2007–08 Top 14 season


The 2007-08 Top 14 Competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition, operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby. Because France hosted the 2007 Rugby World Cup, the competition did not begin at its normal time of August, but instead started on the last weekend in October 2007, one week after the Rugby World Cup final. The league compensated for the late start by playing on several weekends that it normally skips, namely the weekends of the 2008 Six Nations Championship and the semifinals and final of the 2007-08 Heineken Cup. The season ended on June 28, 2008, with Toulouse defeating regular-season league leader Clermont 26-20 in the final and thereby lifting the Bouclier de Brennus.
This year's edition of the Top 14 welcomed Auch and Dax, who earned promotion from Rugby Pro D2. Agen and Narbonne were relegated from the Top 14.
As in previous seasons, the top four clubs at the end of the home-and-away season advanced to a single-elimination playoff. The semifinals were held at neutral sites, with the final at Stade de France. Going into the season, the top six clubs were guaranteed of berths in the 2008-09 Heineken Cup. Since Toulouse advanced to the 2007-08 Heineken Cup final against Irish club Munster, thereby assuring a higher finish for a French team in that competition than for any team from England or Italy, the seventh-place club also earned a berth in the 2008-09 Heineken Cup. The bottom two teams were provisionally relegated to Pro D2, with the possibility of one or both of the bottom teams to be reprieved if a team above them failed a postseason financial audit. This happened in 2007-08, as Albi failed the audit, ultimately giving a reprieve to second-from bottom Dax.
This season, LNR trialled a modification to the bonus point system in both the Top 14 and Pro D2. The system to be used this season was:
This system was explicitly intended to prevent a losing team from earning two bonus points, as is possible under the standard system.
ClubCity StadiumCapacityPrevious season
AlbiAlbi Stadium Municipal d'Albi12,00010th
AuchAuch Stade Jacques Fouroux7,000Promoted from Pro D2
BayonneBayonne Stade Jean Dauger16,9348th
BiarritzBiarritz Parc des Sports Aguiléra15,000Semi-finals
BourgoinBourgoin-Jallieu Stade Pierre Rajon9,4416th
BriveBrive-la-Gaillarde Stade Amédée-Domenech15,0009th
CastresCastres Stade Pierre-Fabre11,50011th
ClermontClermont-Ferrand Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin16,574Runners up
DaxDax Stade Maurice Boyau16,170Promoted from Pro D2
MontaubanMontauban Stade Sapiac11,5007th
MontpellierMontpellier Stade Yves-du-Manoir15,78912th
PerpignanPerpignan Stade Aimé Giral16,5935th
Stade FrançaisParis, 16th arrondissementStade Jean-Bouin12,000Champions
ToulouseToulouse Stade Ernest-Wallon19,500Semi-finals

Number of teams by regions

Table

Fixtures & Results

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Round 7

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Round 8

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Round 9

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Round 10

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Round 11

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Round 12

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Round 13

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Round 14

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Round 15

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Round 16

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Round 17

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Round 18

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Round 19

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Round 20

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Round 19 (rescheduled game)

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Round 21

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Round 22

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Round 23

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Round 24

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Round 23 (rescheduled game)

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Round 25

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Round 26

Knock-out stages

Semi-finals

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Final

Leading scorers

RankPlayerClubPoints
1 Brock JamesClermont301
2 Richard DourtheBayonne245
3 Juan Martín HernándezStade Français227
4 Romain TeuletCastres221
5 Fabien FortassinMontauban212
6 Benjamin BoyetBourgoin191
7 Jean-Baptiste ElissaldeToulouse155
8 Frédéric CouzierAuch140
9 Andre HoughAlbi134
10 Luciano OrqueraBrive122

Top try scorers

Attendances

The league has seen a major increase in attendance in recent years. In 2006-07, per-game attendance averaged 10,549, up from 9,288 in 2005-06 and 7,255 in 2004-05, when the league consisted of 16 teams instead of its current 14. The 2005-06 and 2006-07 totals are skewed to some degree because Stade Français drew over 79,000 fans to each of the two fixtures they played at Stade de France in both seasons. However, even if the Stade de France fixtures are not included, per-game attendance was 8,549 in 2005-06 and 9,267 in 2006-07, both well above the 2004-05 figures.
The final average attendance for the 2007-08 regular season was 11,106, another increase from the previous season. The LNR also reported that league-wide season ticket sales were up by 11% from 2006-07. The most-attended matches were the three Stade Français matches played at Stade de France, each of which drew more than 75,000, and Toulouse's three games at Stadium Municipal, each of which drew at least 30,000.
ClubHome
Games
TotalAverageHighestLowest% Capacity
Albi1393,3517,18110,0005,86555%
Auch1362,3374,7956,6813,15969%
Bayonne13161,13512,39514,0259,64573%
Biarritz13115,5738,89013,0446,00059%
Bourgoin1382,4646,3438,0004,83267%
Brive13136,76810,52114,8687,89970%
Castres13102,0957,85310,0006,56068%
Clermont13189,32714,56416,57412,82788%
Dax1394,6567,28115,0004,50045%
Montauban1390,8166,9869,0545,55361%
Montpellier13144,52011,11715,7898,89570%
Perpignan13153,18111,78314,5177,88971%
Stade Français13323,06924,85179,7797,44379%
Toulouse13272,01120,92436,00014,06688%