FRENCH COLUMN
AN IMPRESSIVE milestone at Stade Marcel Deflandre was reached last night, where La Rochelle hosted their 100th sell-out match in a row – either side of the period of pandemic restrictions – a run stretching back to January 2, 2016.
Since that game nine years ago, a 25-21 win over Castres Olympique, just shy of 1.6 million people have made their way through the turnstiles of the ground that now welcomes 16,689 fans every match.
The club has an impressive 14,250 season ticket holders. There is, the club report, a 7,000-name waiting list to join the ranks of season ticket holders.
Such is the demand to attend games at Marcel Deflandre that season ticket holders can resell their seats for games they cannot attend. Fans of visiting sides – especially in the Champions Cup – often complain about the difficulty of getting hold of tickets.
They may have a point. But it should be noted that capacity at Marcel Deflandre has risen nearly 12 per cent in the nine years since that first sell-out, and L’Equipe reports that forthcoming development plans include major infrastructure projects.
Let’s be honest, it’s not as if La Rochelle are about to move out of their long-established home. They have worked too hard for too long to do anything daft like that. Marcel Deflandre will get bigger, but growth will be organic and driven by ongoing demand. Not so much leaving fans wanting more, as leaving more fans wanting…
La Rochelle’s sell-out century came after the Ligue Nationale de Rugby revealed another rise in crowd numbers at the midpoint of the season. The average crowd at a Top 14 match after 13 of 26 rounds was 15,567, a nine per cent increase on the same period last season.
For the final match of 2024, the average crowd was 19,403 – aided by the fact that Toulouse hosted Stade Francais at a packed-out 33,000-seat Stadium Toulouse, rather than the less-than 19,000-capacity Stade Ernest Wallon.
Bordeaux, with the biggest ground in the league, hosted an average of 32,215 fans at Stade Chaban Delmas in the first half of the season, a number that hikes the league’s overall average, where no other ground is bigger than 20,000 seats.
Toulouse’s average home crowds – boosted by two switches to a full-house at Stadium Toulouse – have been 23,085 on average so far this season; Lyon 18,435, Clermont 16,942, Bayonne 15,847, and Toulon 14,615. Vannes, in their first Top 14 campaign, are averaging 11,192 at Stade de la Rabine.
What’s more impressive, however, are the percentage increases. Bordeaux’s 24 per cent season-on-season jump is skewed because of work that closed areas of the ground last season. But, discounting that anomaly, Toulouse crowds are 12 per cent up compared to the same period last season – there are plans to increase capacity at Ernest Wallon to 25,000.
Despite their on-pitch struggles so far this season, Lyon’s crowds are 13 per cent higher than in the last campaign. Bayonne are seeing 21 per cent more people through the turnstiles – an early season trip to Stade Anoeta has boosted their figures. Toulon’s crowds are nine per cent higher than last sea- son, and Castres’ average crowd of 10,678 is seven per cent up season on season.
“Since 2016, just shy of 1.6 million people have made their way through the turnsiltes”
To the considerable annoyance of La Rochelle fans, Toulouse – with eyes firmly on next weekend’s Champions Cup match against Sharks in Durban – took a very young, very inexperienced squad to Marcel Deflandre.
There was something of a symbolic return at Toulon, ahead of their bonus-point 36-24 win over Racing 92, as a bubbling club mystery was solved – who would lead the famous Pilou Pilou that precedes every match following the departure, under something of a cloud, of Christophe Charaut at the end of 2024?
The cheers rose as Charaut’s predecessor, Cédric Abellon, who had led the chant for more than a decade before giving up the post in 2019, emerged from the tunnel for the pre-match tradition. It remains to be seen how permanent his return will be.
Sideshow complete, Seta Tuicuvu scored a first-half double as Toulon took the five points without moving much out of third gear. But the win came at a price for the hosts and, potentially, France, as Charles Ollivon had to be helped off the pitch with a knee injury in just the sixth minute.
Jeremy Davidson’s Castres ended a three-match losing streak with a much-needed 24-19 win over Pau at Stade Pierre Fabre. Once again, the hosts were their own worst enemies, letting the visitors back in after controlling the first 50 minutes pretty convincingly.
After two draws in a row – which came as welcome relief after five Top 14 defeats on the bounce – a first win for Karim Ghezal as head coach at Lyon came as they beat Perpignan 17-12.
Montpellier climbed provisionally into the top six with a bonus-point 42-10 win over Bayonne at the GGL Stadium – their fourth victory in five Top 14 matches. Stuart Hogg, playing 10 for the sixth time this season, contributed 17 points, including his second try in nine starts.
An awkwardly bouncing ball – who knew, right? – broke the deadlock midway through the second half of what had been a tight match between Stade Francais and Bordeaux at Stade Jean Bouin. Louis Bielle-Biarrey took full advantage to score under the posts. Three minutes later, Romain Buros extended the visitors’ lead, and – despite a defiant score from Jeremy Ward – an on-the-road bonus-point win was secured when Pablo Uberti touched down just after the hour. The visitors added two more tries late on to make the final score 19-46.
Sunday’s primetime match, to close out the first weekend of the second half of the long Top 14 season, sees bottom of the table Vannes host a Clermont side looking to halt a three-match losing run at Stade de la Rabine.
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