JAMES HARRINGTON – FRENCH COLUMN
It's logical – as the final stop-start sprint in a hard-fought Top 14 season begins – to think purely in terms of matches remaining, points potential, and table possibilities. In fact, with play-off and Champions Cup places up for grabs, and relegation to avoid, such thoughts are not just logical, they're inevitable.
The league is as tight as it ever was. After Stade Francais and Toulouse, seven sides are chasing four play-off places. Four plus all-but-down Oyonnax are fighting to avoid the relegation zone.
But they're not the only consideration. One more number – a season-long constant, rather than any of the standard considered and already mentioned variables – is at the heart of coaches' considerations every week.
And it takes on greater significance at this time of the campaign for some clubs.
That number is 16. It's the minimum average of JIFF-qualified players that established clubs in the Top 14 must maintain in their matchday squads throughout the season. The minimum average for sides in their first season in the Top 14 is 14, and any side that is in its second season must maintain an average of 15 JIFF-qualified players.
A JIFF player is anyone who has spent a set amount of time in French age-grade rugby, or in a Top 14 or ProD2 club's academy set-up.
Because of the matchday requirement – and a secondary limit of 13 non-JIFF players in a club's senior squad – JIFF players enjoy a premium on the transfer market. It was reported last week that Montpellier cut short their interest in Mako Vunipola because of JIFF rules; while, in the ProD2, Dax's Irish centre Alex McHenry won't have his contract renewed despite impressing coaches at the club, due to his non-JIFF status.
The penalty for missing the JIFF matchday quota is a points deduction the following season. Most sides are comfortably above the minimum – the league average is 17.8, with Toulouse and Racing 92 both above 20. But, with time fast running out, two sides at the wrong end of the table – Montpellier and Clermont – are flirting with the rules.
Montpellier are in 13th, the relegation play-off place, and are currently running a JIFF average of 15.55. The latter are provisionally 12th, four points ahead, and maintaining a JIFF average of 16.
This is where some important sums kick in for Montpellier, in particular. They need to make up nine players between now and the end of the season, at an average of 17.5 players per match – that's 105 of the 138 names on their final six teamsheets, more if they can manage it. Meanwhile, Clermont need to name at least 96 JIFF names in their last six matchday 23s to maintain that precious average.
Last season, Toulon played fast and loose with the rules. They scraped over the line, but it cost them a top six finish. Similarly, Montpellier ran close to the wire last season. But with nothing on the line in their final match, they were able to field 22 JIFF players on the final weekend to ensure they avoided a points sanction this season.
This season, Montpellier don't have that ‘dead rubber' cushion. Every point counts. Club owner Mohed Altrad has ‘refused to accept' the possibility that the 2022 Top 14 champions will be relegated to the ProD2. But if they're to avoid starting next season on negative points, Collazo and his crack team of coaches need to work some carefully calibrated selection magic.
And the pressure mounted yesterday as Montpellier lost 31-23 at Pau in a match that was still in the balance five minutes from time. As full-back Anthony Bouthier said on the sidelines immediately afterwards: “We've got five games left to save our club, our team. We have to give it everything we've got to avoid any regrets. We were in the game right to the end, but we shipped a try that killed us. Everyone wants to save this club, but it's going to be tough right to the end.”
The result has given Clermont a little breathing space in the table, and manager Christophe Urios has given himself some JIFF wriggle room, after leaving experienced match-winners including George Moala, Peceli Yato, Benjamin Urdapiletta and Tomas Lavanini at home and bumped up his season's JIFF numbers for today's trip to Bordeaux. It will give him a little player wriggle room later still in the campaign.
Yannick Bru's hosts, meanwhile, will be back to near full-strength with Matthieu Jalibert and Damian Penaud returning after missing last weekend's shock Champions Cup quarter-final loss to Harlequins.
Perpignan manager Franck Azema this week hinted that he might be tempted to take the France job when it next becomes available. It's an unthinkable exercise right now, as Fabien Galthie is contracted through to the end of the next World Cup, but, considering the Catalans' turnaround from relegation fodder to play-off pretenders, Azema would be a strong choice whenever the question does become more urgent.
Yesterday, after sharing four tries equally with visitors Lyon in the opening 16 minutes, Perpignan pulled away to pick up a bonus-point 51-20 win, and climb to within two points of the top six.
Earlier, a week after their Champions Cup defence ended in Dublin, an ill-disciplined La Rochelle shipped over 15 penalties in a thrill-a-minute, nerve-shredding 25-24 Top 14 loss at Castres. Winger Nathanael Hulleu ran in two late tries as they came from behind to end a five-match losing streak in all competitions, and reignite their push for the playoffs.
Oyonnax's 2024 goes from bad to worse. The basement side have yet to win in the Top 14 this year, and their faint chances of survival faded further as they lost 43-13 at home to Stuart Lancaster's Racing 92.
Stade Francais' extended stay at the top of the table has been built almost entirely on Paul Gustard's ‘They Shall Not Pass” defence. The Parisians' attack, meanwhile, is the second-worst in the championship. For the first 40 minutes of their sell-out match against Bayonne at Stade Jean Bouin it seemed as if the visitors' had found the Parisians' weak spot, as they ran in three tries to lead 24-7 at the break.
But the hosts were a different side at the restart, eventually winning 28-24, courtesy of an after-the-hooter try from ironically Bayonne-bound back row Giovanni Habel-Kuffner. Toulon overcame lock Brian Alainu'uese's first-half red card to beat a much-changed Toulouse 20-19 in front of more than 60,000 fans at Marseille's Velodrome.
