The 2020–21 Top 14 competition is the 122nd French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). After play was suspended following the 17th matchday of the 2019–20 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, the season was officially cancelled without any winner or promotion/relegation on 6 May 2020.[1] Of the 2020–21 season, some last round matches were rescheduled for 16/17 January 2021, with the playoffs and final taking place in June 2021.
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,[2] 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.[3]
France's bonus point system operates as follows:[3]
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.
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 2021–22 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 and Montpellier) receive berths in the Champions Cup. Montpellier received a berth for winning the 2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup. Plain background indicates teams that earn a place in the 2021–22 European Rugby Challenge Cup. Pink background (row 13) will be contest a play-off with the runners-up of the 2020–21 Rugby Pro D2 season for a place in the 2021–22 Top 14 season. Red background (row 14) will be relegated to Rugby Pro D2. Final table
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.[4]
The team finishing in 13th place faces the runner-up of the Pro D2, with the winner of this match playing in the 2021–22 Top 14 and the loser in the 2021–22 Pro D2.
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.
^ 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.
