LONG READ ProD2 season 2026-27 preview: Club-by-club guide as French second tier kicks off

Some 83 days after Vannes beat Provence in Toulouse to win promotion to the Top 14 as ProD2 champions, and 75 after Provence lost their second chance to join the Breton side in the top flight, the ProD2 returns for the 2026-27 campaign on this final Thursday in August.

Between the 16 teams and their primary target – the end of the regular season – in mid-May, are 240 matches. Or, to put it another way, 30 each.

The top six will move forward to a knockout play-off race, playing between one and three more matches each. The eventual champions will be promoted to the Top 14, taking the place of the side that finishes bottom of that league. The losing ProD2 finalists then host the 13th-placed side in the Top 14 in a promotion-relegation play-off.

At the other end of the table, in a mirror of that play-off set-up, the bottom side will be relegated, while the team in 15th travels to the home ground of the losing Nationale finalist for a promotion-relegation play-off.

Last season, runaway champions Vannes did the job in 32 matches. Provence played 33, and missed out, losing their promotion-relegation play-off against Perpignan. After their run to a first-ever ProD2 final, Philippe Saint-André’s side will start as one of the hotter favourites this time around.

Down at the bottom of the ProD2, Carcassonne – promoted the previous season – went straight back down to the third-tier Nationale, to be replaced by neighbours Narbonne, while Mont-de-Marsan’s long stay in the second tier ended in a promotion-relegation loss at Nice.

A more pressing question is how the season will shake out with so many clubs changing key members of their staff – some of them for a second time in as many campaigns. Can Gurthro Steenkamp settle a troubled ship at Béziers? Will Gregory Patat and Fabien Fortassin be able to do what Pierre-Henry Broncan and David Darricarrere could not last season at Brive? Is Grenoble’s coaching set-up finally settled after a troubled campaign? Will a long-awaited settled summer suit Biarritz and Dax? How bad is Montauban’s Top 14 hangover?

Here’s how all 16 teams are faring heading into another long and winding campaign.

AGEN

Players in: Jules Soulan, Charles Laloi, Enrique Pieretto Heiland, Akato Fakatika, Nail Adoire, Damien Bozic, Hugo Bouyssou

Players out: Alex Burin, Theo Idjellidaine, Omar Odishvili, Beau Farrance, Evan Olmstead, Mamuka Mstoiani, Luca Tabarot, Mathieu de Giovanni, Lomig Jouanny, Jack Maunder, Lasha Macharashvili, Franck Pourteau, Emile Dayral, Loris Tolot, Romain Darchen

Staff: Mauricio Reggiardo, Dave Ryan, Remi Vaquin, Guillaume Jan

After two staff reshuffles in as many summers, as ex-France U20 coach Sebastien Calvet came and went, it’s been all quiet on the Agen front this pre-season while head coach Mauricio Reggiardo and his team got on with the job of preparing their new-look squad for the coming campaign.

The goal? In an interview with regional newspaper La Depeche before the team headed off to an early August training camp, Reggiardo avoided specific targets, but insisted: “I always say we have to do better than the previous season. That’s my approach.”

They’ll need continuity and improvement – their campaign kicks off with consecutive matches against four sides with play-off ambitions: Provence, Brive, Grenoble and Oyonnax.

The maths seems simple enough. Agen finished seventh last season. Reggiardo may not have said the quiet part out loud, but he’s targeting a top-six finish and the play-offs.

A note of caution, however: last season’s seventh was still some 11 points adrift of the play-offs. But it was a marked improvement on the previous season when ProD2 survival was assured only on the final day.

And that’s where Agen’s focus, rightly, is. Continuity of improvement with a settled staff and a relatively settled team, despite a number of departures. It’s telling that coaches Ryan, Vaquin and Jan were due to sign contract extensions at the end of pre-season, bringing their contracts in line with that of Reggiardo.

They’ll need continuity and improvement – their campaign kicks off with consecutive matches against four sides with play-off ambitions: Provence, Brive, Grenoble and Oyonnax. We’ll see how strong Agen’s ambition really is after that.

AURILLAC

Players in: Jean-Baptiste de Clercq, Lasha Tabidze, Ben Houston, Stephan Le Roux, Guga Ganiashvili, Matteo Coustalat, Nathan Azais, Enzo Marzocca, Thomas Carol, Kleo Labarbe (loan)

Players out: Dominic Robertson-McCoy, Wesley Tapueluelu, Koen Bloemen, Mosa’ati Moala, Abongile Nonkontwana, Mael Perrin, Lucas Oudard, Aurelien Barreau, David Delarue, Jean-Luc Cilliers, AJ Coertzen, Jordon Janse van Rensburg, Axel Bevia, Dachi Papunashvili

Staff: Romeo Gontineac, Mathieu Lescure, Jeremy Wanin, Tim Daniel, Sebastien Delpirou

Seven defeats in their final seven matches put the lid on a season that had started with so much promise for ever-up-punching Aurillac.

They were top-six in early December and eighth at the beginning of March – and very much in the play-off running. But that’s when their final-straight slide to 14th started. They picked up two losing bonus points in the run-in, their worst run ever in the second tier.

The club that boasts the longest continuous run in the ProD2 of any of the current sides wants better, despite operating on a budget that, in French professional rugby terms, just about reaches the shoestring standard.

Aurillac have recruited as they do, cleverly and within their means, maintaining an academy-led policy of promoting young talent.

“This season, we can’t play 23 matches. We have to play [all] 30,” president Christian Millette told Midi Olympique as he set an ambitious top-six target almost by default. “We know we’re up against clubs that are much better equipped, with far more resources. We shouldn’t kid ourselves – it will be very, very difficult.”

Aurillac have recruited as they do, cleverly and within their means, maintaining an academy-led policy of promoting young talent. Big things are expected of new flanker Matteo Coustalat, from Albi, ex-Pau winger Thomas Carol, South African lock Stephan Le Roux, who joins from Niort, and on-loan young Racing 92 scrum-half Kleo Labarbe, to complement the existing young squad under coach Romeo Gontineac.

More importantly, more will be expected of those players who already know the Aurillac way on Stade Jean Alric’s newly installed €2.7m synthetic pitch after back-to-back seasons that ended at the wrong end of the table. The play-offs look out of reach, but comfortably safe should not be out of the question.

BEZIERS

Players in: Malakai Fekitoa, Maka Mafileo, Nikolozi Sutidze (loan), Luka Azariashvili, Killian Taofifenua, Ian Kitwanga, Mackenzie Martin, David Delarue, Joseph Laharrague (loan), Guillaume Galletier, Jordon Janse van Rensburg, Luka Goginava, Paul Gadea, Barnabe Mechentel

Players out: Samuel Marques, Taylor Gontineac, Baltazar Amaya, Marco Trauth, Christian Judge, Youssef Amrouni, John Henry Fincham, Yannick Arroyo, Wilmar Arnoldi, Pierre Gayraud, Petero Mailulu, Clement Doumenc, Otunuku Pauta, Baptiste Abescat, Romain Uruty, Aminiasi Tuimaba, Timeo Labat

Staff: Gurthro Steenkamp, Jandre Marais, Pierre Aguillon, Marius Tincu, Maximiliano Cocetta

The death of academy tighthead prop Luqobo Makwedini, who collapsed near Stade Raoul-Barrière after a training session during the early July heatwave in France, cast a shadow over Béziers’ pre-season preparations under freshly arrived manager Gurthro Steenkamp.

Steenkamp’s position had only been confirmed in June to mark a new start with a new-look squad for the Herault club, a season after a previous abortive new start under short-lived head coach Rory Teague, who had been brought in to replace the ‘invited to leave’ Pierre Caillet.

Having arrived for the 25-26 preseason with a remit to rebuild the club from the youth up, Teague was moved aside by the end of October, with the club stuck in 13th and apparently riven by internal division. Attack coach David Irazoqui stepped up to the head coach role and guided the club to the underwhelming safety of 12th.

Irazoqui has since left to join Grenoble as backs coach. The French rugby press were feverishly speculating that Teague was about to make an astonishing return until ex-La Rochelle scrum coach Steenkamp’s appointment to his first managerial role.

Pierre Aguillon, the ex-La Rochelle, Castres and Carcassonne centre, has taken-on Irazoqui’s role, while Jandre Marais and Marius Tincu retain their pack responsibilities, as Beziers’ revamped squad look for a turnaround in fortunes after numerous big club beasts left for pastures new, while a lot of young players have also moved on from the academy – including ‘star’ arrival Hugo Szarzewski.

Steenkamp’s challenge, laid down by owner Bob Skinstad and new South African shareholder Piet Mouton, is to turn this latest version of new-look Béziers – Mackenzie Martin, Guillaume Galletier, Malakai Fekitoa, Ian Kitwanga and Maka Mafileo are notable names on the arrivals board – into a unit greater than the sum of its parts.

BIARRITZ

Players in: Duncan Paia’aua, Sione Vailanu, Mosese Dawai, Raynard Roets, Kakhaber Darbaidze, Iban Hiriart-Urruty, Luka Begic, Alvaro Garcia Iandolino (loan), Lukas Doyhenard, Regi Churchward

Players out: Zach Kibirige, Joe Jonas, Steeve Barry, Clement Martinez, Piula Fa’asalele, Enzo Selponi, Yann David, Cornell du Preeze, Filimo Taofifenua, Imanol Biscay, Tom Hendrickson, Jules Even

Staff: Boris Bouhraoua, Remi Bonfils, Jerome Filitoga-Taofifenua, Stephane Prosper, Thomas Drouin

A high-altitude training camp in the Pyrenees in early August was a symbol of calmer boardroom waters for Biarritz. After two summers of severe budgetary doubt – with the professional club’s very existence at stake not once but twice – the fact a week-long camp was scheduled for the first time since Boris Bouhraoua became head coach signalled ‘professionalism’ and ‘performance’ louder than any Aguilera crowd.

It also allowed intensive team-building for a heavily reshaped squad and a rejigged staff featuring newly-arrived backs coach Stephane Prosper and new physical preparation head Thomas Drouin, brought in from Stade Français, who could be their secret weapon.

A camp wasn’t the only indication of brighter prospects for the Basque club. They were, somewhat surprisingly, briefly linked with France full-back Thomas Ramos, but it was never going to happen. Ramos, it has already been confirmed, will join Racing 92 at the end of the 2026-27 campaign. But the fact Biarritz were mentioned in the same sentence as ‘Ramos’ and ‘contract’ hinted at the scale of the club’s rediscovered ambition.

Billionaire owner Pierre-Édouard Stérin had previously touted Antoine Dupont as a possible future recruitment target as he sought to polish the so-called ‘Brennus 2032’ project that targets promotion in three years and a serious Top 14 title challenge in six.

Individual player names apart, there was something approaching method to Biarritz’s headline-grabbing recruitment madness. President Cyril Arrosteguy told Midi Olympique: “As part of our plan to reach the Top 14 … we’re looking at how we can raise standards. We want a leader and a player of Thomas [Ramos]’s calibre in our ranks. It’s part of a plan to have one or more key players … who have competed at the very highest level, to bring their experience and help us reach the top.”

Future recruitment dreams are one thing but everything rests on present performance. The former cannot overtake the latter. For Bouhraoua and his squad, a strong campaign – top six is the stated target, as it should be – is the best recruitment marketing tool. Ramos or Dupont are unlikely to feature in Biarritz’s home dressing room, but a number of high-level players may start looking their way if performances threaten to match the ambition.

BRIVE

Players in: Christian Judge, Louis Mary, Lucas Oudard, Gatien Masse, Aymeric Luc

Players out: Courtney Lawes, Curwin Bosch, Erwan Dridi, Henzo Kiteau, Ben Tapuai, Nathan Fraissenon, Benjamin Boudou, Zaccharie Affane, Asier Usarraga, Hendre Stassen, Hugo Verdu, Luka Keletaona, Paul Pimienta, Kevin Fabien, Thomas Zenon

Staff: Gregory Patat, Fabien Fortassin, Arnaud Mela, Said Hireche, Goderdzi Shvelidze

Béziers, Biarritz, Brive. The ProD2’s ‘B’ teams head into the 2026-27 campaign all looking for better than last season. Much better. Brive – with the biggest ProD2 budget by some margin – are under the greatest pressure to perform.

Sixth place last season was far worse than it should have been and much better than it could have been for the ambitious Corrèze outfit, who started the campaign with ex-attack coach David Darricarrere as manager, after Pierre-Henry Broncan was moved upstairs against his will into a sporting director role. It wasn’t a happy coaching ship.

The boardroom bosses at Brive will expect more success, now there’s no discordant mixed messaging between head coach and manager.

Defeat at home to an under-performing Béziers in November ended Darricarrere’s brief term in brutal fashion and Broncan temporarily returned to the sidelines, sacrificing a sizable percentage of the focus on speed and movement for some much-needed pragmatism. Brive finished sixth and lost to eventual finalists Provence in the play-offs.

Broncan has now moved on, taking the helm at Georgia, with impressive first-up Nations Cup results. Knowing he was leaving, Brive signed Gregory Patat following his fractious mid-season departure from Top 14 side Bayonne. He persuaded Fabien Fortassin to come on board as head coach, after guiding Valence-Romans to their first-ever top-six finish.

Patat and Fortassin are initiative advocates, prophets of heads-up, play-the-situation rugby. But so, officially, was Darricarrere. The boardroom bosses at Brive will expect more success, now there’s no discordant mixed messaging between head coach and manager.

COLOMIERS

Players in: Thibault Debaes, Tuaina Taii Tualima, Viliami Fine, Seamus Bardoul, Mamuka Mstoiani, Richard Hardwick, Simao Bento

Players out: Caleb Timu, Ray Nu’u, Nicolas Martins, Valentin Delpy, Rodrigo Marta, Arthur Diaz (loan), Matias Osadczuk, Thomas Adelaide, Anzelo Tuitavuki, Max Auriac, Alexandre Etchebehere,

Staff: Florian Nicot, Aurelien Beco, Juan Pablo Orlandi, Fabrice Culinat

No Raymond Nu’u. No Valentin Delpy, Nicolas Martins or Caleb Timu. No Rodrigo Marta. Colomiers are looking to repeat – and improve on – last season’s second-place finish and play-off semi-final appearance without key players who helped get them there.

But make no mistake, sights at Stade Michel Bendichou – adjacent to Toulouse’s main airport over on the opposite side of the Garonne river to Stade Ernest Wallon – are no lower. Early in pre-season, club president Alain Carre told players in no uncertain terms that the bar for the new campaign has been “set as high as last season”.

And manager Florian Nicot, after an undeniably successful first season in charge, wentTed Lasso on journalists: “We put [the season] behind us as soon as it ended. I made it clear to the players to remember the positive things we achieved and that now we have to look ahead,” he told La Depeche du Midi, determined not to dwell “on what didn’t work, what we can no longer control. We have to move forward.”

The message from the top, then, is the clearest it could be. Last season, Colomiers won nine on the road – and not always with those big-game players on the team sheet.

The intention is that carefully targeted recruitment will replace that lost star factor in the aggregate, as long as they gel into the squad. That’s always a risk with new players. But this coaching set-up will give them the best chance to do just that.

DAX

Players in: Ian Boubila, Theo Mercadier, Ben Sa’u

Players out: Dino Casadei, Thomas Cretu, Iban Hiriart-Urruty, Lucas Guillaume, Genesis Mamea Lemalu, Jale Vatubua

Staff: Vincent Etcheto, Olivier August, Felix Le Bourhis, Thomas Synaeghel

“We have set the players fairly high objectives because there is room for improvement … in several areas,” Dax manager Vincent Etcheto said recently, as he embarked on his second season at the club after taking over last summer from Jeff Dubois with the club in a difficult situation. “[But] with the same mindset, with hard work and determination, if we play well, we will win matches.”

The cold, hard numbers of last season are hard on the Landes side. Dax finished 11th in the ProD2, four points above 15th-placed and relegated Mont-de-Marsan. But their 55-point tally wasn’t a true reflection of how well Dax actually did.

It doesn’t – or rather, it does – take into account the total 14 points deducted from the club (a further three-point deduction was suspended) in two separate sanctions linked to last season’s financial situation.

Etcheto’s side, playing Etcheto’s rugby, will make Dax as attractive a proposition on the pitch as the board want it to be off it.

More impressive than the fact of their ProD2 survival was the manner of it. Etcheto’s squad played polished, entertaining rugby en route to 11th-placed safety. In fairness, it’s the only version of rugby Etcheto seems to know, and the crowds noticed. Stade Maurice-Boyau was pretty quiet early in the campaign, but got busier and busier as Dax’s performances got better and better – never mind the league position.

The plan this season is to build on the sturdier foundations built in that difficult campaign. A dedicated training centre should be ready by next summer as the club looks to harness young rugby talent from the region, while a boardroom scheme to grow the club’s budget to €10million a year by the 2030-31 season is in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, Etcheto’s side, playing Etcheto’s rugby, will make Dax as attractive a proposition on the pitch as the board want it to be off it.

GRENOBLE

Players in: James Fender, Fergus Lee-Warner, Manuel Leindekar, Lalomilo Lalomilo, Lucas Tauzin, Steven David, Otunuku Pauta, Baptiste Abescat, Eddie Sawailau, Lucas Berti

Players out: Romain Trouilloud, Samuel Bielle-Biarrey, Hugo Avogadro, Julien Farnoux, Louis Mary, Thomas Ployet, Richard Hardwick, Hanru Sirgel, Thibaut Martel, Jose Madeira, Yan Lestrade, Giorgi Kveseladze

Staff: Aubin Hueber, David Irazoqui, Jerome Villegas, Lionel Ringeval, Danie De Beer

An eighth-place finish wasn’t on the cards for Grenoble at the start of last season, following three ProD2 final defeats and the same number of promotion-relegation play-off losses in as many campaigns.

But that’s where the Isère side ended up after a sub-par, disjointed campaign that was the direct and obvious consequence of a lack of action on long-simmering training ground issues. Backs coach Nicholas Nadau was let go last October after his very public criticism of club medical staff and controversial manager Aubin Hueber sidelined following a 21-24 home loss to Brive.

Nadau’s departure prompted a threatened player walkout, but forwards coach Patrick Pezery – who had formed a formidable-enough coaching partnership with Nadau – remained in post to pour oil on troubled waters, under Jeff Dubois, out of work since his own pained departure from Dax, who came in on a short-term deal as head coach.

Pezery eventually left in December, a second scapegoat for Grenoble’s poor start to the season, with ex-Beziers coach Pierre Caillet and Jerome Villegas lined up to work under Dubois. A domestic violence conviction and a suspended prison sentence rightly stopped Caillet’s involvement before it began; and Dubois announced in February he would leave at the end of the campaign – a strong hint at ongoing problems.

The question is have all those issues gone away? It’s impossible to say. Hueber, who had to step back from day-to-day affairs following a player revolt a couple of years ago, remains in post at the head of a new-look coaching set-up headed by former Beziers backs coach David Irazoqui.

On the playing side, Grenoble managed to sign James Fender at the second time of asking, after missing out on his services last season. But they’ll be even more pleased to see fly-half Sam Davies back in full pre-season training after a shoulder injury and a serious infection limited him to just two games last season.

MONTAUBAN

Players in: Christopher Vaotoa, Daniel Brennan, Sifa Amone, Joey Walton, Johnny Matthews, Jack Walsh, Enzo Herve (loan), Vaiolini Ekuasi, Sidi-Mohammed Diallo, Romain Macurdy, Youssouf Soucouna, Lucas Dessaigne, Lomig Jouanny, Dacha Papunashvili

Players out: Kyllian Ringuet, Thomas Bue, Jerome Bosviel, Facundo Pomponio, Sione Mafileo, Luka Azariashvili, Jeremie Maurouard, Vakhtang Jintcharadze, Tjiuee Uanivi, Clement Bitz, Sikhumbuzo Notshe, Tomas Lezana, Maxime Mathy, Gibson Popoali’i, Segundo Tuculet, Thomas Larregain

Staff: Sebastien Tillous-Borde, Andre Hough, Johan Snyman, Antoine Lanne-Petit, Karlen Asieshvili

Crashing straight back to the ProD2 after an inevitably difficult Top 14 campaign following their against-the-odds promotion the previous season, it would be easy to imagine another tough campaign for Montauban – and a crushing 63-19 loss in their opening pre-season outing against Aurillac in Cahors didn’t do anything to change that impression.

It was just a pre-season outing, featuring a squad of 38 playing three 30-minute blocks. But the way Montauban capitulated after a promising and suitably intense opening third was clearly worrying for manager Sebastien Tillous-Borde and suggests that last season’s brutal Top 14 experience – just one win and a draw in 26 matches, with a record 1,349 points conceded – won’t be as quickly shaken off as he might have hoped.

This is a much-changed squad, with 14 senior arrivals – including two on short-term contracts as injury cover before the campaign proper kicks off – replacing a host of departing first-team players. It is intended to be a new start, but that hangover needs to clear fast.

Not every side has it in them to do as Vannes, and Bayonne before them, did and bounce straight back up – look at Oyonnax, who limped to 12th on their return to the ProD2 in 2024-25. And this is a whole new Montauban, almost nothing like the old one.

This season should be earmarked as one of consolidation and development for Montauban, rather than anything that looks like a promotion push. Mind, that’s what a lot of people were saying a couple of campaigns ago.

NARBONNE

Players in: Caleb Timu, Solomon Alaimalo, Feletoi Peni, Axel Bevia, Abraham Pole, Chlayton Frans, Facundo Pomponio, Stefan Buruiana, Thomas Vernet, Charlesty Berguet, Baptiste Collet, Thomas Cretu, Clement Bitz, Ruben Schoeman, Jeff Goufan, Imanol Biscay, Lubabalo Dobela, Hugo Navizet, Victor Hannoun

Players out: Peter Betham, Axel Muller, Gregory Fichten, Lucas Bachelier, Branden Holder, Sebastien Giorgis, Chris Talakai, Gregoire Labit, Mohamed Loukia, Theo Castinel, Brad Amituanai, Benito Delacruz, Clement Esteriola, Leva Fifita, Dennis Visser, Marius Antonescu, Nicolas Mousties, Thibault Clauzade, Pierrick Nova, Joris Pialot, Pierre Nueno, Pierre-Hugo Ducom, Etienne Ducom, Iliava Masori Nasova, Boris Goutard

Staff: Jacques Delmas, David Fourtane, Gilles Bosch, Jordan Rochier

“The only goals we have set for ourselves are focused on progress,” Jacques Delmas, veteran manager of promoted and revamped Narbonne, told Rugbyrama in early August.

“I’m not going to hide the fact that I don’t want to hear anything about avoiding relegation… Maybe it’s a lack of humility or realism, but I believe we have what it takes to do more than just fight for survival.”

Narbonne could do more than survive this season on their return to the ProD2. But staying up has to be the prime motive and Delmas has been around long enough to know that, for all his talk of more.

This has been a summer of overhaul at Parc des Sports et de l’Amitié – nearly three dozen players who featured in their Nationale promotion campaign have moved on, replaced by more than two dozen new arrivals across the senior squad and the academy. Narbonne head into the ProD2 with a very new look under the iconic orange jerseys.

The playing personnel changes look smart enough, with several young players blooded in the Top 14 now getting a chance at consistent game-time in the second tier. There’s plenty of talent to go with the raw energy and the squad is liberally dotted with experience: Caleb Timu, Facundo Pomponio, Clement Bitz and Cameron Wright have all been round plenty of blocks.

Delmas may be right, for all his self-professed ‘lack of humility or realism’. Narbonne could do more than survive this season on their return to the ProD2. But staying up has to be the prime motive and Delmas has been around long enough to know that, for all his talk of more. A good start would go a long way to easing any nerves.

NEVERS

Players in: Arno Botha, Henzo Kiteau, Yan Arnold, Ahmed Kane, Victor Templier, Guillem Calmon, Anselm Cellier, Raphael Sanchez

Players out: Chris Gabriel, Lasha Pkhakadze, Kevin Noah (loan), Keynan Knox, Zak Farrance, Ilya Kaikatsishvili, Mathys Belaubre, Steven David, Hugo Bouyssou, Yohan Le Bourhis, Leonard Paris, Atu Manu

Staff: Xavier Pemeja, Manuel Cabanes, David Penalva, Leonard Paris, Phillip Van Schalkwyk

Xavier Pemeja’s pitch-side retirement lasted eight months. He ceded his place in the dugout at Pré-Fleuri to Coenie Basson at the end of the 2024-25 campaign to move into a sporting director-style role, but by February, with Nevers ninth and winless since the turn of the year, he returned to the sidelines to work alongside Basson.

A month later, Basson left his post – as did backs and kicking coach Yannick Osmond – as the slump extended to seven matches. Nevers were 11th, seven points clear of the relegation zone with their defence, usually a strength, collapsing in on itself.

They finished 13th, two points above the danger spots. The numbers make it look nervy, but survival was secured three rounds earlier with a win over Valence-Romans. Biarritz, who ended up 10th, were in greater danger.

The past two seasons have been nothing to write home about for Nevers, so what is the goal for a side marking a decade in France’s second tier – all but those few months last season under Pemeja – after waiting more than a century to reach such rugby heights?

“What we experienced these last two seasons was necessary,” ever-optimistic president Régis Dumange told Midi Olympique. “We’re progressing step by step. The goal is to be in the top six.” That should be in reach for a side that has tasted play-off rugby three times in the past seven campaigns, whose players are in the sights of top-flight clubs. “Perhaps we got a little ahead of ourselves. We need to be humble,” Dumange added.

It may be too simplistic to lay it all at the door of last season’s major staff overhaul, but canny Pemeja remains a key asset in the dugout and on the training ground. His presence on the sidelines all-but won the crucial match against Valence which ensured safety. But he turned 66 in July. Nevers need Pemeja, but he won’t be around forever.

NICE

Players in: Etienne Falgoux, Iakopo Mapu, Vincent Rattez, Francis Saili, Beau Farrance, Evan Olmstead, Clement Martinez, Julien Farnoux, Baptiste Moreno, Lucas Bachelier, Hanru Sirgel, Theo Idjellidaine, Bautista Ezcurra, Samuel Bielle-Biarrey, Boris Goutard

Players out: Sione Anga’aelangi, Rayne Barka, Tom Murday, Josh Tyrell, Martin Freytes, Jonah Mau’u, Waisea Nayacalevu, Henry Purdy, Arthur Duhau, David Odiete

Staff: Matthew Clarkin, Gareth Baber, Emiliano Bargamschi, Barry Maddocks, Jamie Cudmore, Guillaume Cazanave

Nice, relegated from the ProD2 at the end of the 2024-25 season, beat Mont-de-Marsan in the promotion-relegation play-off at the end of the last campaign to bounce straight back up – but risked missing out on their return to the second tier altogether over a row with the council over the redevelopment of Stade Marcel-Volot.

President Jean-Baptiste Aldige resigned over it, taking his investment with him. The league promptly blocked the club’s promotion for financial reasons. Cue a scramble of suits, as minds and wallets were focused. A fortnight later, with Nice players’ licences blocked just hours before their first scheduled pre-season outing against Chambery in Montelimar, Aldige represented the club at the appeal hearing.

Aldige has form for grand gesture rugby politicking and is getting very good at it. But was it worth putting the players and staff through that?

The appeal was successful. Aldige provided the financial guarantees he always had. Nice’s promotion was validated, a fine and five-point deduction was commuted to a suspended two-point one, players’ licences were unblocked in time for that evening’s friendly, and Aldige was later restored to the presidency. And Nice City Hall agreed to fund a new 4,000-capacity stand with VIP facilities. Which was always the plan.

Ex-Biarritz president Aldige has form for grand gesture rugby politicking and is getting very good at it. But was it worth putting the players and staff through that? We’ll wait and see. A decent season, survival – or better, with an upper-ProD2 squad at the disposal of a high-quality coaching staff – will dictate how this summer’s backroom dealings are ultimately viewed.

OYONNAX

Players in: Alex Newsome, Feleti Kaitu’u, Liam Coombes-Fabling, Thomas Vincent, Thomas Darmon, Inaki Ayarza, Yannick Arroyo, Koen Bloemen, Charlie Abel

Players out: Peniami Nasali Narisia, Justin Bouraux, Maelan Rabut, Adrien Bordenave, Paulo Tafili, Christopher Vaotoa, Victor Lebas, Manuel Leindekar, Zack Holmes, Eddie Sawailau, Darren Sweetnam, Martin Bogardo

Staff: Fabien Cibray, Mariano Taverna, Johann Authier, Vincent Debaty, Alexis Lalarme

What a difference a season makes. Fabien Cibray’s slow elevation to the managerial hotseat during Joe El-Abd’s extended departure for a job with England in the 2024-25 season was well-intentioned but ultimately unworkable. It showed during a campaign of confusion as Oyonnax, relegated from the Top 14 the previous season, slumped to 12th in the ProD2, losing confidence match after match.

Cibray even tendered his resignation during a particularly bleak mid-winter spell. It was rejected, which proved the correct decision. Last season, with Cibray in sole charge and no longer asking himself ‘what would Joe do?’, Oyonnax rediscovered their identity and played with renewed confidence. They thoroughly deserved their fourth-place finish and post-season run to a semi-final against all-conquering Vannes.

Hindsight is 20-20. Few presidents would have disagreed with club boss Dougal Bendjaballah’s efforts to keep the popular and effective El-Abd on board for as long as possible, but it just didn’t work. A reset season was inevitable but now Oyonnax are back.

They have recruited smartly – Thomases Vincent and Darmon, from Montpellier, and ex-Clermont full-back Alex Newsome look to be the pick of their signings, while expect to see former Vannes utility back Inaki Ayarza almost everywhere in the backline, as well as more rising academy stars than ever.

Cibray is not one for public declarations of ambition and when asked where Oyonnax might finish this season, he dissembled. “Our primary goal is to continue making progress in terms of attitude and behaviour,” he told Midi Olympique. “The season is long and demanding… each week, the focus will be on the next game, with the aim of building on the momentum from the second half of last season.

“We finished last season with the second-best attack – setting a club record for points scored – the fourth-best defence, and we were the third-most disciplined team. We’ve returned to a high level of play.” Gnomic.

PROVENCE

Players in: Aurelien Azar, Tyler Ardron, Etonia Waqa, Vincent Giudicelli, Romain Trouilloud, Martin Bogado, Andrea Pontanier, Thibaut Martel, Pascal Cotet, Bobby Bissu (loan)

Players out: George North, Jules Plisson, Tomas Francis, Jules Soulan, Thomas Vernet, Malachi Hawkes, Thomas Sauveterre, Joseph Laget, Guillaume Galletier, Marvin Okuya

Staff: Philippe Saint-André, Sébastien Fouassier, Julien Dupuy, Rémy Ladauge, Jules Plisson

Victor Wembanyama’s media-shy week of training with Provence – the fact San Antonio Spurs team-mate Harrison Barnes was also there was scarcely mentioned – captured French rugby headlines during the domestic game’s mid-August silly pre-season.

No images of the basketball star’s time on the training pitch – less than a year after he spent some time at Brive – have been made publicly available. He, and Provence, were rightly taking the training part seriously. The first pictures of him came when he was in the stands to see the comfortable friendly win over Nice at Stade Maurice-David.

What benefit Wembanyama has taken from his week in Provence we might see when the NBA tips off at the end of October. Philippe Saint-André’s squad got a tidy diversion as they look to build on their first-ever ProD2 final appearance and get to grips with being one of the hotter favourites for the title and promotion to the highest echelon of French rugby.

“Our play-offs experience last May and June whetted appetites in the club, but also outside and around us,” Saint-André said recently ahead of his second season in charge. “The new season… we will take on, for the first time, the mantle of one of the favourites for the title and promotion to the Top 14.”

A top-two finish, with its bye to a semi-final on home plastic, is the primary objective of the first 30 matches of what Provence expects to be a successful 32-match season, ending with a raising of the bouclier at Stade Ernest Wallon. Last season, they couldn’t manage the strong start that goal demanded. This season, they have no choice.

SOYAUX-ANGOULEME

Players in: Giorgi Javakhia, Gela Aprasidze, Kaminieli Rasaku, Lucas Costa, Elias Coulibaly, Mathieu Bonnot

Players out: Jonny May, Francois Carlo Mey, Ian Kitwanga, Emmanuel Saubusse, Vivien Devisme, Gautier Gibouin, Omar Dahir, Motu, Matu’u, Mael Augry, Sikeli Nabou, Matthys Gratien

Staff: Alexandre Ruiz, Julien Le Devedec, Guillaume Lafforgue

In May, Soyaux-Angoulême marked 10 years since they won promotion to the second tier. The following month, head coach Alexandre Ruiz extended his contract through to June 2028.

Soyaux will therefore benefit from the services of one of the canniest young coaches out there for another season – while accepting that they’re almost guaranteed to lose him sooner rather than later to a bigger club.

President Didier Pitcho recently pointed out that Ruiz wouldn’t be the first to leave for bigger jobs – Julien Lairle, now at Clermont via Bordeaux, was in charge when the club won promotion to the ProD2 in 2016; former hooker Kevin Le Guen and now ex-scrum-half Emmanuel Saubusse have been taken on at Bordeaux’s academy, after gaining their coaching qualifications while playing at Chanzy.

Georgian back-row Giorgi Javakhia is a smart signing from Toulon; Gela Aprasidze’s talents as a scrum-half are well known

Saubusse was one of five Soyaux- Angoulême players hanging up his boots at the end of the season – England veteran Jonny May, a surprise signing a couple of campaigns and eight tries ago, was another – but Pitcho and his staff have recruited cleverly.

Georgian back-row Giorgi Javakhia is a smart signing from Toulon; Gela Aprasidze’s talents as a scrum-half are well known; Kaminieli Rasaku is looking to rediscover the form that saw him score 14 tries in 20 outings for Mont-de-Marsan in the 2022-23 season; and promising 24-year-old back-row Lucas Costa has plenty to prove after making the step up from Nationale side Rouen.

An ambitious squad with an ambitious coach, who took them to the play-offs in 2024-25 and has twice guided his charges to a top-half finish in three seasons since Pitcho took a gamble on his potential. It probably won’t be too far off the mark to suggest he expects a play-off push from the Charente side again this season.

VALENCE-ROMANS

Players in: Marco Tauleigne, Joris Dupont, Marco Trauth, Thomas Zenon

Players out: Xavier Mignot, Kevin Goze, Suetena Asomuo, Andrew Pontanier, Nathan Huguen, Philippe Laville, Ben Neiceru, Mosese Mawalu, Owen Lane

Staff: Romain Terrain, Scott Newlands, Benjamin Thiery

How did Valence-Romans follow-up their historic, highest-ever ProD2 finish of eighth in the 2024-25 campaign? By finishing fifth last season, to book a place in the play-offs for the first time. Heady days. With a note of caution.

Valence had reached their first post-season ‘two or three’ campaigns ahead of internal schedules, sporting director Jonathan Wisniewski admitted after their 39-14 barrage round loss at Oyonnax. Even so, expectations are heightened at Stade Pompidou, where an enforced staff reshuffle hasn’t affected those internal timescales.

Having guided the Isère side first to eighth, then fifth place, head coach Fabien Fortassin left the club with one year of his contract remaining, for a high-pressure job with Brive. Valence promoted forwards coach Romain Terrain to the top job, one season after his arrival, and brought in well-travelled ex-France full-back Benjamin Thiery to take charge of their attack.

Terrain is in no doubt about the scale of the challenge his side face. “It’s going to be an even tougher championship than last year; it’s a huge challenge,” he said recently. “We have to concentrate on ourselves. I want us to be … a tough team that nobody wants to play. We need to keep instilling and cultivating this mindset, so that teams think twice before deciding their 23s. For that, we need to get off to a good start.”

But gnarly, hard-to-beat rugby doesn’t necessarily have to be unexciting. Valence cultivated an attacking mindset under Fortassin that Terrain – and his young attack coach Thiery – are keen to maintain and grow. Although the squad that finished top-six last season is largely intact, there may be no play-off run again this campaign, but the minimum has to be top half of the table with eyes on a push next season and beyond.

“The goal is to create an environment where the players feel comfortable,” Terrain added. “And if the players have energy and confidence, you can play against anyone.”