The 2007–08 Top 14 Competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition, operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Because France hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup, the competition did not begin at its normal time of August, but instead started on the last weekend in October 2007, one week after the Rugby World Cup final. The league compensated for the late start by playing on several weekends that it normally skips, namely the weekends of the 2008 Six Nations Championship and the semifinals and final of the 2007–08 Heineken Cup. The season ended on June 28, 2008, with Toulouse defeating regular-season league leader Clermont 26–20 in the final and thereby lifting the Bouclier de Brennus.
This year's edition of the Top 14 welcomed Auch and Dax, who earned promotion from Rugby Pro D2. Agen and Narbonne were relegated from the Top 14.
As in previous seasons, the top four clubs at the end of the home-and-away season advanced to a single-elimination playoff. The semifinals were held at neutral sites, with the final at Stade de France. Going into the season, the top six clubs were guaranteed of berths in the 2008-09 Heineken Cup. Since Toulouse advanced to the 2007–08 Heineken Cup final against Irish club Munster, thereby assuring a higher finish for a French team in that competition than for any team from England or Italy, the seventh-place club also earned a berth in the 2008-09 Heineken Cup. The bottom two teams were provisionally relegated to Pro D2, with the possibility of one or both of the bottom teams to be reprieved if a team above them failed a postseason financial audit. This happened in 2007–08, as Albi failed the audit, ultimately giving a reprieve to second-from bottom Dax.
This season, LNR trialled a modification to the bonus point system in both the Top 14 and Pro D2. The system to be used this season was:
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).
This system was explicitly intended to prevent a losing team from earning two bonus points, as is possible under the standard system.
Second division: 2007–08 Rugby Pro D2 season
Teams
ClubCity (department)StadiumCapacityPrevious season Albi Albi (Tarn) Stadium Municipal d'Albi 12,000 10th Auch Auch (Gers) Stade Jacques Fouroux 7,000 Promoted from Pro D2 (champions) Bayonne Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) Stade Jean Dauger 16,934 8th Biarritz Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) Parc des Sports Aguiléra 15,000 Semi-finals (4th in league) Bourgoin Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère) Stade Pierre Rajon 9,441 6th Brive Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze) Stade Amédée-Domenech 15,000 9th Castres Castres (Tarn) Stade Pierre-Fabre 11,500 11th Clermont Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) Stade Marcel-Michelin 16,574 Runners up (3rd in league) Dax Dax (Landes) Stade Maurice Boyau 16,170 Promoted from Pro D2 (runners up) Montauban Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne) Stade Sapiac 11,500 7th Montpellier Montpellier (Hérault) Stade Yves-du-Manoir 15,789 12th Perpignan Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales) Stade Aimé Giral 16,593 5th Stade Français Paris, 16th arrondissement Stade Jean-Bouin 12,000 Champions (1st in league) Toulouse Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) Stade Ernest-Wallon 19,500 Semi-finals (2nd in league)
Number of teams by regions Teams Region or country Team(s)7Albi, Auch, Castres, Montauban, Montpellier, Perpignan and Toulouse4Bayonne, Biarritz, Brive and Dax2Bourgoin and Clermont1Stade Français
Table
Fixtures & Results
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Round 15
Round 16
Round 17
Round 18
Round 19
Game postponed due to Toulouse playing in Heineken Cup semi-finals on the same date. Game to be rescheduled for 7 May 2008.
Round 20
Round 19 (rescheduled game)
Rescheduled from 26 April 2008.
Round 21
Round 22
Round 23
Game postponed due to Toulouse playing in Heineken Cup final on the same date. Game to be rescheduled for 3 June 2008.
Round 24
Round 23 (rescheduled game)
Rescheduled from 24 May 2008.
Round 25
Round 26
Knock-out stages Semi-finals
Final
CLERMONT AUVERGNE: FB 15 Benoît Baby RW 14 Aurélien Rougerie (c)OC 13 Gonzalo Canale IC 12 Marius JoubertLW 11 Napolioni NalagaFH 10 Brock JamesSH 9 Pierre MignoniN8 8 Elvis Vermeulen OF 7 Alexandre AudebertBF 6 Julien BonnaireRL 5 Thibaut Privat LL 4 Jamie Cudmore TP 3 Laurent Emmanuelli HK 2 Mario Ledesma LP 1 Davit ZirakashviliReplacements:HK 16 John Smit PR 17 Thomas Domingo LK 18 Loïc Jacquet LK 19 Christophe Samson N8 20 Sam Broomhall CE 21 Seremaia Bai FB 22 Anthony Floch Coach: Vern Cotter
TOULOUSE: FB 15 Maxime MédardRW 14 Yves DonguyOC 13 Maleli Kunavore IC 12 Yannick JauzionLW 11 Cédric HeymansFH 10 Jean-Baptiste Élissalde SH 9 Byron KelleherN8 8 Shaun Sowerby OF 7 Thierry Dusautoir BF 6 Jean Bouilhou (c)RL 5 Fabien Pelous LL 4 Patricio AlbaceteTP 3 Omar HasanHK 2 William Servat LP 1 Daan Human Replacements:PR 16 Jean-Baptiste Poux HK 17 Alberto Vernet Basualdo LK 18 Romain Millo-Chluski FL 19 Grégory Lamboley N8 20 Finau Maka FH 21 Valentin Courrent CE 22 Florian Fritz Coach: Guy Novès
Leading scorers Note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals.
Top points scorers
Rank Player Club Points 1 Brock James Clermont 301 2 Richard Dourthe Bayonne 245 3 Juan Martín Hernández Stade Français 227 4 Romain Teulet Castres 221 5 Fabien Fortassin Montauban 212 6 Benjamin Boyet Bourgoin 191 7 Jean-Baptiste Élissalde Toulouse 155 8 Frédéric Couzier Auch 140 9 Andre Hough Albi 134 10 Luciano Orquera Brive 122
Top try scorers Rank Player Club Tries 1 Napolioni Nalaga Clermont 18 2 Maxime Médard Toulouse 14 3 Aurélien Rougerie Clermont 12 4 Takudzwa Ngwenya Biarritz 8 Jean-Baptiste Peyras-Loustalet Bayonne 8 5 Vincent Clerc Toulouse 7 Yves Donguy Toulouse 7 Julien Saubade Stade Français 7 6 Yoan Audrin Montauban 6 Yannick Jauzion Toulouse 6 Mario Ledesma Clermont 6 Davit Zirakashvili Clermont 6
Attendances
The league has seen a major increase in attendance in recent years. In 2006–07, per-game attendance averaged 10,549, up from 9,288 in 2005–06 and 7,255 in 2004–05, when the league consisted of 16 teams instead of its current 14. The 2005-06 and 2006-07 totals are skewed to some degree because Stade Français drew over 79,000 fans to each of the two fixtures they played at Stade de France in both seasons. However, even if the Stade de France fixtures are not included, per-game attendance was 8,549 in 2005-06 and 9,267 in 2006–07, both well above the 2004-05 figures.
The final average attendance for the 2007–08 regular season was 11,106, another increase from the previous season. The LNR also reported that league-wide season ticket sales were up by 11% from 2006 to 2007. The most-attended matches were the three Stade Français matches played at Stade de France, each of which drew more than 75,000, and Toulouse's three games at Stadium Municipal, each of which drew at least 30,000.
Attendances do not include the semi-finals or final as these are at neutral venues.
ClubHomeGamesTotalAverageHighestLowest% Capacity Albi 13 93,351 7,181 10,000 5,865 55% Auch 13 62,337 4,795 6,681 3,159 69% Bayonne 13 161,135 12,395 14,025 9,645 73% Biarritz 13 115,573 8,890 13,044 6,000 59% Bourgoin 13 82,464 6,343 8,000 4,832 67% Brive 13 136,768 10,521 14,868 7,899 70% Castres 13 102,095 7,853 10,000 6,560 68% Clermont 13 189,327 14,564 16,574 12,827 88% Dax 13 94,656 7,281 15,000 4,500 45% Montauban 13 90,816 6,986 9,054 5,553 61% Montpellier 13 144,520 11,117 15,789 8,895 70% Perpignan 13 153,181 11,783 14,517 7,889 71% Stade Français 13 323,069 24,851 79,779 7,443 79% Toulouse 13 272,011 20,924 36,000 14,066 88%
See also 2007–08 Heineken Cup 2007–08 Rugby Pro D2 season
Notes
References
"Ligue Nationale de Rugby". lnr.fr. Accessed August 13, 2007.
External links Ligue Nationale de Rugby - Official website Top 14 on Planetrugby.com