AXA Elite 1 Feminine: Semi-finals confirmed as ASM Romagnat top table by one point

Regular-season leaders ASM Romagnat will host fourth-placed Blagnac and second-placed Stade Toulousain will entertain defending three-time champions Stade Bordelais, who finished the regular season third in the table, in the AXA Elite 1 semi-finals on June 21, after a dramatic final day in French women’s rugby’s domestic top flight. The final is a week later, at Biarritz.

The top four teams were well clear of the rest of the league, Romagnat and Toulouse were engaged in a two-way tussle for top spot that was only decided when the two sides met at Stade Ernest Wallon for the final match of their regular season campaigns.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, another two-way tussle between promoted Rugby Club Toulon Provence Mediterranee and Stade Villeneuvois Lille Metropole was decided on the penultimate weekend, in favour of the side from the south coast.

Here’s how the teams have fared in the run-in, and what might lie in store in the future…

1 ASM Romagnat (83 points)

One defeat, one draw, 16 wins, 13 attacking bonus points and a defensive one as well; 90 tries, 14 of them for France hooker Mathilde Lazarko, and the best defence in the league by a margin even free-scoring Toulouse would find hard to overcome. It’s easy to see why ASM Romagnat finished the regular AXA Elite 1 season at the top of the pile.

But they gave up a 24-3 halftime lead at Toulouse in their last match, as the hosts roared back to finish on level terms at 27-27. It was useful notice, heading into the play-offs, not to take victory for granted before the final whistle. No doubt Romagnat will heed it.

2. Stade Toulousain (82)

One way or another, the play-offs were always going to feature a derby of sorts. If Toulouse had won their final match of the regular season, held at Stade Ernest Wallon less than 24 hours after the Pro D2 final at the same venue, they would have hosted neighbours Blagnac.

They didn’t, so last season’s losing finalists will host a second ‘Garonne derby’ – a term for a match between two sides around 250km apart, but linked by the grand river that runs through both cities. It’s a match that could easily have graced the showpiece in Biarritz – it just arrives a week early.

3. Stade Bordelais (73)

The only side to get the better of Toulouse this season – Stade Bordelais won 34-29 at home in March – will face them for a third time in the play-off semi-finals. Unfortunately for the back-to-back-to-back champions, the match will be at Toulouse, where the rouge-et-noir won 29-19 on opening day.

They’re not about to let go of their title without a fight. The Lionesses head into the post-season on a four-match winning run, and the staff’s selection for their final outing of the regular campaign, a 47-7 win over Toulon at Stade Mayol, was clearly made with one eye on the semi-final.

4. Blagnac (52)

A 24-10 home win against Lyon on the penultimate weekend of the AXA Elite 1 season was enough for Blagnac to qualify for their 11th successive post-season play-off phase on the bounce.

In truth, the side from the aeronautical town in the Toulouse ’burbs were in a league of their own between the top three and the bottom six – fourth in the top-four had been as good as confirmed for a while, but 11 play-offs in a row is no mean achievement. The problem: they lost 36-3 at Romagnat early in the season, and 31-0 at home to the same side in March.

5. Montpellier (38)

Montpellier’s run-in was tough. In the last six weeks of the season they faced every one of the top four – they beat Blagnac 34-17 three weeks out, before losing at home to Toulouse, and then away at Lyon.

Next season will look a little different for Montpellier. Long-time halfback duo Prune Pégot and Morgane Peyronnet – stalwarts of the club who were in the good times of the early to mid-2010s, and stayed for the later tougher period – have played their last games, and will move into coaching roles when the new campaign rolls around, and looking for the wheel of rugby history to revolve them back up the table.

6. Bobigny (36)

Big on-the-road defeats against the top two season in the last three weeks of the season put paid to Bobigny’s late-season goal of finishing fifth in the AXA Elite 1. But a final-weekend win over bottom-of-the-table Lille put a season-ending gloss on a campaign that has been solid without ever threatening any of the big sides.

Everything about Bobigny’s season has been mid-table – the sixth-ranked side, the seventh-best attack, the seventh-best defence, seventh in the try-scoring league. They’re right where the numbers say they ought to be. It’s just not exactly where they wanted to be.

7. Grenoble Amazones (34)

In the end, four points separated Grenoble from what – given last summer’s interseason boardroom concerns, international absences, and the scale of their injuries during the campaign – was an ambitious goal of matching their fifth-place finish of 2024/25.

But a final weekend 26-17 win over semi-finalists Blagnac, which saw Grenoble sign off the first campaign of a rebuild run with three victories in their last five matches, hints strongly that the new governance set-up is pointing the club in the right direction. A calm and collected closed season could work wonders for the Amazones.

8. Lyon (26)

Lyon rounded out their season with a 15-13 home win over Montpellier – while their sevens squad lifted the Women’s SuperSevens title earlier in the year at La Defense Arena – but there’s no denying this has been an undercooked campaign for a side with a publicly stated 2028 deadline for an Elite 1 title.

Just four wins and a draw from their 18 matches, and a points difference well into the negative won’t have been what the class of 2025/26 wanted, and there’s change on the cards at the club. Jean-Matthieu Alcalde’s five-year spell in charge ended after the final regular-season match at Stade Gerland, while a number of players were also set to leave. A new-look Lyon will want to be more competitive next season.

9. Rugby Club Toulon Provence Mediterranee (21)

Solène Dubus’s legend was confirmed in Toulon when she nailed an 80th-minute penalty at Lille on the penultimate weekend of the regular season to earn the Var side their fourth win of the campaign and, more importantly, move them out of reach of relegation rivals Lille.

While that victory – the one that guaranteed survival and meant their loss at home to Stade Bordelais on the final weekend was irrelevant – will be remembered in Toulon annals, two wins in three matches in March, against Grenoble and Montpellier, had a greater positive impact on their season. Survival season completed. Next up, the rather harder consolidation one.

10. Stade Villeneuvois Lille Metropole (14)

Last season, Lille escaped relegation to Elite 2 by the width of a losing bonus point – via a late penalty – on the final day of the season against the side they condemned to the drop, Rennes.

This season, Lille’s fate was decided on the penultimate weekend of the campaign, via a late penalty. This time, they were on the wrong end of a 19-20 scoreline at home to relegation rivals Toulon.

La Rochelle,  will step into Lille’s shoes, after beating Valkyries Normandie 13-10 in the Elite 2 final to win promotion at the end of a dominant season, in which they won 15 of 18 matches and finished 12 points clear of the second-placed Normandy side.