LONG READ Top 14 season 2026-27 preview: Which teams are tooled up to stop another Toulouse title?

Fans of France’s Top 14 may notice a couple of crucial differences when the season kicks off on 5 September, as rule changes speed up penalties and conversions, and the flood of confusing second-half substitutions is cut to a relative trickle.

From the start of the new campaign, kickers will have 45 seconds to take penalties or convert tries, while an eight-year, 12 substitutions experiment has been ditched, as French professional club rugby comes back into line with the international eight-sub norm.

Otherwise, everything’s pretty much as it was. Breton side Vannes have returned after a season down in the ProD2; Toulouse are reigning domestic champions; Bordeaux the kings of Europe.

But this is a league that has flexed over the past couple of campaigns, with Toulouse the only constant. The back-to-back-to-back-to-back champions were the only side in the post-season play-offs that also featured in the previous post-season competition – a stat that offers a hint of how tight the 2026-27 competition could be in France.

Welcome, then, to the new Top 14. Just like the old Top 14. Mostly.

BAYONNE

In: Guillaume Cramont (loan), Leo Coly, Brian Alainu’uese, Killian Geraci, Rob du Preez, Madosh Tambwe, Matthieu Uhila (loan), Lasha Macharashvili, Viliame Tutuvuli

Out: Gareth Anscombe, Maxime Machenaud, Reece Hodge, Baptiste Germain, Alex Moon, Manex Ariceta, Pascal Cotet, Vincent Giudicelli, Baptiste Chouzenoux, Victor Hannoun

Staff: Gerard Fraser, Andrea Moretti, Camille Lopez, Nick Abendanon, Jean Monribot

Dustbins. Cleansing fires. The Mariana Trench. Pick your metaphorical dump site and look there for the tattered remnants of Bayonne’s 2025-26 Top 14 campaign, which was strained from the outset by tensions between bootroom and boardroom – and which peaked with ex-manager Gregory Patat’s mid-season departure.

That dysfunction behind the scenes manifested on the pitch in a calamitous second half to the season. They failed to win at home in 2026 until the last match of the regular season, finishing 12th a season after reaching the play-offs. No wonder Gerard Fraser, who moved into Patat’s vacated seat, gave their campaign a four out of 10 score immediately after that final match.

Rob du Preez will offer much-needed back-up for Joris Segonds; Leo Coly is a smart and under-rated operator at nine and 10

“We have a lot of room for improvement compared to what we achieved,” Fraser said at the time, somewhat obviously. “A year ago, we were in the play-offs … The Top 14 is really tough. It’s hard to string together good seasons if the roster is thin or if the team is plagued by injuries and fatigue.”

A heavily reshuffled staff and a rotated squad will want to recreate the 2024-25 season over the 2025-26 one. On paper, the squad looks more balanced than it did last September.

Rob du Preez will offer much-needed back-up for Joris Segonds; Leo Coly is a smart and under-rated operator at nine and 10; Brian Alainu’uese and Killian Geraci would lock up plenty of clubs’ second rows; hooker Guillaume Cramont will be looking to race back up the international pecking order while on loan from Toulouse; and Madosh Tambwe has pace to burn.

Officially, no public target has been set this season – “We have playing objectives that might lead us [to a top eight or higher finish],” was all Fraser would say.  “I’m more focused on the process of getting there.”

In theory, Bayonne have a squad capable of doing that. They just have to prove it now.

BORDEAUX

In: Tom Willis, Alex Moon, Zaccharie Affane, Dan Du Plessis, Lasha Pkhakadze, Hugo Avogadro, Thomas Delpuech

Out: Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, Joey Carbery, Madosh Tambwe, Ugo Boniface, Lachlan Swinton, Bobby Bissu (loan), Joseph Laharrague (loan)

Staff: Yannick Bru, Noel McNamara, Shaun Sowerby, Aurelien Cologni, Thibault Giraud, Heini Adams

Missing out on a Top 14 post-season run was the price Yannick Bru’s Bordeaux paid for winning a second Champions Cup in as many seasons, during a campaign reportedly riven by coaching discontent. RMC Sport went so far as to call it a ‘full-blown rift’.

Defence coach Christophe Lassucq left this summer after declining a ‘youth development manager’ role to see out the remainder of his contract – don’t be surprised to see him tapped up to join the France men’s set-up. He has been replaced by skills and contact coach Aurelien Cologni, who has been credited with improving Matthieu Jalibert’s defensive abilities.

Performance director Thibault Giroud, meanwhile, is on sick leave, and is expected to move down the coast to Bayonne sooner rather than later, following a fall-out with Bru last autumn. Cyril Gomes is in charge of physical preparation in Giroud’s absence.

Discounting the boot-room troubles, there was a strong scent of Toulouse 2022 in Bordeaux’s domestic late-campaign drop-off – too heavy a reliance on their big-game players because the squad lacked depth. Injuries and fatigue cost more when the back-ups can’t match-up.

But the big pre-season question for Bordeaux is not squad depth – which is better now, in their 20th anniversary year as UBB, than it was then. Or injuries. Or fatigue. It’s whether Matthieu Jalibert could switch to 15 after his successful run there for France in July.

Bru has already answered it: “I won’t get into the debate about where Matthieu Jalibert will play for the French national team,” he told Midi Olympique recently.

“At Bordeaux, he plays fly-half, and we’re happy with what he brings at number 10. I’m sticking to my role as club coach – it’s not my place to comment on the position he might play in another system, in another team.”

Question answered.

CASTRES

In: Dalton Papali’i, Hamish Watson, Kyllian Ringuet, Alex Burin, Chris Gabriel, Taylor Gontineac, Mael Turpin, Theo Vidal, Achille Stoessel

Out: Antoine Tichit, Leone Nakarawa, Tyler Ardron, Enzo Herve (loan), Aurelien Azar, Pierre Popelin, Nathanael Hulleu, Romain Macurdy

Staff: Xavier Sadourny, Julien Tastet, Julien Dumora, Fabrice Estebanez, Davit Zirakashvili

Beating Munster at Thomond Park to qualify for the Champions Cup knockout phase, then giving Northampton a fright in an entertaining round-of-16 encounter at Franklin’s Gardens, failed to put much gloss on an unfulfilling season at Castres.

Their squad had the experience and ability to aim higher than their 10th-place finish – but unresolved discipline issues, a defence with an unfortunate habit of caving, and a chronic inability to consistently turn pressure into points meant Castres were better at stringing together defeats than victories.

On the pitch, Castres have done what they always do and have recruited cannily. Kyllian Ringuet has it in him to be a back-row star

The under-achieving campaign prompted a coaching rethink. Former rugby league player and ex-France under-20s coach Fabrice Estebanez replaced Steven Setephano as defence coach – word from the camp is the entire defensive set-up will be very different this season – while Davit Zirakashvili has joined the club as a scrum consultant.

On the pitch, Castres have done what they always do and have recruited cannily. Kyllian Ringuet has it in him to be a back-row star; prop Alex Burin, centre Taylor Gontineac and lock Chris Gabriel are ready to step up to the Top 14 from the ProD2 – and flankers Hamish Watson and Dalton Papali’i, the latter currently recovering from surgery on a ruptured Achilles suffered early in pre-season training, bring plenty of international experience.

Theo Vidal is a gamble. The fly-half was voted player of the year in the third-tier Nationale after guiding Castres’ departmental sister club Albi to the top of the table. But under-pressure manager Xavier Sadourny – a 10 himself back in the day – reckons Vidal has it in him to jump two levels to be Louis Le Brun’s back-up in the Top 14.

CLERMONT

In: AJ Lam, Darcy Swain, Etene Nanai-Seturo, Peniami Narisia, Kevin Noah (loan), Baptiste Germain, Justin Bouraux, Mathys Belaubre

Out: Alex Newsome, George Moala, Rob Simmons, Sebastien Bezy, Etienne Falgoux, Seilala Lam, Lucas Dessaigne, Tom Raffy (loan), Irae Simone, Lucas Tauzin, Pierre Fouyssac

Staff: Christophe Urios, Frederic Charrier, Julien Lairle, Koula Tukino, Aurélien Rougerie, Alexandre Castola, Ange-Francois Castola, Mourad Abed

“This club should be at the top,” Clermont boss Christophe Urios told French sports broadcaster RMC Sport’s Integrale Sport podcast a fortnight before the new Top 14 season.

No lies, as bright young social media things might say, detected there. But it’s been a while. The most recent of Clermont’s 14 French championship final appearances was in 2019 – the same year they won the Challenge Cup for a third time.

They have only reached the domestic league’s post-season barrage rounds twice since, in 2021 and 2023. And they last lifted the Bouclier de Brennus, for a second time, in 2017, when they also missed out in the Champions Cup final for the third time in four years.

It’s been even longer since the club’s 77-match unbeaten run at their Stade Marcel Michelin home that ran from November 2009 to May 2014.

Urios always talks a good pre-season game – this summer, he said he thought he was “training a group of 18-year-olds” such was the excitement and energy he saw when the players arrived after their summer break. But his side has to walk his talk, now.

Target one for Clermont, then, rebuild their fortress at Marcel Michelin, where they lost three times last season, ultimately missing out on a place in the play-offs by one place and a single point.

Target two: get back to the play-offs, and not just in the Top 14, in the Champions Cup, too. Sleeping giant may be a cliche in sport, but there’s one snoring in the volcanos of Clermont.

LA ROCHELLE

In: Theo McFarland, Ben Healy, George Moala, David Kriel, Sione Ahio, Nathan Fraissenon, Salmaan Moerat, Thomas Adelaide, Sam Tuifua, Christophe Loustalot

Out: Ihaia West, Kane Douglas, Ultan Dillane, Joel Sclavi, Reda Wardi, Gael Galvan (loan), Judicael Cancoriet, Adrien Seguret, Suliasi Vunivalu

Staff: Ronan O’Gara, Donnacha Ryan, Remi Tales, Romain Sazy, Romain Carmignani, Sebastien Boboul, Sean Dougall, Uini Atonio

The ghost of manager Ronan O’Gara’s future hangs over La Rochelle. Ongoing suggestions in Ireland that he could step into the Leinster hot-seat when Leo Cullen leaves in 2027 have gained zero traction in France, where the idea that he’ll extend his stay at Stade Marcel Deflandre remains favourite.

Remain advocates point to the squad rebuild he started at the end of the 2024-25 campaign and continued this summer, adding experience in the formidable forms of Theo McFarland and George Moala, and potential in rising stars Nathan Fraissenon, Sam Tuifua and Thomas Adelaide – poached from an unhappy Toulon while on loan at Colomiers.

Plus, they say, a rejuvenated relationship with key players including Gregory Alldritt and Antoine Hastoy; the changing, increasingly youthful face of the squad; and their late charge to the play-offs from somewhere near nowhere last season don’t so much hint that ROG has unfinished rugby business on France’s Atlantic coast, as scream it.

It’s not just O’Gara’s future in the air. His assistants’ contracts also run to the end of the season. Discussions started after last season ended and will need to be sorted soon.

Club president Vincent Merling prefers evolution over revolution. He’ll want to keep as much of this coaching band together, if he can. And he’ll want to demonstrate certainty to new playing recruits. Who will coach the club next season matters almost as much as how La Rochelle’s undoubtedly talented squad gets on this season. One way or another.

LYON

In: Thomas Gallo, Sanele Nohamba, Adrien Seguret, Tim Hoyt, Opeti Helu

Out: Arno Botha, Vincent Rattez, Killian Geraci, Jermain Ainsley, Cedate Gomes Sa

Staff: Karim Ghezal, AB Zondagh, George Smith, Emmanuel Maignien, Pierre Sagot, Julien Puricelli

Things were going swimmingly at Lyon three matches into last season. They had won all three and were second in the table, behind only Toulon.

Then the season went south, fast. After five further matches, they had slipped to 12th, where they stayed until Bayonne dropped below them eight Top 14 rounds later. They climbed as high as 10th a couple of times in the remaining weeks of the campaign, but eventually finished 11th, for the third season in a row.

They have been relatively quiet on the recruitment front this season, though 2024 URC player of the year Sanele Nohamba could be a smart catch.

It was, as it had been the season previously – and the one before that – nowhere near good enough for Lyon, who have repeatedly and consistently recruited for publicly stated loftier positions. This pre-season, for the first time in several summers, however, all has been calm on the coaching front. Which may make a difference.

They have also been relatively quiet on the recruitment front this season, though 2024 URC player of the year Sanele Nohamba could be a smart catch. The 27-year-old scrum-half has something to prove after managing only five matches for Japanese side Shizuoka Blue Revs in two injury-ravaged seasons.

Nohamba’s arrival gives manager Karim Ghezal – entering his second full season in charge and looking for a marked improvement in consistency and performance – much-needed back-up for France international Baptiste Couilloud, who has not played since suffering a brain injury at the end of January.

MONTPELLIER

In: Adam Hastings, Ruben van Heerden, Reda Wardi, Dimitri Delibes, Mael Perrin, Sebastien Bezy

Out: Leo Coly, Nika Abuladze, Enzo Forletta, Thomas Vincent, Thomas Darmon, Marco Tauleigne, Mahamadou Diaby

Staff: Joan Caudullo, Benoit Paillaugue, Geoffrey Doumayrou, Didier Bes, Gaelle Mignot, Benson Stanley, Jeremy Valls, Antoine Battut, Jesse Mogg

Before last season kicked off, club owner Mohed Altrad publicly set a top-four target. Manager Joan Caudullo preferred what seemed at the time a more manageable top six.

Montpellier shattered both expectations, with a brand of direct, no-frills rugby that’s hard to stop, finishing the regular season in second place, going all the way to the Top 14 final, and beating Ulster in emphatic style in Bilbao to lift the Challenge Cup.

There are partial echoes here of the club’s run to the 2022 Top 14 title, a season after they last lifted the Challenge Cup at the end of a difficult spell. The staff will be keen to avoid a repeat of what happened next after that success, as the club spiralled almost disastrously out of control.

Two seasons later, they avoided relegation by the skin of a 75th-minute Louis Carbonel penalty in the promotion-relegation play-off. Caudullo was asked to replace short-term coach Patrice Collazo as manager 24 hours after top-flight survival was confirmed.

A sluggish 50-33 pre-season loss to Castres, their only practice run of a shortened preparation for the new campaign, will not be dismissed lightly, but expect Montpellier to be just about ready for the season proper. Caudullo set out their ambitions in an interview with L’Equipe. Make the play-offs again – and the knockout phase of the Champions Cup.

How? The same way as before. “We still want to put strong pressure on our opponents, to have powerful forwards who dominate their opponents,” the boss said. “We want to be known as a tough and difficult team to play against. Do that and we’ll achieve our objectives.”

PAU

In: Rodrigo Marta, Baptiste Pesenti, Gonzalo Garcia, Santiago Grondona, Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, Alexandre Etchebehere, Joachim Senga Kouo, Diego Miranda

Out: Luke Whitelock, Dan Robson, Carwyn Tuipulotu, Thomas Carol, Olivier Klemenczak, Aymeric Luc

Staff: Sebastien Piqueronies, Brandon Fajardo, Thomas Choveau, Antoine Nicoud, Julien Sarraute, Geoffrey Lanne-Petit, Jerome Garces

Hard to imagine a club that has played in the Top 14 since 2015 having to deal with second season syndrome – but that’s exactly the situation at Pau. Prior to their fourth-place finish last time, Pau had finished no higher than eighth in their current spell in the French top-flight. They had last reached the final stages of the French championship in 2000.

But it has been crystal clear for some time that Pau are a club on the up. Since taking charge in 2021, manager Sebastien Piqueronies has built a squad from the youth up.

Facundo Isa, who arrived last season, is a logical leadership heir to the retiring Luke Whitelock. Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, too, brings nous and calm.

French internationals Emilien Gailleton, Theo Attissogbe, Fabien Brau-Boirie, Gregoire Arfeuil, Aaron Grandidier Nkanang and Hugo Auradou all got their Top 14 breaks on his watch – watch out in the years to come for teenage back-row Remi Couty and full-back Joachim Senga Kouo.

Piqueronies galvanises their youthful exuberance with intelligent experience. Facundo Isa, who arrived last season, is a logical leadership heir to the retiring Luke Whitelock. Bastien Vergnes-Taillefer, too, brings nous and calm.

He is determined that Pau won’t have to wait another quarter of a century for their next play-off run. And if there’s a side capable of handling second-season syndrome, it’s this one.

PERPIGNAN

In: Sevu Reece, Braydon Ennor, Luke McGrath, Paolo Garbisi, Lachlan Swinton, Enzo Forletta, Cedate Gomes Sa, Marco Riccioni, Brad Amituanai, Jose Madeira, Maelan Rabut

Out: Jamie Ritchie, Kieran Brookes, Tommaso Allan, Giorgi Beria, Duncan Paia’aua, Gela Aprasidze, Max Hicks, Alivereti Duguivalu, Jordan Petaia, Nemo Roelofse, Tavite Veredamu, Akato Fakatika

Staff: Laurent Labit, Mathieu Cidre, Nicolas Mas, Nicolas Nadau, Nicolas Godignon, Jacques-Louis Potgieter

Success and failure are relative. Last season was, in the round, a failure for Perpignan. But surviving a third promotion-relegation play-off in four seasons – especially after losing their first 11 Top 14 matches – can be considered a success. Of sorts. The Catalan side live to fight another day of top-flight domestic rugby.

It took a November coaching overhaul to drag Perpignan part of the way out of a rugby hell of their own making.

Coaches Franck Azema, David Marty, Gerald Bastide and Guillaume Vilaceca all left their roles, replaced by Laurent Labit, Nicolas Nadau – recently removed from his attack coaching role at second-tier Grenoble – and Joe Worsley. The latter is now with Georgia, while Bastide is defence coach for the French women’s squad, and filled the same coaching spot for the senior men’s side during the first half of the Nations Championship.

Perpignan won just six times on Labit’s portion of the season-long watch. It was enough. As he had promised soon after his arrival in November, they climbed above a historically poor Montauban at the end of January to escape the automatic relegation spot.

And that was when he started quietly planning for Perpignan’s 27th match of the 26-game regular season that was still months away, rotating his squad with one aim in mind. To have them as fresh as possible for the promotion-relegation play-off against the side that had just lost the ProD2 final.

It worked. But the goal this season is to avoid that match altogether. Pre-season indications are that the reshaped squad are gelling well – but it looked that way last August too, when the key goal was fundamentally the same. We’ll only really get an inkling that things have improved a few matches into the season.

RACING 92

In: Paul Costes, Maxime Machenaud, Nicolas Martins, Benjamin Boudou, Noa Zinzen

Out: Will Rowlands, Gael Fickou, Kleo Labarbe (loan), Feleti Kaitu’u

Staff: Patrice Collazo, Joe Rokocoko, Olivier Azam, Julian Salvi, Paul Stridgeon

Patrice Collazo’s squad head into their new campaign staring down several problems after a successful return to the play-off semi-finals last season, with a galactico-lite squad and an all-new, power-led, defensively astute Racing Way. Here are the main three.

Problem one: a heavier schedule. Collazo rested key players during Racing’s Challenge Cup blocks last season. It was obvious where their priorities were. But the Champions Cup doesn’t allow such luxury, and Racing are playing with a smaller squad and a heavy academy reliance.

Racing are due to return permanently to their former Yves-du-Manoir home next May. Until then, they will play four more matches at La Defense, a handful at Stade Dominique-Duvauchelle in Creteil – way over on the other side of the capital – and at venues in Le Havre, Strasbourg and Auxerre.

Problem two: scrum-half Leo Carbonneau, 21, is sidelined for the bulk of the campaign with an ACL injury. To date, Racing have resisted the urge to sign a medical joker, but their nine stocks are slim. There’s veteran Maxime Machenaud, whose season-long return was made in part to mentor Carbonneau, hybrid nine-10 Antoine Gibert, and – with Kleo Labarbe on loan at Aurillac – a couple of academy players with no Top 14 experience.

Problem three: they’re outcasts. Club owner Jacky Lorenzetti sold his La Defense Pleasuredome – now known as Plenitude Arena – to Live Nation in January. Racing are due to return permanently to their former Yves-du-Manoir stomping ground next May.

Racing have pencilled in their return to the 14,000-capacity venue for the final two home matches of the regular season.

Until then, Racing ‘wanderers’ will play four more matches at La Defense, a handful at Stade Dominique-Duvauchelle in Creteil – way over on the other side of the capital – and at venues in Le Havre, Strasbourg and Auxerre.

STADE FRANCAIS

In: Ihaia West, Alivereti Duguivalu, Rufus McLean, Israel Leota, Thomas Bue, Tomasi Maka, Petero Mailulu, Fabrice Metz

Out: Zack Henry, Joe Marchant, Charles Laloi, Baptiste Pesenti, Iakopo Mapu

Staff: Paul Gustard, Rory Kockott, Ian Vass, Perry Freshwater, Morgan Parra, Kobus Potgieter, Scott Crean

After last season’s successful reboot – Stade finished third and reached the play-off semi-finals after avoiding the relegation spots by a single point in 2024-25 – manager Paul Gustard is about to shoot the sequel, with all the usual requirements: more of the same, only bigger and better.

It’s been 11 years since Stade Français’ last blockbuster Bouclier-winning campaign, so it’s no surprise that expectations at Jean Bouin are great for the second full season under Gustard, where last season’s promise needs to be parlayed into more success this season and beyond.

The Paris side have the players to take the next step. They boasted the league’s second-best attack last season, driven forward by a power pack that few could handle. Scrums and mauls were the twin not-very secrets to their success.

They look to have recruited smartly. Ihaia West offers experienced back-up for Louis Carbonel and can fill in for Leo Barre at full-back. Alivereti Duguivalu has the power and hot steps to terrify defences out wide or in midfield. Israel Leota has cult hero written all over him.

The goal, according to the club’s GM Thomas Lombard, is a top-six finish. And he wants to see a fast start to set an early tone. But he knows all too well that a fast start and a consistent challenge across an entire Top 14 season, with added Champions Cup rugby, is easier said than done.

TOULON

In: Huw Jones, Gael Fickou, Rabah Slimani, Judicael Cancoriet, Apete Narogo, Luciano Asevedo, Luka Keletaona

Out: Ma’a Nonu, Paolo Garbisi, Daniel Brennan, Brian Alainu’uese, Giorgi Javakhia, Clovis Le Bail (loan)

Staff: Pierre Mignoni, Franck Azema, Alex Codling, Maxime Petitjean, Richie Gray

As it was in Castres, so it was in Toulon. A sustained Champions Cup campaign – Pierre Mignoni’s side reached the semi-finals – couldn’t paper over the cracks of a disappointingly creaky run to ninth in the Top 14, some 13 points off the play-offs.

Cue coaching changes. Lineout coach Sergio Parisse joined Gonzalo Quesada’s Italy and Andrea Masi was released from his contract a year early. In came the returning Franck Azema – reuniting with Mignoni after a previous successful spell in the Var before he took the top job at Perpignan – and forwards coach Alex Codling as part of a slimmed-down staff.

Toulon is still all about toughness, fighting spirit and a strong forward game. You have to respect that and maintain the same mindset whether you’re playing at home or on the road.

Gael Fickou, returning to the club where he learned his rugby for his first outing with them as a professional, and fellow international centre Huw Jones are smart signings. Luka Keletaona and Luciano Asevedo have been signed with one eye on the future. Under-rated back-row Judicael Cancoriet is hitting his prime as he arrives at a club with a history and tradition of powerful forward play.

Codling’s focus at the club is the renaissance of Toulon’s forward power. “You can’t go against the club’s DNA,” Azema said recently. “Toulon is still all about toughness, fighting spirit and a strong forward game. You have to respect that and maintain the same mindset whether you’re playing at home or on the road.”

If he has managed that in pre-season, and Azema has raised the heads of the backs division to play what’s in front of them – as he has promised – then Toulon have every right to look higher than ninth.

TOULOUSE

In: Tommaso Menoncello, Valentin Delpy, Malachi Hawkes

Out: Naoto Saito, Paul Costes, Dimitri Delibes, Guillaume Cramont (loan), Lucien Richardis (loan)

Staff: Ugo Mola, Jerome Cazalbou, Clement Poitrenaud, Laurent Thuery, Jean Bouilhou, Jerome Kaino, Virgile Lacombe, David Mele

An inevitably short pre-season for the reigning Top 14 champions was disrupted by news of a €2.725m fine imposed on the club over salary cap irregularities after a failed appeal and the departures next July of Thomas Ramos, who has signed for Racing, and François Cros, who will join Lyon.

Less well reported, though no less important, is that of high-performance manager Jerome Cazalbou, who will also leave at the end of the 2026-27 campaign.

But before those – and more – established players leave next July (it’s rumoured Cyril Baille and Dorian Aldegheri may not be offered new contracts) there’s one more challenge for this particular golden generation of players at Stade Ernest Wallon. A first-ever Top 14 five-peat. One better than the four-in-a-row of Toulouse’s great 1990s generation.

Is it possible? Yes. Toulouse will be ring rusty early on – the consequence of three weeks of training and one preparation match, rather than the six weeks and two warm-up games that is the privilege of sides that don’t make the Top 14 final phase.

But they just beat Bayonne 54-47 in their only pre-season outing, after being 42-28 down approaching the hour mark. Make no mistake, no side is going to loosen Toulouse’s grip on the Brennus easily. Nor are they giving up on a long run in the Champions Cup. Far from it.

It’s easy to forget that the latest evolution of the Toulouse squad began long before news of Ramos and Cros; before even the departure of Paul Costes to Racing at the end of last season. Pita Ahki’s return to New Zealand last November was the more probable vanguard of the beginning of the end of this particular version of the most successful club in French rugby history.

One late issue: Second-row Clement Verge is out for some time with an ACL injury picked up at a training camp in Girona. Word is that the club is seeking a medical joker.

VANNES

In: Ray Nu’u, Inia Tabuavou, Murray Taulagi, Giorgi Beria, Joe Jonas, Ugo Boniface, Sione Mafileo, Mills Sanerivi, Matias Alemanno, Thomas Ployet, Ione Iashagashvili, Simi Kuruvoli, Pierre Popelin, Nathanael Hulleu, Clovis Le Bail (loan)

Out: Mako Vunipola, Francis Saili, Kitione Kamikamica, Thibault Debaes, Inaki Ayarza, Joachim Senga Kouo, Paga Tafili, Charlesty Berguet, Cyril Blanchard, Fabrice Metz, Jules Le Bail, Richard Judd, Gwenael Duplenne

Staff: Jean-Noel Spitzer, Jeremy Davidson, Yoann Boulanger, Goulven Le Garrec, Mikaele Tuugahala

Vannes, following a record-breaking, runaway single-season return to the ProD2 after a historic first campaign in the French top flight – during which they won neutrals’ hearts and minds – have the ambition and talent to become the third team on an exclusive list.

Universal promotion via play-off was introduced in the ProD2 for the 2017-18 campaign. In the nine seasons that have followed, only Perpignan and Bayonne have been able to make the step up to the Top 14 a lasting one.

“We are better prepared in every respect,” fly-half Maxime Lafarge told Midi Olympique recently. “We know the demands of the Top 14, and players who were already here [in 2024-25] know what’s expected.”

Their task is even harder than it was last time they were this high up the French rugby pyramid – but don’t be surprised to see them still here next season.

The returns of winger Nathanael Hulleu and fly-half Pierre Popelin from Castres, picking up props Giorgi Beria, from Perpignan, and Ugo Boniface, from Bordeaux, signing Simi Kuruvoli from Fijian Drua – after missing out on Provence’s Arthur Coville – and landing Gloucester’s Argentine second row Matías Alemanno suggests Lafarge is correct.

This Vannes squad is a lot deeper than the one that fought hard for Top 14 survival two seasons ago and better prepared for the upcoming challenge after becoming the first to score 1,000 points in the ProD2. Their task is even harder than it was last time they were this high up the French rugby pyramid – but don’t be surprised to see them still here next season.