2014–15 Rugby Pro D2 season

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2014–15 Pro D2
Countries	France
Date	23 August 2014 – 24 May 2015[1]
Champions	Pau
Promoted	Agen
Relegated	Massy
Matches played	112
Attendance	199,262 (average 1,779 per match)
Tries scored	178 (average 1.6 per match)
Top point scorer	Gilles Bosch (Carcassonne) 180 points[2]
Top try scorer	Taleta Tupuloa (Montauban) & Rodney Davies (Biarritz) 6 tries[3]
Official website
www.lnr.fr
← 2013–14 2015–16 →

The 2014–15 Rugby Pro D2 was the second-level French rugby union club competition, behind the Top 14, for the 2014–15 season. It ran alongside the 2014–15 Top 14 competition; both competitions are operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). The average team salaries at the outset of the 2014–15 season were €5.97m; Biarritz and Perpignan had the highest team salaries with €11.07m.^[4]

Teams

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity
SU Agen Lot-et-Garonne	Agen (Lot-et-Garonne)	Stade Armandie	14,000
SC Albi	Albi (Tarn)	Stadium Municipal d'Albi	13,000
Stade Aurillacois	Aurillac (Cantal)	Stade Jean Alric	9,000
AS Béziers Hérault	Béziers (Hérault)	Stade de la Méditerranée	18,500
Biarritz Olympique	Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Parc des Sports Aguiléra	15,000
CS Bourgoin-Jallieu	Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère)	Stade Pierre Rajon	10,000
US Carcassonne	Carcassonne (Aude)	Stade Albert Domec	10,000
US Colomiers	Colomiers (Haute-Garonne)	Stade Michel Bendichou	11,400
US Dax	Dax (Landes)	Stade Maurice Boyau	16,170
RC Massy	Massy (Essonne)	Stade Jules Ladoumègue	3,200
US Montauban	Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne)	Stade Sapiac	12,600
Stade Montois	Mont-de-Marsan (Landes)	Stade Guy Boniface	22,000
RC Narbonne	Narbonne (Aude)	Parc des Sports Et de l'Amitié	12,000
Section Paloise	Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Stade du Hameau	13,800
USA Perpignan	Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales)	Stade Aimé Giral	16,600
Tarbes Pyrénées Rugby	Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées)	Stade Maurice Trélut	16,400

Changes in the lineup from 2013–14 were:

• Lyon won the 2013–14 Pro D2 title and were thereby automatically promoted to the Top 14. La Rochelle won the promotion playoffs to secure the second promotion place.
• The bottom two finishers in 2013–14, Bourg-en-Bresse and Auch, were relegated from Pro D2 to Fédérale 1.
• The two bottom finishers in the 2013–14 Top 14 season, Perpignan and Biarritz Olympique, were relegated to Pro D2.
• The two finalists in Fédérale 1, champion Montauban and runner-up Massy, earned promotion.

Competition format

The top team at the end of the regular season (after all the teams played one another twice, once at home, once away), is declared champion and earns a spot in the next Top 14 season. Teams ranked second to fifth compete in promotion playoffs, with the semifinals being played at the home ground of the higher-ranked team. The final is then played on neutral ground, and the winner earns the second ticket to the next Top 14.

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,^[5] 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.^[6]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:^[7]

• 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 less). This is a change from previous seasons, in which the margin was 7 points or less.

Table

2014–15 Rugby Pro D2 table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Promotion or relegation
1	Pau	30	20	1	9	754	530	+224	10	2	94	Champions automatically promoted to Top 14
2	Mont-de-Marsan	30	18	0	12	676	531	+145	4	7	83	Qualified for the promotion play-offs
3	Perpignan	30	17	1	12	744	615	+129	7	5	82
4	Agen	30	17	0	13	732	611	+121	7	6	81	Winner of the promotion play-offs
5	Albi	30	18	0	12	651	606	+45	2	6	80	Qualified for the promotion play-offs
6	Aurillac	30	16	2	12	650	579	+71	6	3	77
7	Biarritz	30	17	0	13	647	580	+67	6	3	77
8	Colomiers	30	16	0	14	635	632	+3	1	4	69
9	Carcassonne	30	15	0	15	688	706	−18	2	4	66
10	Montauban	30	13	1	16	627	638	−11	5	5	64
11	Béziers	30	14	0	16	620	655	−35	2	5	63
12	Tarbes	30	13	2	15	635	750	−115	0	6	62
13	Bourgoin	30	11	3	16	548	652	−104	2	4	56
14	Narbonne	30	11	1	18	604	746	−142	1	3	50
15	Dax[a]	30	10	1	19	518	687	−169	1	4	47
16	Massy	30	8	0	22	643	854	−211	1	8	41	Relegated to Fédérale 1

Relegation

Previously, the teams that finish in 15th and 16th places in the table are relegated to Fédérale 1 at the end of the season. In certain circumstances, "financial reasons" may cause a higher-placed team to be demoted instead, or prevent one of the two finalists in Fédérale 1 from promotion.

This season saw an example of the latter situation. Following the 2014–15 season, 15th-place Dax was spared relegation after Fédérale 1 runner-up Lille was denied promotion due to excessive debt^[8] and failed in an appeal of the decision.^[9]

The last instance of a team outside the bottom two places being relegated was at the end of the 2011–12 season, when 9th-place Bourgoin were relegated, thereby reprieving 15th-place Béziers.

Fixtures

The outline fixtures schedule was announced on 16 May 2014.^[1][10]

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

Weekend of 13 December 2014

Round 15

Weekend of 20 December 2014

Round 16

Weekend of 10 January 2015

Round 17

Weekend of 17 January 2015

Round 18

Weekend of 24 January 2015

Round 19

Weekend of 31 January 2015

Round 20

Weekend of 7 February 2015

Round 21

Weekend of 21 February 2015

Round 22

Weekend of 28 February 2015

Round 23

Weekend of 7 March 2015

Round 24

Weekend of 14 March 2015

Round 25

Weekend of 28 March 2015

Round 26

Weekend of 4 April 2015

Round 27

Weekend of 11 April 2015

Round 28

Weekend of 25 April 2015

Round 29

Weekend of 2 May 2015

Round 30

Weekend of 9 May 2015

Play–offs

The highest ranked team at the end of the regular season, Pau, earned automatic promotion to the Top 14 as champion de France de PRO D2 2015.

Semi–finals

The semi–finals followed a 2 v 5, 3 v 4 system, with the higher ranked team playing at home.

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• Under LNR rules, if a playoff match ends level after full-time, the first tiebreaker is try count. Agen advanced with 4 tries to Perpignan's 2.

Final

The winners of the semi–finals played off for the second promotion spot to the Top 14.

See also

• 2014–15 Top 14 season

References

External links

• (in French) Ligue Nationale de Rugby – Official website
• (in French) Midi Olympique