JAMES HARRINGTON
FRENCH COLUMN
Reigning Champions Cup title holders La Rochelle and 2021 winners Toulouse have been notable exceptions but Top 14 clubs have not, it's fair to say, had the best of times in the opening two rounds of this year's inter-continental competitions.
Bordeaux, Lyon, Racing 92 and Castres, with a total of zero wins between them, make up the bottom four of Pool A in the convoluted pool phase of the Champions Cup; while La Rochelle and Toulouse are bravely flying the flag for French clubs in Pool B, as Clermont and Montpellier hover in eighth and ninth out of 12.
In the Challenge Cup, Toulon are second in Pool A with two wins from two, but only Newcastle Falcons are keeping Brive or Perpignan – sides with more pressing domestic matters than intercontinental success – off the foot of the group; while fourth-placed Pau lead the French charge in Pool B, with the other Top 14 teams, Stade Francais and Bayonne, propping up the remaining six sides.
And so, with the Champions and Challenge Cup competitions – and the second-tier ProD2 – all on brief hiatus until January, thoughts and plans return to the Top 14, where two rounds are scheduled over the Christmas and New Year period.
The league's Christmas-period matches are, as they have long been, packaged in the Top 14's ‘Boxing Day' marketing.
Boxing Day is not a thing in France – in fact, for most of the country, with the exception of the historic Alsace-Lorraine region in the northeast, it is not even a public holiday.
And none of the matches this year take place on December 26 – but it must be pretty successful as a marketing ploy, because it's been going on for years. And no one, the occasional grinchy Briton abroad apart, really objects.
And the fixture setters have played a blinder this year, setting this week as ‘derby week', or at least as close to derbies as they can get away with.
So there are plenty of highlights to look forward to, with Viaplay screening three of the round's seven matches in the UK: Toulon-Lyon on December 22; Toulouse-Castres on December 23; and Racing 92-Stade Francais on December 24.
The 13th round of the Top 14 season, the midpoint round, kicked off on Thursday evening with what we should probably now call the Pierre Mignoni derby. Toulon – fresh from two bonus-point wins in the Challenge Cup, and with Dan Biggar promising to improve his language skills so he can, in his own words, “scream at them in French” – entertained Lyon, a side running frustrated following a pair of hardfought defeats against Bulls and Saracens in the Champions Cup, at Stade Mayol.
The Top 14 is so close right now that Stade Francais, the side in third place heading into the latest round of matches has the same number of wins as Castres, the side in 11th – six bonus points and an additional league point for a draw make up the seven-point and eight-place difference between the two clubs.
The same cannot be said of Brive who have won just twice so far this season, most recently on October 1 against Bayonne, and their visitors on Friday, historic derby opponents Clermont, who are three wins, 13 points and four places better off in the league – and expect a number of key players to be back in action.
Brive are five points adrift of nearest rivals Perpignan – and a further seven from 12th-placed Pau, and safety. An inconvenient truth of Top 14 rugby is that the side at the bottom of the table at Christmas are almost routinely relegated at the end of the season. Brive look unlikely to reverse that trend.
Pau issued a statement shortly after their manager Sebastien Piqueronies was suspended for 10 weeks after manhandling the referee following their Challenge Cup opener, saying they would not appeal against the decision. In it, Piqueronies was quoted as saying: “I am well aware that I have been involved in a situation that can damage the image of rugby … I assume it by accepting the sanction. I have always had and will always have the greatest respect for the referees and officials of our sport,” which is, basically, the official equivalent of a massive sigh of relief from both club and coach. His sanction could have been – should have been – much more severe.
He will be in the stands for the visit of Bayonne to Stade du Hameau. Pau have three wins in their last five, and will expect a win – but the visitors have given more illustrious sides a scare this season, even away from their fortress Jean Dauger.
Second-from-bottom Perpignan head up the A9 to fifth-placed Montpellier – aside likely to be pretty upset after their defeat at home against Ospreys last Saturday. Philippe Saint-Andre had put out a strong side, only to be outmuscled by a determined URC outfit. Revenge may be in the air at the GGL – it may be a bad day to be Perpignan.
La Rochelle – two wins from two in the Champions Cup – welcome Bordeaux – zero wins from two in the Champions – to Stade Marcel Deflandre in a match that, in any normal week, should make the primetime TV slot.
But that privilege, on the day before Christmas Eve, goes to league leaders Toulouse, a side that have played most of their domestic rugby at 9pm, and who this week welcome near-rivals Castres – who fairly comprehensively won the last time the two sides met, in the semi-finals of last season's play-offs – to Ernest
Wallon. Castres have struggled away from home this season and, even if Toulouse head coach Ugo Mola decides to rest a few players after their Champions Cup exploits against Munster and Sale, a shock is probably not on the cards this Friday.
And the Top 14 decided to save the closest derby till last. On December 24, the traditional celebration day in France, when families gather around a table groaning with food, and exchange gifts, Racing 92 play host to Stade Francais at La Defense Arena.
Previous attempts to schedule Top 14 matches on Christmas Eve have been rebuffed with threats of player strikes. But, this year, the only match of the day kicks off mid afternoon between two sides a matter of a few kilometres apart, so the players will have plenty of time to shower, change and get back to their families in time for the celebrations.
And, with that, all that's left to say is to wish one and all a happy and peaceful Christmas, from here on the French side of things.
