2013–14 Top 14 season

2013–14 Top 14
Countries	France
Date	16 August 2013 – 31 May 2014
Champions	Toulon (4th title)
Runners-up	Castres
Relegated	Biarritz, Perpignan
Matches played	187
Attendance	2,678,932 (average 14,326 per match)
Highest attendance	80,174 (play-offs) Toulon v Castres 31 May 2014 63,075 (league stage) Stade Français v Toulouse 22 March 2014
Lowest attendance	6,109 Racing Métro v Grenoble 5 October 2013
Tries scored	607 (average 3.2 per match)
Top point scorer	Gaëtan Germain (Brive) 299 points[1]
Top try scorer	Metuisela Talebula (Bordeaux Bègles) 15 tries[1]
Official website
www.lnr.fr
← 2012–13 2014–15 →

The 2013–14 Top 14 competition is a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Two new teams from the 2012–13 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this year, Oyonnax and Brive in place of the two relegated teams, Agen and Mont-de-Marsan. Home-and-away play began on 16 August 2013 and continued through to 3 May 2014.^[2]

The regular season was very closely fought, with a record few away wins, but ended up with the same six teams qualifying for the play-offs as the previous year. Toulon topped the table for the first time, one point clear of second-placed Montpellier, whilst defending champions Castres just managed to hold on to the last qualifying spot, finishing in sixth. At the other end of the table, Biarritz had a nightmarish season, spending virtually the whole year in the relegation zone, and finished bottom, while Perpignan, who had been in the top tier of French rugby since 1911, were also relegated. Oyonnax and Brive finished 12th and 9th, respectively, marking the first time since 2007 that both newly promoted teams managed to keep their places in the Top 14.

The quarter-final stage saw two major upsets, with Racing Métro avenging their loss from the previous year with a 21–16 away win at Toulouse, whose run of twenty consecutive semi-final appearances thus came to end, while Castres put an end to Clermont's record streak of 77 straight wins at Stade Marcel-Michelin with a 22–16 win. This is the first time that both quarterfinals have resulted in away wins.

Club	City (department)	Stadium	Capacity
Bayonne	Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Stade Jean Dauger[a 1]	16,934
Biarritz	Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Parc des Sports Aguiléra[a 2]	15,000
Bordeaux Bègles	Bordeaux (Gironde)	Stade Chaban-Delmas (Bordeaux) Stade André Moga (Bègles)[a 3]	34,700 10,000
Brive	Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze)	Stade Amédée-Domenech	16,300
Castres	Castres (Tarn)	Stade Pierre-Antoine	11,500
Clermont	Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme)	Stade Marcel-Michelin	18,030
Grenoble	Grenoble (Isère)	Stade Lesdiguières[a 4]	12,000
Montpellier	Montpellier (Hérault)	Stade Yves-du-Manoir	14,700
Oyonnax	Oyonnax (Ain)	Stade Charles-Mathon	11,400
Perpignan	Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales)	Stade Aimé Giral[a 5]	14,593
Racing Métro 92	Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine)	Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir[a 6]	14,000
Stade Français	Paris, 16th arrondissement	Stade Jean-Bouin[a 7]	20,000
Toulon	Toulon (Var)	Stade Mayol[a 8]	15,250
Toulouse	Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)	Stade Ernest-Wallon[a 9]	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.^[6]

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,^[7] 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.^[8]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:^[8]

• 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).

2013–14 Top 14 table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Toulon (CH)	26	16	1	9	660	466	+194	5	6	77	Semi-final play-off place and berth in the Champions Cup
2	Montpellier (SF)	26	15	1	10	670	525	+145	7	7	76
3	Clermont Auvergne (QF)	26	15	1	10	659	500	+159	6	5	73	Home quarter-final play-off place and berth in the Champions Cup
4	Toulouse (QF)	26	13	2	11	548	442	+106	7	6	69[b]
5	Racing Métro (SF)	26	15	2	9	459	448	+11	1	4	69	Away quarter-final play-off place and berth in the Champions Cup
6	Castres Olympique (RU)	26	13	2	11	567	488	+79	6	4	66
7	Stade Français	26	14	1	11	529	496	+33	3	4	65	Play-off for a place in the Champions cup[a]
8	Bordeaux Bègles	26	13	0	13	629	573	+56	5	7	64
9	Brive	26	11	2	13	473	476	−3	4	9	61
10	Bayonne	26	11	1	14	424	549	−125	1	7	54
11	Grenoble	26	11	2	13	465	625	−160	1	4	53
12	Oyonnax	26	11	1	14	456	562	−106	1	4	51[c]
13	Perpignan (R)	26	10	1	15	486	593	−107	2	7	51	Relegated to Rugby Pro D2
14	Biarritz Olympique (R)	26	5	1	20	374	656	−282	0	8	30

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.

After the General Assembly of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, held at Aix-en-Provence on 5 and 6 July 2013, the outline calendar of fixtures for the 2013–14 season were released.^[9] Detailed fixtures information evolves as the season progresses (i.e. specific kick off times).^[2] Match attendances are from the official web site (Affluences).^[10]

• This match was postponed due to heavy rain. Despite the pitch being covered since Friday, the referee took the decision to cancel the match.^[124] It has been rescheduled to 14 March.^[2]

• This match was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.^[141] It has been rescheduled to 5 April.^[2]

• This match – originally scheduled to be played on 25 January 2014 – was postponed due to heavy rain.^[124]

• This result means that Biarritz Olympique will finish the season at the bottom of the table.

• This match – originally scheduled to be played on 15 February 2014 – was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.^[141]

	Quarterfinals					Semifinals					Final
						1	Toulon	16
	4	Toulouse	16			5	Racing Métro	6
	5	Racing Métro	21								1	Toulon	18
											6	Castres Olympique	10
						2	Montpellier	19
	3	Clermont	16			6	Castres Olympique	22
	6	Castres Olympique	22

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

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FB 15 Delon Armitage RW 14 Drew Mitchell OC 13 Mathieu Bastareaud IC 12 Matt Giteau LW 11 Bryan Habana FH 10 Jonny Wilkinson (c) SH 9 Sebastien Tillous-Borde N8 8 Steffon Armitage OF 7 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe BF 6 Juan Smith RL 5 Ali Williams LL 4 Bakkies Botha  58' TP 3 Carl Hayman  66' HK 2 Craig Burden  29' LP 1 Xavier Chiocci  51' Substitutions: HK 16 Jean-Charles Orioli  29' PR 17 Alexandre Menini  51' LK 18 Jocelino Suta  58' N8 19 Danie Rossouw FL 20 Virgile Bruni CE 21 Maxime Mermoz SH 22 Michael Claassens PR 23 Martin Castrogiovanni  66' Coach: Bernard Laporte

FB 15 Brice Dulin RW 14 Max Evans OC 13 Romain Cabannes  63' IC 12 Rémi Lamerat LW 11 Rémy Grosso FH 10 Rémi Talès (c)  20'  25'  67' SH 9 Rory Kockott  77' N8 8 Antonie Claassen OF 7 Yannick Caballero  52' BF 6 Piula Fa'asalele RL 5 Rodrigo Capó Ortega LL 4 Richie Gray  52' TP 3 Ramiro Herrera  74' HK 2 Brice Mach  58' LP 1 Yannick Forestier  52' Substitutions: HK 16 Mathieu Bonello  58' PR 17 Saimone Taumoepeau  51' LK 18 Christophe Samson  52' N8 19 Jannie Bornman  52' SH 20 Cédric Garcia  77' CE 21 Seremaia Bai  63' FH 22 Daniel Kirkpatrick  20'  25'  67' PR 23 Mihaita Lazăr  74' Coach: Serge Milhas

Touch judges: Romain Poite Sébastien Minery Television match official: Laurent Valin

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under IRB eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-IRB 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	181,498	13,961	22,138	10,008	79%
Biarritz	13	130,493	10,038	13,400	8,139	67%
Bordeaux Bègles	13	254,092	19,546	33,043	6,534	77%
Brive	13	145,773	11,213	13,979	9,324	69%
Castres	13	109,797	8,446	9,908	7,404	73%
Clermont[a 10]	14	239,965	17,140	18,000	15,036	95%
Grenoble	13	169,962	13,074	19,778	7,368	81%
Montpellier	13	163,743	12,596	15,268	9,896	85%
Oyonnax	13	113,421	8,725	11,303	7,294	77%
Perpignan	13	149,565	11,505	17,491	9,477	72%
Racing Métro	13	147,952	11,381	35,342	6,109	50%
Stade Français	13	221,485	17,037	63,075	7,483	67%
Toulon	13	241,652	18,589	38,800	12,330	89%
Toulouse[a 11]	14	231,121	16,509	18,838	13,234	85%

• 2013–14 Rugby Pro D2 season
• List of 2013-2014 Top 14 transfers

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