2010–11 Top 14 season

Season synopsis

This year's edition of the Top 14 welcomed Agen, winners of the 2010 title in the second-level Pro D2 and returning to the top flight three years after being relegated, and La Rochelle, victors in the 2009 promotion playoffs between the second- through fifth-placed teams. They took the place of Montauban and Albi, relegated at the end of the 2009–10 Top 14.

Of the two promoted teams, Agen survived, while La Rochelle were tentatively relegated after finishing second-from-bottom. The other relegated side were Bourgoin, which had barely avoided bankruptcy in the previous season. Their financial struggles continued, and they were docked 5 points for their financial issues. The deduction was ultimately immaterial, as even without it they would have finished more than 20 points adrift of 13th-place La Rochelle.

There was, however, a chance that La Rochelle would be spared the drop. During the season, Stade Français faced major financial issues, temporarily avoiding an administrative relegation in early June 2011 when president Max Guazzini announced a deal in which a Canadian foundation, working with former France national coach Bernard Laporte and an unnamed investor, would purchase a minority stake in the club. However, the planned infusion of €12 million did not materialize; Guazzini and Laporte sued the foundation, and three people had been arrested in connection with the deal as of June 24. On June 27, Guazzini met with the LNR's financial watchdog, DNACG, to discuss the club's situation. Reports indicated that if the club did not find €6.6 million by the time of the meeting, Stade would file for bankruptcy, which would result in an automatic relegation to the nominally amateur Fédérale 1. The French government had announced it would not bail out the club. The meeting ended with the announcement of a new deal by which Guazzini would sell a controlling stake in the club to a group of investors led by French technology executive Jean-Pierre Savare, keeping Stade in the Top 14 and confirming La Rochelle's relegation. As part of the deal, Guazzini stepped aside as club president in favor of Savare's son Thomas.

The season saw signs of a changing of the guard in French rugby, especially in Paris. Racing Métro reasserted itself as a national power, finishing second on the season table. Bayonne went from being reprieved from relegation to playoff contenders, ultimately missing out in the final week of the season. Montpellier went from fighting for survival through much of 2009–10 to finalists this season, winning their quarterfinal and semifinal matches away by 1 point each, and leading Toulouse for most of the final before falling short. In the end, traditional power Toulouse lifted the Bouclier de Brennus.

Previous season

The 2009–10 season saw Clermont, in their 100th season, end decades of frustration by defeating Perpignan in the final to claim their first title, having lost in all 10 of their previous final appearances. At the other end of the table, Albi, which had been promoted to the Top 14 for 2009–10, finished bottom of the table and went down. Bayonne finished second-to-bottom but avoided relegation when it was revealed that 12th-placed Montauban were filing for bankruptcy and would therefore be automatically relegated. The other newly promoted team in 2009–10, Racing Métro, enjoyed a very successful season, finishing sixth, and qualified to the quarter-finals where they narrowly lost to eventual champions Clermont.

Competition format

Each club played every other club twice. The second half of the season was conducted in the same order as the first, with the club at home in the first half of the season away in the second. This season maintained the format introduced the previous season for the knockout stage: the top two teams qualified directly to the semifinals, while teams ranked from third to sixth qualified for a quarterfinal held at the home ground of the higher-ranked team. Semifinals are traditionally held at neutral sites; this season, both were held at Stade Vélodrome in Marseille. The final was held at Stade de France.

Going into the season, the top six clubs are guaranteed of berths in the following season's Heineken Cup. The winners of the 2010–11 Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup are assured of berths in the 2011–12 Heineken Cup regardless of their league standing, as long as they avoid relegation. This means that if a club finishes in the top six and wins one of the European competitions, the seventh-place team will gain a Heineken Cup berth. However, if French clubs win both competitions, only five clubs will qualify for the 2011–12 Heineken Cup via their league position because France is capped at seven Heineken Cup places. France can also secure a seventh berth if clubs from England's Aviva Premiership, also capped at seven Heineken Cup places, win both Cup competitions, and the top club in the European Rugby Club Rankings among those not already qualified for the Heineken Cup is from the Top 14. Note, however, that if a winner of one of the European cups is relegated in the same season, LNR will not nominate it for European competition; its place will be taken by a current Top 14 side based on league position.

The bottom two teams are provisionally relegated to Pro D2, with the possibility of one or both of the bottom teams to be reprieved if a team above them fails a postseason financial audit (mandatory for all clubs in the league).

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. The 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 7 points (or less).

New developments

Salary cap

This season was the first in French rugby history to have a fixed salary cap. Previously, the only restrictions on team salaries were that wage bills were limited to 50% of turnover and that 10% of the salary budget had to be held in reserve. In December 2009, LNR announced that team payrolls would be limited to €8 million in 2010–11, and that the reserve requirement would be increased to 20%. The previous limitation of 50% of turnover remained in effect. However, rugby journalist Ian Moriarty dismissed the cap as "little more than a bit of sleight of hand by the LNR to appease a sporting public", noting that the announced cap was 5% greater than the highest official wage bill in the 2009–10 Top 14, and translated to £7.1 million at the time of announcement, well above the then-current £4 million cap in the English Premiership. Moriarty also added that clubs would likely find ways around the cap, noting, "Last season [2008–09], it's rumoured that one big, overseas name was paid less than 40% of his total income as a salary."

Domestic player rules

LNR also announced new rules requiring a minimum percentage of French players on team rosters. Under the new policy, "French players" are defined as those meeting the following criteria:

• Players 21 or over must have been registered with the French Rugby Federation (FFR) for at least five years before having turned 21.
• Players currently under 21 must have spent at least three seasons in an FFR-approved training centre.

The required percentage of French players was 40% this season, and will increase to 50% in 2011–12 and 60% in 2012–13.

Tax issues

A change in French tax law that took effect on 1 July 2010 raised concerns about the financial future of smaller clubs. The root of this issue is a French law known as DIC (Droit à l'Image Collectif), passed in 2004, that had allowed all French professional sports clubs to treat 30% of each player's salary as image rights. This portion of the salary was thus exempt from France's high employment and social insurance taxes, allowing French clubs to compete on a more equal financial footing with those in other European countries. However, the government announced in 2009 that it would suspend DIC.

The policy change was publicly criticized by wealthy club owners. Mourad Boudjellal of Toulon, who claimed that the change in the law would cost him more than €1 million in 2010–11, and Paul Goze of Perpignan took to the pitch before one of their matches to participate in a protest. Max Guazzini of Stade Français complained that the end of DIC would cost him about €800,000. However, the real concern in French rugby circles was for the potential blow to smaller clubs. Bourgoin, who only avoided a bankruptcy filing in 2009 by players agreeing to large wage cuts, faced an effective increase of €400,000 in their 2010–11 expenses. Brive had already announced that they would slash their budget by 40% for the 2010–11 season, but with a 2009–10 wage bill of €7.2 million and several high-profile players locked into long-term contracts, the increased tax bill was speculated to be a serious problem for the club.

Financial troubles at Bourgoin

Bourgoin's financial struggles became a major issue during the early summer of 2010. The club had been called in for a financial review by LNR's financial watchdog DNACG late in the 2009–10 season, which they survived with no action taken at that time. However, after the fixture list for the 2010–11 season was released, DNACG denied Bourgoin a professional license. Bourgoin appealed this ruling, and also considered pursuing legal action against LNR. However, the FFR officially rescinded the DNACG's ruling on July 9, allowing Bourgoin to stay in the Top 14, thus also confirming Albi's place in Pro D2.

The teams

Note: Stade Francais have moved their home matches from their traditional home of Stade Jean-Bouin while a new 20,000-seat stadium is built on the site. The new Jean-Bouin is scheduled to open in 2013–14.

Table

Qualified for the 2011–12 Heineken Cup Qualified for the 2011–12 Heineken Cup ;Notes

1. It was possible that the sixth-place team on the table would not qualify for the Heineken Cup. However, it would have occurred only if French teams had won both the Heineken Cup and Amlin Challenge Cup, both of these teams had finished outside the top six on the league table and avoided relegation, and the sixth-place team had not advanced to the Top 14 final (under LNR regulations, the participants in the final receive the first two priority spots on its Heineken Cup entry list, ahead of a French Heineken Cup winner). This did not happen in 2010–11.
2. Conversely, if the only French team to win a European trophy finished in the top six, or if both European trophy winners finished in the top six, the seventh-place finisher would receive a Heineken Cup berth. This also did not happen in 2010–11, as the cup winners were Leinster (Ireland, Heineken Cup) and Harlequins (England, Challenge Cup).

Results

As in recent seasons, several teams took occasional home matches to larger stadiums, either in their home city or a nearby location. In addition to Stade Français and Toulouse, whose use of larger venues is long-established, the following teams took home matches to other venues:

• Castres — Round 2 vs. Toulouse, Stade de la Méditerranée, Béziers
• Toulon — Round 7 vs. Clermont and Round 25 vs. Toulouse, Stade Vélodrome, Marseille
• Bourgoin — Round 12 vs. Toulouse and Round 20 vs. Racing Métro, Stade des Alpes, Grenoble
• Bayonne — Round 20 vs. Toulouse, Estadio Anoeta, Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
• Biarritz — Round 22 vs. Bayonne, Estadio Anoeta
• Racing Métro — Round 22 vs. Toulouse, Stade de France, Saint-Denis

Key

The score of the game is given by the middle (third and fourth) columns. The first and last columns indicate the number of tries scored by the home and the away team, respectively. A blue border indicates that the team has earned an attacking bonus point (i.e. has scored at least three more tries than its opponent), a yellow one that the team has earned a defensive bonus point (defeat by 7 points or less).

Within each round, matches are listed in order of kickoff time. Matches with the same kickoff time are listed in alphabetic order of the home team. A dark horizontal line separates matches held on different dates.

;; Round 1 13 and 14 August

;; Round 2 20 and 21 August

;; Round 3 27 and 28 August

;; Round 4 1 September

;; Round 5 5 September

;; Round 6 10 and 11 September

;; Round 7 17 and 18 September

;; Round 8 24 and 25 September

;; Round 9 1 and 2 October

;; Round 10 22 and 23 October

;; Round 11 29 and 30 October

;; Round 12 4 November

;; Round 13 4 December

;; Round 14 29 December

;; Round 15 2 January

;; Round 16 7–9 January

;; Round 17 26 and 27 January

;; Round 18 11 and 12 February

;; Round 19 18 and 19 February

;; Round 20 4 and 5 March

;; Round 21 11 March

;; Round 22 25–27 March

;; Round 23 1 and 2 April

;; Round 24 15 and 16 April

;; Round 25 22 and 23 April

;; Round 26 7 May

Playoffs

| RD1-seed1=4 | RD1-team1=Clermont | RD1-score1=27 | RD1-seed2=5 | RD1-team2=Biarritz | RD1-score2=17 | RD1-seed3=3 | RD1-team3=Castres | RD1-score3=17 | RD1-seed4=6 | RD1-team4=Montpellier | RD1-score4=18 | RD2-seed1=1 | RD2-team1=Toulouse | RD2-score1=29 | RD2-seed2=4 | RD2-team2=Clermont | RD2-score2=6 | RD2-seed3=2 | RD2-team3=Racing Métro | RD2-score3=25 | RD2-seed4=6 | RD2-team4=Montpellier | RD2-score4=26 | RD3-seed1=1 | RD3-team1=Toulouse | RD3-score1=15 | RD3-seed2=6 | RD3-team2=Montpellier | RD3-score2=10

All times are in Central European Summer Time (UTC+2).

Quarter-finals

Lapandry 68' c Malzieu 73' c James (1/1) Parra (1/2) 40+2' Peyrelongue 37' c

Penalty try 40' c

Semi-finals

Bézy (1/1) Bézy (1/4) 79' Parra (1/2) 35'

Wisniewski 62' c Qovu 76' c Wisniewski (1/3) 16' Fernández 42' c

Final

Bézy (2/2) 70', 75'

| Touch judges:

FRA

FRA

Television Match Official:

FRA |}--

Individual statistics

Correct as of June 5, 2011

Top points scorers

Top try scorers

References

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6. "Heineken Cup – Key Tournament Rules". European Rugby Cup.
7. (2010-05-12). "Article 328, Section 3.1 – Participation des clubs français en Coupes d’Europe". Ligue Nationale de Rugby.
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9. "Article 330, Section 3.2. Points "terrain"". Ligue Nationale de Rugby.
10. Moriarty, Ian. (2009-12-18). "Salary cap just sleight of hand". Scrum.com.
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13. (2010-04-01). "Montauban face Top 14 ruin". Scrum.com.
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15. Moriarty, Ian. (2010-07-06). "Time to hit the panic button?". Scrum.com.
16. (2010-07-09). "Bourgoin maintenu en Top 14".
17. Moriarty, Ian. (2011-05-17). "Times are changing in Paris". ESPN Scrum.
18. (2011-01-04). "Décision du Conseil Supérieur de la DNACG suite à la situation du CS Bourgoin-Jallieu". [[Ligue Nationale de Rugby.
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21. (2011-05-13). "Clermont – Biarritz, Top 14 (vendredi 13 mai 2011), Fiche Match". [[L'Équipe]].
22. (2011-05-14). "Castres – Montpellier, Top 14 (samedi 14 mai 2011), Fiche Match". [[L'Équipe]].
23. (2011-05-27). "Toulouse – Clermont, Top 14 (vendredi 27 mai 2011), Fiche Match". [[L'Équipe]].
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