-offs. Red background (row 14) will automatically be relegated to Rugby Pro D2. (CH) Champions. (RU) Runners-up. (SF) Losing semi-finalists. (QF) Losing quarter-finalists.

Relegation[]

Starting from the 2017–18 season forward, only the 14th placed team will be automatically relegated to Pro D2. The 13th placed team will face the runner-up of the Pro D2 play-off, with the winner of that play-off taking up the final place in Top 14 for the following season.^[7]

Fixtures & Results[]

Round 1[]

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Round 2[]

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Round 3[]

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Round 4[]

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Round 5[]

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Round 6[]

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Round 7[]

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Round 8[]

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Round 9[]

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Round 10[]

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Round 11[]

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Round 12[]

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Round 13[]

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Round 14[]

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Round 15[]

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Round 16[]

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Round 17[]

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Round 18[]

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Round 19[]

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Round 20[]

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Round 21[]

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Round 22[]

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Round 23[]

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Round 24[]

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Round 25[]

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Round 26[]

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Relegation playoff[]

The team finishing in 13th place faces the runner-up of the Pro D2, with the winner of this match playing in Top 14 in 2018–19 and the loser in Pro D2.

^[35]

Playoffs[]

	Semi-final Qualifiers					Semi-finals					Final
						1	Montpellier	40
	4	Toulon	19			5	Lyon	14
	5	Lyon (a.e.t.)	19								1	Montpellier	13
											6	Castres	29
						2	Racing 92	14
	3	Toulouse	11			6	Castres	19
	6	Castres	23

Semi-final Qualifiers[]

• Under LNR rules, when a playoff game ends level after extra time, the first tiebreaker is tries scored. Lyon advanced with 2 tries to Toulon's 1.

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Semi-finals[]

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Final[]

Leading 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.

Attendances[]

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

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Agen	13	102,345	7,873	12,517	6,104	56%
Bordeaux Bègles	13	285,432	21,956	36,253	18,251	60%
Brive	13	134,574	10,352	12,412	9,447	74%
Castres	13	130,036	10,003	12,258	8,691	80%
Clermont	13	222,101	17,085	18,801	13,950	90%
La Rochelle	13	206,751	15,904	16,000	15,000	99%
Lyon	13	184,041	14,157	19,205	10,069	57%
Montpellier	13	144,589	11,122	15,034	8,928	71%
Oyonnax	13	114,775	8,829	11,400	7,345	77%
Pau	13	184,105	14,162	18,300	10,000	77%
Racing 92	13	172,581	13,275	29,347	5,830	62%
Stade Francais	13	139,175	10,706	15,350	5,678	54%
Toulon[a 6]	14	250,116	17,865	42,000	13,500	86%
Toulouse[a 7]	14	217,835	15,560	18,838	10,816	80%

See also[]

• 2017–18 Rugby Pro D2 season

Notes[]

References[]