2021–22 Top 14 season explained

2021–22 Top 14
Countries:	France
Date:	4 September 2021 - 5 June 2022
Champions:	Montpellier (1st title)
Runnersup:	Castres
Relegated:	Biarritz
Website:	www.lnr.fr/rugby-top-14
Prevseason:	2020–21
Nextseason:	2022–23

The 2021–22 Top 14 competition was the 123rd French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).

Teams

Club	City (department)	Stadium	Capacity	Previous season
Biarritz	Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Parc des Sports Aguiléra	align=center	15,000	Promoted from Pro D2 (play-off accession and 3rd in league)
Bordeaux Bègles	Bordeaux (Gironde)	Stade Chaban-Delmas	align=center	33,500	Semi-finals (4th in league)
Brive	Brive-la-Gaillarde (Corrèze)	Stade Amédée-Domenech	align=center	13,979	11th
Castres	Castres (Tarn)	Stade Pierre-Fabre	align=center	12,500	7th
Clermont	Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme)	Stade Marcel-Michelin	align=center	19,022	Quarter-finals (5th in league)
La Rochelle	La Rochelle (Charente-Maritime)	Stade Marcel-Deflandre	align=center	16,000	2nd
Lyon	Lyon (Métropole de Lyon)	Matmut Stadium de Gerland	align=center	25,000	9th
Montpellier	Montpellier (Hérault)	Altrad Stadium	align=center	15,697	10th
Pau	Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Stade du Hameau	align=center	18,324	12th
Perpignan	Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales)	Stade Aimé Giral	align=center	14,593	Promoted from Pro D2 (champions and 1st in league)
Racing	Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine)	Paris La Défense Arena	align=center	30,681	Semi-finals (3rd in league)
Stade Français	Paris, 16th arrondissement	Stade Jean-Bouin	align=center	20,000	Quarter-finals (6th in league)
Toulon	Toulon (Var)	Stade Mayol	align=center	18,200	8th
Toulouse	Toulouse (Haute-Garonne)	Stade Ernest-Wallon	align=center	18,784	1st

Number of teams by region

Teams	Region or country	Team(s)
5		Biarritz, Bordeaux Bègles, Brive, La Rochelle, Pau
4		Castres, Montpellier, Perpignan, Toulouse
2		Clermont, Lyon
2		Racing, Stade Français
1		Toulon

Competition format

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,^[1] 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.^[2]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:^[2]

4 points for a win.
2 points for a draw.
1 bonus point for scoring at least 3 more tries than the opponent. This replaces the standard bonus point for scoring 4 tries regardless of the opponent scoring.
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.

Relegation

From the 2017–18 season, only the 14th placed team is automatically relegated to the Pro D2. The 13th placed team play the runner-up of the Pro D2 play-off, with the winner taking up the final place in the Top 14 for the following season.^[3]

Fixtures and results

Round 10

Relegation playoff

The team finishing in 13th place faces the runner-up of the Pro D2, with the winner of this match playing in the 2022–23 Top 14 and the loser in the 2022–23 Pro D2.

Playoffs

Semi-final Qualifiers

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Semi-finals