The 2015–16 Top 14 competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).[1] Two new teams from the 2014–15 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this year, Agen and Pau in place of the two relegated teams, Bayonne and Lyon. Home-and-away play began on 22 August 2015 and ended on 23 May 2016. This was followed by a playoff stage involving the top six teams, culminating in the final on 24 June 2016 at the Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain. The final was moved from its traditional site of the Stade de France in Saint-Denis because of a scheduling conflict with UEFA Euro 2016.[2]
Having defeated Toulouse and table-topping Clermont en route to the final, Racing 92 won their sixth French championship title, and first since 1990, with a 29–21 win over Toulon,[3] despite playing over three-quarters of the game with 14 men after scrum-half Maxime Machenaud was sent off for a dangerous tackle on Matt Giteau.[4][5]
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, held this season at Camp Nou because the traditional site of Stade de France was not available in 2015–16 due to conflict with UEFA Euro 2016.
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 5 points (or fewer). The margin had been 7 points until being changed prior to the 2014–15 season.
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 & Results
The outline fixtures schedule was announced in May 2015.
Due to the terrorist attacks that took place in Paris on 13 November 2015, matches in the European Rugby Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup were postponed to a later date – later announced to take place on the weekend of 8–10 January 2016. This meant the fixtures that featured those teams in their respective domestic leagues, were postponed to a later date.[33] This meant that the entire Round 13 schedule was postponed: one match was moved to mid-February, and the remaining six matches were moved to mid-March.[34]
The attendance was a new record for any domestic club match in the sport.[3]
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.
^Clermont's ground capacity is up to 19,022 from 18,030 the previous season.
^Grenoble's traditional home is Stade Lesdiguières; however, beginning in 2012–13, they moved high-demand home matches to the larger Stade des Alpes.[6] Starting in 2014–15, they became the primary tenants of Stade des Alpes.
^Montpellier's stadium capacity is currently 15,697 which was in effect from the 2016-17 season. However, Montpellier did achieve a crowd of 15,000 in their game against Toulon on 29 May 2016 so the capacity change could have occurred some time during the 2015-16 season.
^Although Oyonnax's home ground of Stade-Charles capacity is listed as 11,400, it was increased for the 2015-16 season by at least 1,000 due to the creation of the north-stand (which was removed the following season). The club also achieved a crowd of 14,000 during their game against Clermont on 5 September 2015, which suggests capacity may have been even more, although this may be due to temporary space being created for what was in effect, a derby game.
^Toulouse often takes high-demand home matches to the city's largest sporting venue, Stadium Municipal. The 2015–16 season was the first since 2013 in which the stadium was available, following renovations for UEFA Euro 2016.
^Montpellier's attendance figure includes home semi-final qualifier.
^Racing 92's attendance figure includes home semi-final qualifier.
^ ab"Article 330, Section 3.2. Points "terrain""(PDF). Règlements de la Ligue Nationale de Rugby 2008/2009, Chapitre 2 : Règlement sportif du Championnat de France Professionnel (in French). LNR. Archived from the original(PDF) on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
