2014–15 Top 14 season

The 2014–15 Top 14 competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby. Two new teams from the 2013–14 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this season, Lyon and La Rochelle in place of the two relegated teams, Perpignan and Biarritz Olympique. Home-and-away play began on 16 August 2014 and ended on 23 May 2015. This was followed by a playoff stage involving the top six teams, culminating in the final on 13 June 2015.

Teams

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity
Bayonne	Bayonne	Stade Jean Dauger	17,000
Bordeaux Bègles	Bordeaux	Stade Chaban-Delmas Stade André Moga	34,700 10,000
Brive	Brive-la-Gaillarde	Stade Amédée-Domenech	16,000
Castres Olympique	Castres	Stade Pierre-Antoine	11,500
Clermont Auvergne	Clermont-Ferrand	Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin	18,030
Grenoble	Grenoble	Stade Lesdiguières Stade des Alpes	12,000 20,068
La Rochelle	La Rochelle	Stade Marcel-Deflandre	15,000
Lyon	Lyon	Matmut Stadium	11,805
Montpellier	Montpellier	Altrad Stadium	14,700
Oyonnax	Oyonnax	Stade Charles-Mathon	11,400
Racing Métro 92	Colombes	Stade Yves-du-Manoir	14,000
Stade Français Paris	Paris, 16th arrondissement	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000
Toulon	Toulon	Stade Mayol	15,400
Toulouse	Toulouse	Stade Ernest-Wallon	19,500

Competition format

The top six teams at the end of the regular season enter a knockout stage to decide the Champions of France. This consists of three rounds: the teams finishing third to sixth in the table play quarter-finals. The winners then face the top two teams in the semi-finals, with the winners meeting in the final at Stade de France.
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 made it impossible for either team to earn a bonus point in a drawn match. LNR chose to continue with this system for subsequent seasons.
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 5 points. This is a change from previous seasons, in which the margin was 7 points or less.
Table

Relegation

Normally, the teams that finish in 13th and 14th places in the table are relegated to Pro D2 at the end of the season. In certain circumstances, "financial reasons" may cause a higher placed team to be demoted instead. This last happened at the end of the 2009–10 season when 12th place Montauban were relegated thereby reprieving 13th place Bayonne.

Fixtures

The outline fixtures schedule was announced on 16 May 2014. Detailed fixtures information evolved as the season progressed.

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

Playoffs

All times are in Central European Summer Time.

Quarter-finals

----

Semi-finals