2008–09 Top 14 season
The 2008–09 Top 14 Competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby. It ran from late August 2008 through the final at Stade de France on June 6, 2009, in which Perpignan lifted the Bouclier de Brennus with a 22–13 win over Clermont.
This year's edition of the Top 14 welcomed Toulon, winners of the 2008 title in the second-level Pro D2, and Mont-de-Marsan, victors in the 2008 promotion playoffs between the second- through fifth-place teams in Pro D2. They took the place of Auch and Albi, relegated at the end of the 2007–08 Top 14. Auch, which had been promoted to the Top 14 for 2007–08, finished bottom of the table and went down. The other newly promoted team in 2007–08, Dax, finished second-from-bottom, but were reprieved when French sporting authorities forcibly relegated 12th-place Albi to Pro D2 due to financial issues.
Teams
| Club | City | Stadium | Capacity | Previous season |
| Bayonne | Bayonne | Stade Jean Dauger | 16,934 | 9th |
| Biarritz | Biarritz | Parc des Sports Aguiléra | 15,000 | 6th |
| Bourgoin | Bourgoin-Jallieu | Stade Pierre Rajon | 9,441 | 10th |
| Brive | Brive-la-Gaillarde | Stade Amédée-Domenech | 15,000 | 11th |
| Castres | Castres | Stade Pierre-Fabre | 11,500 | 5th |
| Clermont | Clermont-Ferrand | Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin | 16,574 | Runners up |
| Dax | Dax | Stade Maurice Boyau | 16,170 | 13th |
| Mont-de-Marsan | Mont-de-Marsan | Stade Guy Boniface | 22,000 | Promoted from Pro D2 |
| Montauban | Montauban | Stade Sapiac | 12,600 | 7th |
| Montpellier | Montpellier | Stade Yves-du-Manoir | 15,789 | 8th |
| Perpignan | Perpignan | Stade Aimé Giral | 16,593 | Semi-finals |
| Stade Français | Paris, 16th arrondissement | Stade Jean-Bouin | 12,000 | Semi-finals |
| Toulon | Toulon | Stade Mayol | 13,700 | Promoted from Pro D2 |
| Toulouse | Toulouse | Stade Ernest-Wallon | 19,500 | Champions |
Number of teams by regions
Competition format
Each club plays every other club twice. The second half of the season is conducted in the same order as the first, with the club at home in the first half of the season away in the second. 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 on May 29 and 30, with the final at Stade de France on June 6.Going into the season, the top six clubs were guaranteed of berths in the 2009–10 Heineken Cup, with the possibility of a seventh if a French club had advanced further in the 2008–09 Heineken Cup than any team from England or Italy. However, the seventh French berth did not materialize this season, as the only Top 14 club to make the knockout stage, Toulouse, were eliminated in the quarterfinals, while England's Leicester Tigers reached the final. The sixth-place team would have been relegated to the 2009–10 European Challenge Cup if 11th-place Bourgoin had won the 2008–09 Challenge Cup final on 22 May; however, Bourgoin were defeated by English side Northampton Saints.
The bottom two teams are provisionally relegated to Pro D2, with the possibility of one or both of the bottom teams to be reprieved if a team above them fails a postseason financial audit.
The LNR uses a slightly different bonus points system from that used in most other rugby competitions. It trialled a new system in 2007-08 explicitly designed to prevent a losing team from earning more than one bonus point in a match, a system that also makes it impossible for either team to earn a bonus point in a drawn match. LNR chose to continue with this system for 2008-09.
France's bonus point system operates as follows:
- 4 points for a win.
- 2 points for a draw.
- 1 "bonus" point for winning while scoring at least 3 more tries than the opponent. This replaces the standard bonus point for scoring 4 tries regardless of the match result.
- 1 "bonus" point for losing by 7 points.
Season synopsis
At the other end of the ladder, Mont-de-Marsan were rarely competitive and finished bottom. The second relegation place finally fell on Dax, after Bourgoin, Castres, and the highly ambitious Toulon spent time in relegation trouble.
For much of the season, Bourgoin faced another type of relegation trouble—financial. At the end of each season, all teams in both divisions of LNR must pass a financial audit conducted by DNACG, LNR's financial arm, to be able to keep their professional licenses. The club were able to satisfy DNACG that they had sufficient financial guarantees to participate in Top 14 and were thus allowed to stay in the top flight.
- Second division: 2008–09 Rugby Pro D2 season
Table
Fixtures & Results
Round 1
----Round 2
----Round 3
----Round 4
----Round 5
----Round 6
----Round 7
----Round 8
----Round 9
----Round 10
----Round 11
----Round 12
----Round 13
----Round 14
----Round 15
----Round 16
----Round 17
----Round 18
----Round 19
----Round 20
----Round 21
----Round 22
----Round 23
----Round 24
----Round 25
----Round 26
Knock-out stages
Semi-finals
----Final
Leading scorers
- Note that points scorers includes tries as well as conversions, penalties and drop goals.
Top points scorers
| Rank | Player | Club | Points |
| 1 |  Brock James | Clermont | 324 |
| 2 |  Andy Goode | Brive | 235 |
| 3 |  Lionel Beauxis | Stade Français | 212 |
| 4 | Benjamin Boyet | Bourgoin | 207 |
| 5 | Romain Teulet | Castres | 195 |
| 6 | Dimitri Yachvili | Biarritz | 193 |
| 7 | Jérôme Porical | Perpignan | 176 |
| 8 | Antoine Vignau-Tuquet | Dax | 160 |
| 9 | Fabien Fortassin | Montauban | 148 |
| 10 |  Cédric Garcia | Bayonne | 116 |
Top try scorers
Attendances
- Attendances do not include the semi-finals or final as these are at neutral venues.
| Club | Home Games | Total | Average | Highest | Lowest | % Capacity |
| Bayonne | 13 | 175,382 | 13,491 | 18,840 | 10,938 | 79% |
| Biarritz | 13 | 118,151 | 9,089 | 13,104 | 7,000 | 61% |
| Bourgoin | 13 | 91,679 | 7,052 | 18,014 | 4,428 | 67% |
| Brive | 13 | 125,756 | 9,674 | 14,066 | 7,892 | 64% |
| Castres | 13 | 103,075 | 7,929 | 9,451 | 6,615 | 69% |
| Clermont | 13 | 190,622 | 14,663 | 15,853 | 12,207 | 88% |
| Dax | 13 | 95,704 | 7,362 | 10,204 | 5,057 | 46% |
| Mont-de-Marsan | 13 | 91,270 | 7,021 | 10,468 | 5,445 | 32% |
| Montauban | 13 | 91,309 | 7,024 | 12,589 | 5,068 | 56% |
| Montpellier | 13 | 150,402 | 11,569 | 14,570 | 9,503 | 73% |
| Perpignan | 13 | 166,629 | 12,818 | 14,578 | 11,671 | 77% |
| Stade Français | 13 | 325,539 | 25,041 | 79,842 | 7,443 | 79% |
| Toulon | 13 | 206,631 | 15,895 | 56,953 | 11,482 | 91% |
| Toulouse | 13 | 277,839 | 21,372 | 34,993 | 15,665 | 93% |