2023–24 Top 14 season

2023–24 Top 14
Countries	France
Date	18 August 2023 – 29 June 2024
← 2022–23 2024–25 →

The 2023–24 Top 14 competition is the 125th French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).

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 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. 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,^[1] 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.^[2]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:^[2]

• 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.

From the 2017–18 season onwards, only the 14th placed team is automatically relegated to the Pro D2. The 13th placed team play the runner-up of the Pro D2 play-off, with the winner taking up the final place in the Top 14 for the following season.^[3]

Teams

Fourteen clubs will compete in the 2023–24 Top 14 season, 13 of them returning. Brive were relegated to Pro D2 after finishing at the bottom of the table the previous season. Oyonnax is the sole promoted club, finishing first in the Pro D2 the previous season and winning the Pro D2 playoffs. Perpignan, who finished 13th in the previous Top 14 season, defeated Grenoble in the relegation playoffs to retain their place.

2023–24 Top 14 clubs

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity	Prev
Bayonne	Bayonne	Stade Jean Dauger	16,934	8th
Bordeaux Bègles	Bordeaux	Stade Chaban-Delmas[a]	33,500	6th
Castres	Castres	Stade Pierre-Fabre	12,500	9th
Clermont	Clermont-Ferrand	Stade Marcel-Michelin	19,022	10th
La Rochelle	La Rochelle	Stade Marcel-Deflandre	16,000	2nd
Lyon	Lyon	Matmut Stadium de Gerland	25,000	3rd
Montpellier	Montpellier	Altrad Stadium	15,697	11th
Oyonnax	Oyonnax	Stade Charles-Mathon	11,500	1st (D2)
Pau	Pau	Stade du Hameau	18,324	12th
Perpignan	Perpignan	Stade Aimé Giral	14,593	13th
Racing	Nanterre	Paris La Défense Arena	30,681	5th
Stade Français	Paris	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000	4th
Toulon	Toulon	Stade Mayol[b]	18,200	7th
Toulouse	Toulouse	Stade Ernest-Wallon[c]	18,754	1st

2023–24 Top 14 clubs by region

Teams	Region or country	Team(s)
4	Nouvelle-Aquitaine	Bayonne, Bordeaux Bègles, La Rochelle, Pau
	Occitanie	Castres, Montpellier, Perpignan, Toulouse
3	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	Clermont, Lyon, Oyonnax
2	Île-de-France	Racing, Stade Français
1	Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur	Toulon

Table

2023–24 Top 14 Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Stade Français	21	15	1	5	440	356	+84	46	30	4	1	67	Qualification for 2024–25 European Rugby Champions Cup and Playoffs
2	Toulouse	21	13	0	8	596	469	+127	81	55	6	3	61
3	Racing 92	21	12	0	9	525	418	+107	67	42	5	4	57
4	Toulon	21	12	0	9	558	418	+140	57	47	4	3	55
5	Bordeaux Bègles	21	12	0	9	521	463	+58	60	54	3	3	54
6	La Rochelle	21	10	0	11	474	372	+102	54	34	5	7	52
7	Pau	21	11	0	10	497	481	+16	51	54	2	4	50	Qualification for 2024–25 European Rugby Challenge Cup
8	Perpignan	21	11	0	10	500	557	−57	64	69	5	0	49
9	Castres	21	10	0	11	522	523	−1	56	62	4	5	49
10	Bayonne	21	9	0	12	460	532	−72	51	62	2	6	44
11	Clermont	21	8	2	11	447	538	−91	50	63	3	3	42
12	Lyon	21	9	0	12	482	621	−139	52	73	4	2	42
13	Montpellier	21	8	0	13	418	496	−78	46	57	1	5	38	Qualification for Relegation play-off
14	Oyonnax	21	5	1	15	449	645	−196	47	80	0	4	26	Relegation to Pro D2

Regular season

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

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Round 23

Round 24

Round 25

Round 26

Relegation play-off

Playoffs

Bracket

	Semi-final Qualifiers					Semi-finals					Final
						1
	4
	5
						2
	3
	6

See also

• List of 2023–24 Top 14 transfers
• 2023–24 Rugby Pro D2 season

References