Top 14

The Top 14 is the top Rugby Union club competition in France. Famous teams in the Top 14 include Stade Francais and Toulouse. French sides have always done well in top European competitions like the Heineken Cup, ilustrating the strength of the Top 14 and French Rugby as a whole.

There is a system of promotion and relegation between the Top 14 and the Rugby Pro D2, the next level down in the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).

As the name of the league suggests, it is played between the fourteen best teams in France. The season runs for 26 game weeks from August to June. Throughout the season there are breaks to allow for European fixtures (Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup), the Six Nations Championship.

The season may also be affected by the Rugby World Cup schedule. This was particularly true of the 2007/08 season, which clashed with the 2007 World Cup in France. That season, the Top 14 played on all Six Nations weekends and some Heineken Cup weekends too.

At the end of the regular season there is a play-off system to decide the overall champion. The teams finishing third through sixth will play quarter-finals, hosted by the teams finishing in third and fourth. The winners of these games will go on to play one of the top two sides in the division in the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals go on to play each other in the Grand Final at Stade de France. Last seasons champions were Perpignan, who defeated Clermont Auvergne 22-13.

Clermont Auvergne are current favourites to win the Grand Final this season, priced at 5/2 and closely followed by Toulouse at 3/1. The favourites tag may not sit easy with Clermont Auvergne as they have made the last three finals and lost them all.

The top six finishers in the Top 14 also gain entry to the following seasons Heineken Cup competition.

Top 14 betting