Top 14 'I can't wait': Camille Lopez quits Clermont for Bayonne
Former France out-half Camille Lopez is to quit Clermont a year early to take up a deal at Bayonne, the Pro D2 promotion chasers.
by Liam Heagney 
by Liam Heagney Top 14
Top 14
Watch France’s best rugby union teams collide in the Top 14, which is one of Europe’s three major rugby union leagues.
The Top 14 was created way back in 1892 and it’s the top division of the French national league system. It sits just above the Pro D2, and promotion and relegation occur between the two tiers.
Read on to learn even more about Top 14 rugby. On this page, you can see all the latest Top 14 results, read the latest news about the Top 14 teams and view upcoming Top 14 fixtures.
by Liam Heagney FEATURED
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Top14 Rugby History & Format
The Top 14 league is home to France’s 14 best teams. However, the format of the tournament has changed multiple times over the years. For example, in the inaugural year of competition, only two teams took part. Similarly, for many years, 16 teams competed for the title and the competition was known as the Top 16.
The format of Top 14 rugby last changed in 2017-18, when the French National Rugby League tweaked the competition with the aim of improving the standard of French rugby in time for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Now, every Top 14 team plays all of the others twice (once at home and once away) in a round-robin format. Following this, a knockout format is used to decide the winner of the tournament.
There are three phases to the knockout round. Firstly, the teams finishing from third to sixth play quarter-finals hosted by the third and fourth-placed teams. Then, the winners face the top two teams in the semi-finals, with the winners meeting in the final at the Stade de France.
Fixtures & Results
Teams
Agen View Team 
Bayonne View Team 
Bordeaux View Team 
Brive View Team 
Castres View Team 
Clermont View Team 
Grenoble View Team 
La Rochelle View Team 
Lyon View Team 
Montpellier View Team 
Oyonnax View Team 
Pau View Team 
Perpignan View Team 
Racing 92 View Team 
Stade Francais View Team 
Toulon View Team 
Toulouse View Team More on Top14 Rugby History & Format
The club that finishes bottom of the Top 14 is automatically relegated to Pro D2 and is replaced by the Pro D2 champion. The second-from-bottom team then enters a promotion/relegation play-off with the Pro D2 runner-up and the winner of this game takes a place in the Top 14 for the next season.
Teams that finish in the top six places of the Top 14 also represent France in the European Rugby Champions Cup. The other eight Top 14 teams then automatically qualify for the European Rugby Challenge Cup. This means all of the Top 14 teams represent France in European competitions.
In the history of Top 14 rugby, Toulouse have been the tournament’s most successful side. They’ve won the Top 14 on 20 occasions and they’ve finished as the tournament’s runners-up a further seven times. They’re followed by Stade Français (14 wins and 9 runners-up finishes) and AS Béziers (11 wins and 4 runners-up finishes).
