2022–23 Top 14 season explained

2022–23 Top 14
Countries:	France
Date:	3 September 2022 – 17 June 2023
Teams:	14
Champions:	Toulouse
Count:	22
Runnersup:	La Rochelle
Relegated:	Brive
Matches:	182
Attendance:	2701031
Top Point Scorer:	Joris Segonds (Stade Français) (240)
Top Try Scorer:	Émilien Gailleton (Pau) (14)
Prevseason:	2021–22
Nextseason:	2023–24

The 2022–23 Top 14 is the 124th French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).

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 winning while scoring at least 3 more tries than the opponent. This replaces the standard bonus point for scoring 4 tries regardless of the match result.
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.

From the 2017–18 season onwards, 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]

Teams

Fourteen clubs will compete in the 2022-23 Top 14 season, 13 of them returning. Biarritz were relegated to Pro D2 after finishing at the bottom of the table the previous season. Bayonne is the sole promoted club, finishing second in the Pro D2 the previous season and winning the Pro D2 playoffs. Perpignan, which finished 13th in the previous Top 14 season, defeated Mont-de-Marsan in the relegation playoffs to retain their place.

Club	City (department)	Stadium	Capacity	Previous season
Bayonne	Bayonne (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Stade Jean Dauger	align=center	16,934	Promoted from Pro D2 (runners-up)
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)
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

Table

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2022–23 Top 14 Table

Club

Played

Won

Drawn

Lost

Points For

Points Against

Points

Try Bonus

Losing Bonus

Points

Toulouse (CH)

682

474

+208

La Rochelle (RU)

673

479

+194

Lyon (QF)

688

626

+62

Stade Français (QF)

616

480

+136

Racing (SF)

734

684

+50

Bordeaux Bègles (SF)

576

501

+75

588

557

+31

596

662

–66

532

635

–103

588

635

–39

624

617

591

634

–43

503

724

–221

Brive (R)

440

731

–291

If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:

Competition points earned in head-to-head matches
Points difference in head-to-head matches
Try differential in head-to-head matches
Points difference in all matches
Try differential in all matches
Points scored in all matches
Tries scored in all matches
Fewer matches forfeited
Classification in the previous Top 14 season

Green background (rows 1 and 2) receive semi-final play-off places and receive berths in the 2023–24 European Rugby Champions Cup.
Blue background (rows 3 to 6) receive quarter-final play-off places, and receive berths in the Champions Cup.
Yellow background (row 7 and 8) receive berths in the Champions Cup.
Plain background indicates teams that earn a place in the 2023–24 EPCR Challenge Cup.
Pink background (row 13) will be contest a play-off with the runners-up of the 2022–23 Rugby Pro D2 season for a place in the 2023–24 Top 14 season.
Red background (row 14) will be relegated to Rugby Pro D2. Final table

Playoffs

Semi-final Qualifiers

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Semi-finals