2016–17 Top 14 season

2016–17 Top 14
Countries	France
Date	20 August 2016 – 4 June 2017
Champions	Clermont (2nd title)
Runners-up	Toulon
Relegated	Bayonne, Grenoble
Matches played	187
Attendance	2,715,497 (average 14,521 per match)
Highest attendance	79,771 (play-offs) Clermont v Toulon 4 June 2017 51,672 (league stage) Toulon v Toulouse 9 April 2016
Lowest attendance	5,000 Stade Français v Grenoble 20 August 2016
Top point scorer	Gaëtan Germain (Brive) 324 points
Top try scorer	Waisea Nayacalevu (Stade Français) 14 tries
Official website
www.lnr.fr
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

The 2016–17 Top 14 competition was the 118th French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Two new teams from the 2015–16 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this year, Bayonne and Lyon in place of the two relegated teams, Agen and Oyonnax. It marked the first time that both promoted teams had returned on their first opportunity after relegation (Bayonne and Lyon were both relegated during the 2014–15 Top 14 season).

Club	City (department)	Stadium	Capacity
Bayonne	Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Stade Jean Dauger	16,934
Bordeaux Bègles	Bordeaux (Gironde)	Stade Chaban-Delmas (Bordeaux)	34,694
Brive	Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze)	Stade Amédée-Domenech	13,979[a 1]
Castres	Castres (Tarn)	Stade Pierre-Antoine	11,500
Clermont	Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme)	Stade Marcel-Michelin	19,022
Grenoble	Grenoble (Isère)	Stade des Alpes[a 2]	20,068
La Rochelle	La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime)	Stade Marcel-Deflandre	15,000
Lyon	Lyon (Rhône)	Matmut Stadium de Gerland Matmut Stadium	25,000 11,805
Montpellier	Montpellier (Hérault)	Altrad Stadium	15,697[a 3]
Pau	Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Stade du Hameau	18,000[a 4]
Racing 92	Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine)	Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir[a 5]	14,000
Stade Français	Paris, 16th arrondissement	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000
Toulon	Toulon (Var)	Stade Mayol[a 6]	15,820[a 7]
Toulouse	Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)	Stade Ernest-Wallon[a 8]	19,500

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.

2016–17 Top 14 Table
	Club	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Points For	Points Against	Points Diff.	Try Bonus	Losing Bonus	Points
1	La Rochelle (SF)	26	17	3	6	707	498	+209	6	5	85
2	Clermont (C)	26	15	3	8	800	562	+238	8	4	78
3	Montpellier (QF)	26	16	0	10	750	564	+186	7	5	76
4	Toulon (RU)	26	14	2	10	674	511	+163	3	6	69
5	Castres (QF)	26	13	1	12	667	509	+158	5	4	63
6	Racing (SF)	26	14	1	11	586	616	–30	3	1	62
7	Stade Français (CC)	26	12	1	13	643	638	+5	5	4	59
8	Brive	26	13	1	12	577	634	–57	0	4	58
9	Pau	26	12	1	13	604	701	–97	2	5	57
10	Lyon	26	11	2	13	573	632	–59	3	4	55
11	Bordeaux Bègles	26	11	1	14	569	581	–12	2	6	54
12	Toulouse	26	11	0	15	537	561	–24	3	6	53
13	Grenoble (R)	26	7	1	18	611	852	–241	2	6	38
14	Bayonne (R)	26	6	3	17	466	905	–439	0	0	30
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 2016–17 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) receive a berth for the 2017–18 European Rugby Champions–Challenge Cup play-offs. Plain background indicates teams that earn a place in the 2017–18 European Rugby Challenge Cup. Pink background (row 13) will be contest a play-off with the runners-up of the 2016–17 Rugby Pro D2 season for a place in the 2017–18 Top 14 season. Red background (row 14) will be relegated to Rugby Pro D2. Final table

Normally, the teams that finish in 13th and 14th places in the table are relegated to Pro D2 at the end of the season. In certain circumstances, "financial reasons" may cause a higher placed team to be demoted instead. This last happened at the end of the 2009–10 season when 12th place Montauban were relegated thereby reprieving 13th place Bayonne.

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• Postponed due to adverse weather conditions. Game rescheduled for 12 February 2017.^[19]

• Postponed due to Racing playing a European Rugby Champions Cup fixture against Munster. The original fixture had been cancelled due to the death of Munster head coach Anthony Foley meaning the game was moved to a weekend. Racing's game against Bayonne would be rescheduled for 11 February 2017.

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• Game rescheduled from 8 January 2017.

• Game rescheduled from 8 January 2017.

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• Postponed due to player strikes and turmoil surrounding the announced merger between franciliens teams Stade Français and Racing 92. Game would be rescheduled to 19 April 2017.^[25]

• Postponed due to player strikes and turmoil surrounding the announced merger between franciliens teams Stade Français and Racing 92. Game would be rescheduled to 22 April 2017.^[25]

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• Game rescheduled from 17 March 2017.

• Game rescheduled from 18 March 2017.

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	Semi-final Qualifiers					Semifinals					Final
						1	La Rochelle	15
	4	Toulon	26			4	Toulon	18
	5	Castres	22								4	Toulon	16
											2	Clermont	22
						2	Clermont	37
	3	Montpellier	13			6	Racing	31
	6	Racing	22

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FB 15 Nick Abendanon RW 14 David Strettle  72' OC 13 Damian Penaud  49' IC 12 Rémi Lamerat LW 11 Alivereti Raka FH 10 Camille Lopez SH 9 Morgan Parra N8 8 Fritz Lee 35' to 45' OF 7 Judicaël Cancoriet BF 6 Damien Chouly (c) RL 5 Sitaleki Timani  26' LL 4 Arthur Iturria  42' TP 3 Davit Zirakashvili  78' HK 2 Benjamin Kayser  60' LP 1 Raphaël Chaume  68' Substitutions: HK 16 John Ulugia  60' PR 17 Etienne Falgoux  68' LK 18 Paul Jedrasiak  26' FL 19 Peceli Yato  42' SH 20 Ludovic Radosavljevic FH 21 Patricio Fernández  72' CE 22 Aurélien Rougerie  49' PR 23 Aaron Jarvis  78' Coach: Franck Azéma

FB 15 James O'Connor  35'  40+1' RW 14 Josua Tuisova  69'  72' OC 13 Mathieu Bastareaud IC 12 Ma'a Nonu LW 11 Drew Mitchell  60'  69'  72' FH 10 Anthony Belleau  60' SH 9 Sébastien Tillous-Borde N8 8 Duane Vermeulen (c) OF 7 Liam Gill BF 6 Juan Smith  64'  78' RL 5 Romain Taofifénua  64' LL 4 Juandré Kruger TP 3 Marcel van der Merwe  53' HK 2 Guilhem Guirado  69' LP 1 Laurent Delboulbès  42'  53'  55' Substitutions: HK 16 Anthony Etrillard  69' PR 17 Xavier Chiocci  42'  53'  55' LK 18 Mamuka Gorgodze  64' FL 19 Juan Martín Fernández Lobbe  64'  78' FH 20 François Trinh-Duc  35'  40+1'  60' CE 21 Matt Giteau  60' SH 22 Éric Escande PR 23 Levan Chilachava  53' Coach: Richard Cockerill

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.

• Attendances do not include the semi-finals or final as these are at neutral venues.

Club	Home Games	Total	Average	Highest	Lowest	% Capacity
Bayonne	13	166,415	12,801	16,933	10,200	76%
Bordeaux Bègles	13	310,438	23,880	28,212	18,564	68%
Brive	13	137,578	10,583	13,979	8,979	76%
Castres	13	114,008	8,770	10,228	7,903	76%
Clermont	13	221,080	17,006	18,778	15,000	89%
Grenoble	13	167,164	12,859	15,200	9,000	64%
La Rochelle	13	193,586	14,891	15,000	13,860	99%
Lyon	13	159,491	12,269	21,465	8,385	74%
Montpellier[a 9]	14	157,738	11,267	14,997	9,000	72%
Pau	13	144,903	11,146	12,064	10,018	62%
Racing 92	13	136,349	10,488	31,432	6,101	62%
Stade Francais	13	141,794	10,907	19,883	5,000	55%
Toulon[a 10]	14	259,107	18,508	51,672	11,207	86%
Toulouse	13	198,310	15,255	24,989	10,034	70%

• 2016–17 Rugby Pro D2 season