French rugby 2023/24

[Robespierre]

Have Bayonne been expelled from the League

Bravo, Ourla! You’ve spotted this week’s deliberate mistake! Bayonne are 9th with 43 points!

[Robespierre]

If Tigers' supporters are looking for a chant or song, they could do a lot worse than to look to the magnificent example set by the Bayonne club, where Manu will be playing next season:


https://twitter.com/i/status/1586445587528187905

[Robespierre]

Top14 round 20 results:

Bayonne 10 Toulon 46 (this "home" match was played at the Anoeta Stadium in Saint-Sebastien, Spain and was Bayonne's first home defeat in this season's Top14. Their home ground Jean Dauger has been a fortress over recent years with an extremely vocal and partisan crowd and they clearly missed it going over the border into Spain. Take a look at the previous post to listen to the Bayonne crowd in full voice!)
Montpellier 10 Stade Français 12 (SF stay top and Montpellier 2nd from bottom)
La Rochelle 40 Oyonnax 21
Lyon 27 Bordeaux-Bègles 10
Perpignan 43 Castres 12
Racing 26 Clermont 10 (how the once mighty Clermont have fallen - to 11th place)
Toulouse 31 Pau 29 (a remarkable game that Toulouse clinched with a try in the 80th minute. It was Romain Ntamack's first game back since his injury in a pre World Cup game)

1 SF 63
2 Toulouse 60
3 Racing 52
4 Toulon 51
5 La Rochelle 51
6 B/B 49
7 Pau 46
8 Castres 45
9 Perpignan 44
10 Bayonne 43
11 Clermont 42
12 Lyon 42
13 Montpellier 38
14 Oyonnax 26

Round 21 will be played on April 20/21:

Castres v La Rochelle
Oyonnax v Racing
Pau v Montpellier (could see the Simmonds brothers in opposition to each other)
Perpignan v Lyon (Lyon are now flirting with the relegation places)
SF v Bayonne
Toulon v Toulouse
B/B v La Rochelle

[Ian Cant]

Pleased Zac Henry is getting massive praise for his Fly Half play at Stade.
To play as well as he did with PAU whilst his poor dad was so ill was a huge credit to Zac and the encouragement of his father who did, sadly, pass away.
Zac has credited Steve Borthwick and Tigers for helping to improve him as a Fly Half.
I always enjoyed watching him when he was a Tiger.

[RunTigerRun]

Pleased Zac Henry is getting massive praise for his Fly Half play at Stade.
To play as well as he did with PAU whilst his poor dad was so ill was a huge credit to Zac and the encouragement of his father who did, sadly, pass away.
Zac has credited Steve Borthwick and Tigers for helping to improve him as a Fly Half.
I always enjoyed watching him when he was a Tiger.

Zac was a great Tiger imo, just didn’t quite fit the Borthwick mould. Actually think he’d suit McKellar and would allow Shillcock to play 15 if he was still at the club. One of those ‘in another world’ scenarios! Glad he’s still playing well and hopefully they can shake the Top14 up a little this season!

[Robespierre]

Pleased Zac Henry is getting massive praise for his Fly Half play at Stade.
To play as well as he did with PAU whilst his poor dad was so ill was a huge credit to Zac and the encouragement of his father who did, sadly, pass away.
Zac has credited Steve Borthwick and Tigers for helping to improve him as a Fly Half.
I always enjoyed watching him when he was a Tiger.

Zac was a great Tiger imo, just didn’t quite fit the Borthwick mould. Actually think he’d suit McKellar and would allow Shillcock to play 15 if he was still at the club. One of those ‘in another world’ scenarios! Glad he’s still playing well and hopefully they can shake the Top14 up a little this season!

Yes, it's good that he's getting some well-deserved recognition in the Top14, which is an extremely tough league.
Worthy of note is that former Tiger, Steve Gustard, is the current defence coach of Stade Français.

[Robespierre]

The elderly among us will remember the name of André Boniface, a legend of French rugby who was a wonderful attacking centre for Mont de Marsan and France, for whom he won 48 caps between 1954 and 1966 and won five 5Nations tournaments, has died at the age of 89.

You'll also remember his brother Guy, who died in a road accident in 1968.

[tigerburnie]

This shows it's not just English rugby struggling for investment, not all rosy the other side of the Channel unfortunately
https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/storm-cl ... -bail-out/

[Robespierre]

This shows it's not just English rugby struggling for investment, not all rosy the other side of the Channel unfortunately
https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/storm-cl ... -bail-out/

Yes, the once mighty Biarritz Olympique are struggling in 13th place (of 16) in ProD2 with no immediate prospect of climbing the table as their next match is on Friday evening at promotion chasing Mont de Marsan, currently 5th.

Former players include, Imanol Harinordoquy, Serge Betsen, Dimitri Yachvili, Damien Traille, Serge Blanco, Thierry Dusautoir.

Their stadium, Parc des Sports d'Aguilera has been in need of renovation to increase crowd capacity for a while now and there's been a long-running row with the Mairie (town hall) of Biarritz regarding the financing.

Surely a club of this tradition and standing in French rugby won't be allowed to slip into the lower divisions?

[Rugbygramps]

This shows it's not just English rugby struggling for investment, not all rosy the other side of the Channel unfortunately
https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/storm-cl ... -bail-out/

Yes, the once mighty Biarritz Olympique are struggling in 13th place (of 16) in ProD2 with no immediate prospect of climbing the table as their next match is on Friday evening at promotion chasing Mont de Marsan, currently 5th.

Former players include, Imanol Harinordoquy, Serge Betsen, Dimitri Yachvili, Damien Traille, Serge Blanco, Thierry Dusautoir.

Their stadium, Parc des Sports d'Aguilera has been in need of renovation to increase crowd capacity for a while now and there's been a long-running row with the Mairie (town hall) of Biarritz regarding the financing.

Surely a club of this tradition and standing in French rugby won't be allowed to slip into the lower divisions?

Look what happened to Wasps !!
Sorry I couldn’t resist it

[Robespierre]

This shows it's not just English rugby struggling for investment, not all rosy the other side of the Channel unfortunately
https://www.rugbypass.com/plus/storm-cl ... -bail-out/

Yes, the once mighty Biarritz Olympique are struggling in 13th place (of 16) in ProD2 with no immediate prospect of climbing the table as their next match is on Friday evening at promotion chasing Mont de Marsan, currently 5th.

Former players include, Imanol Harinordoquy, Serge Betsen, Dimitri Yachvili, Damien Traille, Serge Blanco, Thierry Dusautoir.

Their stadium, Parc des Sports d'Aguilera has been in need of renovation to increase crowd capacity for a while now and there's been a long-running row with the Mairie (town hall) of Biarritz regarding the financing.

Surely a club of this tradition and standing in French rugby won't be allowed to slip into the lower divisions?

Look what happened to Wasps !!
Sorry I couldn’t resist it

Ok, but this is France where the relationship between town/commune and rugby club is traditionally strong and light years away from towns like High Wycombe and Coventry.

[Robespierre]

Top14 rugby is back with us this weekend with round 21 of 26, so there will be five rounds left to play before the end of season play offs.
The first two qualify automatically for the semi-finals and then 3rd meet 6th and 4th meet 5th to advance to the semis to be played on June 21st/22nd. The final will be the following Saturday evening, the 28th) in Marseille.
At the other end, it'd now take a miracle for Oyonnax to avoid relegation to ProD2. The 13th placed side (currently Montpellier) will travel to the runner-up in ProD2 for the right to play Top14 next season.

Saturday 20th:
Castres v La Rochelle
Oyonnax v Racing
Pau v Montpellier (could see the Simmonds brothers in opposition to each other)
Perpignan v Lyon (11th placed Lyon are dangerously close to the relegation zone)
Stade Français v Bayonne
Toulon v Toulouse

Sunday 21st
Bordeaux/Bègles v Clermont ( worrying times for 12th placed Clermont who'll do well to come away with something against B/B)

[Robespierre]

This weekend's results:

Castres 25 La Rochelle 24
Oyonnax 13 Racing 43
Pau 31 Montpellier 23
Perpignan 51 Lyon 20 (Perpignan have really turned their season around of late and could be play off contenders)
Stade Français 28 Bayonne 24 (a last minute try and SF scrape a win to keep them in first position)
Toulon 20 Toulouse 19 (Toulouse were shorn of quite a few of their stars and fell short despite a first half red card for a Toulon player)
Bordeaux/Bègles 41 Clermont 7 (what's happened to the Clermont of old. Surely they won't be relegated?)

Lyon and Clermont are only 4 points above the relegation zone:
1 SF 67
2 Toulouse 61
3 Racing 57
4 Toulon 55
5 B/B 54
6 La Rochelle 52
7 Pau 50
8 Perpignan 49
9 Castres 49
10 Bayonne 44
11 Clermont 42
12 Lyon 42
13 Montpellier 38
14 Oyonnax 26

Round 22 this weekend with some tasty fixtures:

Toulouse v Racing (Toulouse will certainly select their top players for this vital match)
Bayonne v Bordeaux/Bègles
Lyon v Pau
Montpellier v Perpignan
Oyonnax v Castres
Clermont v Stade Français
La Rochelle v Toulon