Play-off places were very much still in the balance as full-time loomed on a Saturday night when all seven Top 14 matches kicked off at the same time
After 26 rounds, the Rugby World Cup-affected 2023/24 Top 14 season is all over bar the play-off shouting.
It was, as it always is, a dramatic last night, with all seven matches kicking off at 9.05pm (France time) on Saturday, and French broadcaster Canal Plus’s multi-match broadcast pinging round the grounds as another one of the night’s 49 tries were scored, on-screen graphics showing real-time changes to league positions – adding to the overall drama.
A record 1,007 tries were scored across the season – the first time the Top 14 has passed the thousand-touchdowns bar. Here are five from the last round.
Results
Here are the final results of the results season. For seven clubs, the campaign is now over.
For seven more, there is at least one more match to play – with four teams looking at up to three more outings before their campaigns finally wind up, just in time for France senior men’s tour of Argentina and Uruguay, the under-20s World Championship in South Africa … and pre-season for the 2024/25 campaign.
Match of the weekend:
La Rochelle 24 – Racing 92 19
It was billed, quite rightly, as fifth versus sixth. It ended with fifth beating sixth, and no movement in the table. But, in between there was drama aplenty at another Marcel Deflandre full house.
When Jack Nowell scored his third try in Rochelais colours, and his third try in as many matches, 11 minutes from time, the visitors were in serious danger of failing to reach the post-season knockout phase for the first time since 2010.
In Bayonne, Castres had recovered from a dismal start in dreadful conditions to lead the hosts – and a few minutes later scrum-half Jeremy Fernandez sealed the deal with a try. Castres had started the evening eighth in the table. They had, for a while, dropped to 10th, but then jumped to sixth – the final play-off place, just vacated by Stuart Lancaster’s Racing.
Racing needed a bonus point. Badly. They crashed over La Rochelle’s line. The referee decided the ball was held up. And then, with two minutes left on the clock, 21-year-old backrow Maxime Baudonne blitzed over, leaving a tricky conversion for Tristan Tedder to get Racing back to within bonus point territory.
He never flinched, firing the ball over in style – to the obvious relief of the players and coaches.
“It was stressful,” Stuart Lancaster admitted afterwards. “We knew that Castres were winning at the same time. But I’m very proud of the players who showed their character and snatched the bonus point on the stroke of half-time. Tristan Tedder, with his final transformation, showed what he’s capable of.”
Some 370 kilometres away, the effects of Tedder’s 78th-minute conversion were keenly felt, too – but Castres’ Jeremy Davidson recognised that a season’s efforts make or break a campaign, rather than the headline moments on the final weekend.
“Losing matches at home put us in this situation,” he said, referencing defeats to Perpignan, Clermont and Racing 92 at Stade Pierre Fabre. “We could have been in a better position coming into the last day.”
READ ALSO Irish Examiner: Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle win on tense final weekend of campaign
Individual performance
Baptiste Couilloud. The final night of the regular season saw Bautista Delguy score a hat-trick for Clermont, Pete Samu run in two for Bordeaux, and legend Sam Whitelock dive over to score with his last touch of a ball in professional rugby for Pau. It also saw hooker Loris Zarantonello’s star rise higher with an impressive stint off the bench for Castres.
But France international scrum-half Baptiste Couilloud – surely one of the first name’s on Fabien Galthie’s list for July’s two-Test tour of Argentina – had another impressive outing for Top 14 strugglers Lyon.
He scored his 17th Top 14 try of the season – his eighth in as many matches – in the 52nd minute of their 40-28 win over Toulouse. That’s more than 23 percent of his side’s 72-try total this season. And Lyon scored six of those tries on Saturday night…
Right now, after 22 Top 14 outings Couilloud is at the head of the league’s leading try-scorers table. Only Bordeaux’s Damian Penaud, who has 14, could overtake him in the play-off phase.
Flop
After a slow start, Perpignan’s season just seemed to get better and better. And they had, heading into their final match against Pau, an outside shot of finishing in the top six.
They missed out on the domestic play-offs. And, in losing 36-24, slipped to 10th in the table, failing to qualify for next season’s Champions Cup.
Maybe the flop brand is harsh. Perpignan’s season does not merit it – after twice avoiding relegation in the survival play-off, a comfortable 10th place finish, some 14 points clear of the relegation zone, and to be in the reckoning for the post-season and top-table pan-tournament rugby next season is a huge improvement.
On the night, however, it wasn’t all right – as manager Franck Azema recognised. “It’s frustrating because we prepared to qualify, we worked all season for it, and we were caught out … We were outplayed and made mistakes,” he said.
But there’s no way anyone should let that undermine Perpignan’s revelatory campaign this season. “It’s been a great trip. You can’t take that away,” Azema said. “We had some good times on and off the pitch. When you’re coaching, of course you want titles, but you also need relationships that count in training. They were important this year.”
Azema has indicated that he might be tempted by the France job in the post-Galthie future. It wouldn’t be the worst call the FFR might make.
Coaching call
Resting players, rotating squads is all part of the day-to-day job of a head coach in any professional league, let alone one as long as the Top 14. Toulouse’s Ugo Mola did it again this week, bringing out the kids again on Saturday for the 40-28 loss at Lyon as he eyed a shot at a domestic and Champions Cup double.
So did Montpellier’s Patrice Collazo, but for very different reasons. Second row Mael Perrin, 20, scored a try on his first Top 14 start as the 2022 champions lost 52-15 at Clermont in what was – for them, if not their hosts, who chased and won the last Champions Cup place – a dead rubber match.
Collazo’s decision to rest numerous key players was logical, even if it was the sad flipside to why Mola rested his key players. Mola has French domestic rugby’s ultimate prize on his mind. Collazo is focused on Top 14 survival.
For Montpellier right now, staying in the Top 14 is a bigger prize than the Brennus. It’s the only prize. Next Sunday’s play-off at Grenoble is the match that matters – it’s been the only match that matters for Montpellier for a while now.
Talking point
The end of the season is usually about clubs – finally – confirming long-anticipated player and staff moves, complete with the occasional surprise.
READ ALSO The Rugby Paper: Hogg has eyes set on Top 14 surprise
But this close-season we could be in for more surprises than usual. Newly crowned ProD2 champions Vannes will now be busy recruiting for their first season in the Top 14 – they have, basically, three weeks to get the backbone of a top-flight ready squad together.
Toulouse and La Rochelle currently have no reported new signings arriving, for example, while whispers around a number of coaches – and even higher up the staff hierarchy – are growing.
At Montpellier, Collazo is said to be mulling his future, while both Christian Labit and Vincent Etcheto are believed to be edging ever-nearer the exit door.
Remarkably, Karim Ghezal – still less than a full season into his first head coach’s role after joining Stade Francais from the national squad after the Rugby World Cup – has, according to reports, already turned down offers from Montpellier and his old club Lyon.
While Ghezal has apparently said no to Lyon, Jono Gibbes, currently preparing for the World Under-20 Championships with New Zealand, may be open to a sporting director-level role at Stade Gerland, L’Equipe reported.
Midi Olympique, meanwhile, has repeatedly claimed that Jeremy Davidson’s future at Castres is in doubt, despite the fact his contract runs to 2025. Oyonnax’s Joe El Abd, a Brennus-winning former defence coach at the club, and ex-player Rory Kockott were mentioned. As was, even more surprisingly than the latter name, former co-manager-turned-Racing 92 suit Laurent Travers.
Travers is also on the radar of ambitious ProD2 side Provence – and might have packed his bags already, but for their elimination from the promotion play-offs, Midol said.
Quote of the week
“This is the start of our problems, let’s face it. We haven’t had much time to think about what lies ahead. We’re already struggling to realise what’s happening to us, so we might as well tell you that what awaits us in a few weeks seems far away. Very far.”
Olivier Cloarec, president of promoted ProD2 champions Vannes, on what the Breton club faces in the Top 14, after becoming the first side from the historic French region to make it into French rugby’s top flight
READ ALSO Irish Examiner: Detecting a vibrant rugby heartbeat in northern France
Table
And here’s the final table of the 2023/24 Top 14 season.
But, while the curtain has come down on some leagues, France’s domestic competition continues. It’s the barrage round of the play-offs next weekend, and Montpellier’s last chance at Top 14 survival. Then there are the semi-finals, a week later, and the final in Marseille a week after that.
So we’re not done just yet… Here are the matches still to come.
My name is James Harrington. I’m a freelance sports journalist, writing mostly about French club and international rugby. If, after reading this, you feel the urge to commission me for match previews, reviews, articles, news, features, interviews, live blogs, feel free to contact me
And, please read my weekly French rugby column in The Rugby Paper every Sunday. And I also round-up all the weekend’s Top 14 action on the Irish Examiner website.
James Harrington: Rugby writer and freelance sports journalist 
James Harrington: Rugby writer and freelance sports journalist
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