| top point scorer = Gaëtan Germain (Brive)319 points | top try scorer = Timoci Nagusa (Montpellier)16 tries | website = www.lnr.fr | prevseason = 2014–15 | nextseason = 2016–17 }} The 2015–16 Top 14 competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). 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.
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, 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.
Teams
Club City (department) Stadium Capacity Agen Agen (Lot-et-Garonne) Stade Armandie 14,000 Bordeaux Bègles Bordeaux (Gironde) Stade Chaban-Delmas (Bordeaux)Matmut Atlantique 34,70041,458 Brive Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze) Stade Amédée-Domenech 16,000 Castres Castres (Tarn) Stade Pierre-Antoine 11,500 Clermont Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme) Stade Marcel-Michelin 19,022 Grenoble Grenoble (Isère) Stade des Alpes 20,068 La Rochelle La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime) Stade Marcel-Deflandre 15,000 Montpellier Montpellier (Hérault) Altrad Stadium 14,700 Oyonnax Oyonnax (Ain) Stade Charles-Mathon 12,400 Pau Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) Stade du Hameau 13,800 Racing 92 Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir 14,000 Stade Français Paris, 16th arrondissement Stade Jean-Bouin 20,000 Toulon Toulon (Var) Stade Mayol 15,400 Toulouse Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) Stade Ernest-WallonStadium Municipal 19,50033,150
Competition format 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, 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.
France's bonus point system operates as follows:
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.
Table
Relegation 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.
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 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. 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.
Round 14
Round 13 rescheduled match
Round 15
Round 16
Round 17
Round 18
Round 13 rescheduled matches
Round 19
Round 20
Round 21
Round 22
Round 23
Round 24
Round 25
Round 26
Playoffs
Semi-final Qualifiers
Semi-finals
Final The final took place 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.
FB 15 Leigh Halfpenny RW 14 Josua Tuisova OC 13 Mathieu Bastareaud IC 12 Maxime MermozLW 11 Bryan HabanaFH 10 Matt Giteau SH 9 Jonathan Pélissié N8 8 Steffon Armitage OF 7 Juan Martín Fernández LobbeBF 6 Mamuka Gorgodze RL 5 Konstantin Mikautadze LL 4 Samu Manoa TP 3 Levan Chilachava HK 2 Guilhem Guirado (c) LP 1 Xavier Chiocci Substitutions:HK 16 Jean-Charles Orioli PR 17 Florian Fresia LK 18 Romain Taofifénua FL 19 Virgile Bruni CE 20 Théo Belan FB 21 Delon Armitage FH 22 Frédéric Michalak PR 23 Manasa Saulo Coach: Bernard Laporte FB 15 Brice DulinRW 14 Joe RokocokoOC 13 Johan Goosen IC 12 Henry Chavancy LW 11 Juan ImhoffFH 10 Dan Carter SH 9 Maxime Machenaud N8 8 Chris Masoe OF 7 Yannick Nyanga BF 6 Wenceslas Lauret RL 5 Manuel Carizza LL 4 Bernard Le Roux TP 3 Ben Tameifuna HK 2 Dimitri Szarzewski (c) LP 1 Eddy Ben Arous Substitutions:HK 16 Camille Chat PR 17 Khatchik Vartan LK 18 Juandré Kruger N8 19 Antonie Claassen SH 20 Xavier Chauveau WG 21 Marc Andreu CE 22 Albert Vulivuli PR 23 Luc Ducalcon Coach: Laurent Travers Laurent Labit The attendance was a new record for any domestic club match in the sport.
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.
Top points scorers
Rank Player Club Points 1 Gaëtan Germain Brive 319 2 Zack Holmes La Rochelle 251 3 Burton Francis Agen 246 4 Jonathan Wisniewski Grenoble 237 5 Jules Plisson Stade Français 208 6 Jonathan Pélissié Toulon 199 7 Demetri Catrakilis Montpellier 185 8 Sébastien Bézy Toulouse 178 9 Morgan Parra Clermont 166 10 Nicky Robinson Oyonnax 153
Top try scorers Rank Player ClubTries 1 Timoci Nagusa Montpellier 16 2 Josua Tuisova Toulon 12 3 David Smith Castres 11 4 Gaël Fickou Toulouse 9 Marvin O'Connor Montpellier David Strettle Clermont Alex Tulou Castres 8 Delon Armitage Toulon 8 Djibril Camara Stade Français Bismarck du Plessis Montpellier James O'Connor Toulon Alivereti Raka Clermont George Tilsley Agen
Attendances
By club Attendances do not include the semi-finals or final as these are at neutral venues.
ClubHomeGamesTotalAverageHighestLowest% Capacity Agen 13 107,349 8,258 11,613 7,174 59% Bordeaux Bègles 13 332,437 25,572 38,416 19,712 70% Brive 13 145,272 11,175 13,543 9,586 70% Castres 13 120,704 9,285 10,500 8,211 81% Clermont 13 221,614 17,047 18,730 14,622 90% Grenoble 13 176,500 13,577 18,000 10,000 68% La Rochelle 13 194,173 14,936 15,000 14,537 100% Montpellier 14 159,840 11,417 15,000 8,000 78% Oyonnax 13 126,500 9,731 14,000 7,000 77% Pau 13 158,919 12,225 14,000 10,500 88% Racing 92 14 146,452 10,461 40,500 5,983 60% Stade Francais 13 158,193 12,169 20,000 8,652 60% Toulon 13 246,903 18,993 57,886 12,135 85% Toulouse 13 226,632 17,433 32,479 10,503 76%
Highest attendances
Home club Away club Stadium Attendance Toulon Clermont Stade Vélodrome de Marseille 57,886 Bordeaux Toulon Matmut Atlantique 38,416 Bordeaux Racing Matmut Atlantique 33,000 Bordeaux Stade Français Matmut Atlantique 25,000 Toulouse Toulon Stadium Municipal de Toulouse 32,479 Bordeaux Toulouse Stade Chaban-Delmas 31,189 Toulon Stade Français Allianz Riviera 29,414 Toulouse Racing Stadium Municipal de Toulouse 28,583 Bordeaux Clermont Stade Chaban-Delmas 28,332 Toulon Toulouse Allianz Riviera 27,549
Notes
References
See also 2015–16 Rugby Pro D2 season
External links
Midi Olympique