2020–21 Top 14 season

2020–21 Top 14
Countries	France
Date	4 September 2020 – 25 June 2021
Champions	Toulouse (21st title)
Runners-up	La Rochelle
Relegated	Agen Bayonne
Official website
www.lnr.fr/rugby-top-14
← 2019–20 2021–22 →

The 2020–21 Top 14 competition is the 122nd French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). After play was suspended following the 17th matchday of the 2019–20 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, the season was officially cancelled without any winner or promotion/relegation on 6 May 2020.^[1] Of the 2020–21 season, some last round matches were rescheduled for 16/17 January 2021, with the playoffs and final taking place in June 2021.

Club	City (department)	Stadium	Capacity	Previous season
Agen	Agen (Lot-et-Garonne)	Stade Armandie	13,863	13th
Bayonne	Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Stade Jean Dauger	16,934	11th
Bordeaux Bègles	Bordeaux (Gironde)	Stade Chaban-Delmas[a 1]	33,500	1st
Brive	Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze)	Stade Amédée-Domenech	13,979	10th
Castres	Castres (Tarn)	Stade Pierre-Fabre	12,500	9th
Clermont	Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme)	Stade Marcel-Michelin	19,022	6th
La Rochelle	La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime)	Stade Marcel-Deflandre	16,000	5th
Lyon	Lyon (Métropole de Lyon)	Matmut Stadium de Gerland	25,000	2nd
Montpellier	Montpellier (Hérault)	Altrad Stadium	15,697	8th
Pau	Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Stade du Hameau	18,324	12th
Racing	Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine)	Paris La Défense Arena	30,681	3rd
Stade Français	Paris, 16th arrondissement	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000	14th
Toulon	Toulon (Var)	Stade Mayol[a 2]	18,200	4th
Toulouse	Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)	Stade Ernest-Wallon[a 3]	18,754	7th

Teams	Region or country	Team(s)
6	Nouvelle-Aquitaine	Agen, Bayonne, Bordeaux Bègles, Brive, La Rochelle, Pau
3	Occitanie	Castres, Montpellier, 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,^[2] 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.^[3]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:^[3]

• 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.

2020–21 Top 14 Table
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Diff.	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	Toulouse (CH)	26	17	1	8	767	557	+210	8	3	81
2	La Rochelle (RU)	26	17	0	9	726	452	+274	6	4	78
3	Racing (SF)	26	17	0	9	757	577	+180	6	4	78
4	Bordeaux Bègles (SF)	26	15	1	10	740	546	+194	7	3	72
5	Clermont (QF)	26	15	1	10	830	619	+211	6	3	71
6	Stade Français (QF)	26	15	0	11	701	622	+79	6	4	70
7	Castres	26	15	1	10	625	676	–51	3	4	69
8	Toulon	26	14	0	12	641	605	+36	7	3	66
9	Lyon	26	14	1	11	678	568	+110	3	4	65
10	Montpellier	26	10	0	16	579	615	–36	6	8	54
11	Brive	26	11	0	15	585	711	–126	2	5	51
12	Pau	26	9	1	16	688	752	–64	2	6	46
13	Bayonne (R)	26	10	0	16	565	796	–231	1	5	46
14	Agen (R)	26	0	0	26	315	1101	–786	0	2	2
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order: Competition points earned in head-to-head matches Points difference in head-to-head matches Try differential in head-to-head matches Points difference in all matches Try differential in all matches Points scored in all matches Tries scored in all matches Fewer matches forfeited Classification in the previous Top 14 season
Green background (rows 1 and 2) receive semi-final play-off places and receive berths in the 2021–22 European Rugby Champions Cup. Blue background (rows 3 to 6) receive quarter-final play-off places, and receive berths in the Champions Cup. Yellow background (row 7 and Montpellier) receive berths in the Champions Cup. Montpellier received a berth for winning the 2020–21 European Rugby Challenge Cup. Plain background indicates teams that earn a place in the 2021–22 European Rugby Challenge Cup. Pink background (row 13) will be contest a play-off with the runners-up of the 2020–21 Rugby Pro D2 season for a place in the 2021–22 Top 14 season. Red background (row 14) will be relegated to Rugby Pro D2. Final table

Starting from the 2017–18 season forward, only the 14th placed team will be automatically relegated to Pro D2. The 13th placed team will face the runner-up of the Pro D2 play-off, with the winner of that play-off taking up the final place in Top 14 for the following season.^[4]

The team finishing in 13th place faces the runner-up of the Pro D2, with the winner of this match playing in the 2021–22 Top 14 and the loser in the 2021–22 Pro D2.

	Semi-final Qualifiers					Semi-finals					Final
						1	Toulouse	24
	4	Bordeaux Bègles	25			4	Bordeaux Bègles	21
	5	Clermont	16								1	Toulouse	18
											2	La Rochelle	8
						2	La Rochelle	19
	3	Racing 92	38			3	Racing 92	6
	6	Stade Français	21

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FB 15 Cheslin Kolbe RW 14 Juan Cruz Mallía OC 13 Santiago Chocobares IC 12 Pita Ahki LW 11 Matthis Lebel  74' FH 10 Thomas Ramos SH 9 Antoine Dupont  77' N8 8 Selevasio Tolofua  52' OF 7 François Cros BF 6 Rynhardt Elstadt RL 5 Richie Arnold  59' LL 4 Rory Arnold  67' TP 3 Charlie Faumuina  62' HK 2 Julien Marchand (c)  57' LP 1 Cyril Baille  62' Substitutions: HK 16 Peato Mauvaka  57' PR 17 Rodrigue Neti  62' LK 18 Joe Tekori  59' LK 19 Thibaud Flament  67' BR 20 Jerome Kaino  52' SH 21 Alexi Balès  77' FB 22 Maxime Médard  74' PR 23 Dorian Aldegheri  62' Coach: Ugo Mola

FB 15 Brice Dulin  22' RW 14 Dillyn Leyds OC 13 Raymond Rhule IC 12 Geoffrey Doumayrou LW 11 Arthur Retière FH 10 Ihaia West  64' SH 9 Tawera Kerr-Barlow  74' N8 8 Grégory Alldritt  47' OF 7 Kevin Gourdon BF 6 Wiaan Liebenberg RL 5 Will Skelton LL 4 Romain Sazy (c)  58' TP 3 Uini Atonio  67' HK 2 Facundo Bosch  67' LP 1 Reda Wardi  61' Substitutions: HK 16 Samuel Lagrange  67' PR 17 Dany Priso  61' LK 18 Thomas Lavault  58' BR 19 Victor Vito  47' SH 20 Jules Le Bail  74' FH 21 Jules Plisson  64' CE 22 Jules Favre  22' PR 23 Arthur Joly  67' Coach: Jono Gibbes Ronan O'Gara

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

• 2020–21 Rugby Pro D2 season