2021–22 Top 14 season

2021–22 Top 14
Countries	France
Date	4 September 2021 - 5 June 2022
Champions	Montpellier (1st title)
Runners-up	Castres
Relegated	Biarritz
Official website
www.lnr.fr/rugby-top-14
← 2020–21 2022–23 →

The 2021–22 Top 14 competition was the 123rd French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).

Biarritz

Bordeaux Bègles

Brive

Castres

Clermont

La Rochelle

Lyon

Montpellier

Pau

Perpignan

Racing

Stade Français

Toulon

Toulouse

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Locations of the 2021–22 Top 14 teams

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

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 scoring at least 3 more tries than the opponent. This replaces the standard bonus point for scoring 4 tries regardless of the opponent scoring.
• 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, 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]

The team finishing in 13th place faces the runner-up of the Pro D2, with the winner of this match playing in the 2022–23 Top 14 and the loser in the 2022–23 Pro D2.

FB 15 Julien Dumora RW 14 Geoffrey Palis OC 13 Thomas Combezou IC 12 Vilimoni Botitu LW 11 Filipo Nakosi FH 10 Benjamín Urdapilleta SH 9 Santiago Arata N8 8 Teariki Ben-Nicholas OF 7 Nick Champion de Crespigny BF 6 Mathieu Babillot (c) RL 5 Tom Staniforth LL 4 Florent Vanverberghe TP 3 Wilfrid Hounkpatin HK 2 Gaëtan Barlot LP 1 Quentin Walcker Substitutions: HK 16 Paul Ngauamo PR 17 Wayan De Bendittis LK 18 Loïc Jacquet BR 19 Baptiste Delaporte SH 20 Jérémy Fernandez CE 21 Adrea Cocagi CE 22 Antoine Zeghdar PR 23 Levan Chilachava Coach: Pierre-Henry Broncan

FB 15 Anthony Bouthier RW 14 Arthur Vincent OC 13 Geoffrey Doumayrou IC 12 Jan Serfontein LW 11 Vincent Rattez FH 10 Paolo Garbisi SH 9 Benoît Paillaugue N8 8 Zach Mercer OF 7 Yacouba Camara (c) BF 6 Alexandre Bécognée RL 5 Bastien Chalureau LL 4 Florian Verhaeghe TP 3 Mohamed Haouas HK 2 Guilhem Guirado LP 1 Titi Lamositele Substitutions: HK 16 Brandon Paenga-Amosa PR 17 Robert Rodgers LK 18 Mickaël Capelli LK 19 Nico Janse van Rensburg SH 20 Gela Aprasidze WG 21 Gabriel N'Gandebe FH 22 Handré Pollard PR 23 Henry Thomas Coach: Philippe Saint-André

• 2021–22 Rugby Pro D2 season