2020–21 Top 14 season
The 2020–21 Top 14 competition will be the 122nd French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby. After play was suspended following the 17th Matchday of the 2019–20 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, the season was officially cancelled without any winner or promotion/relegation on 6 May.
Teams
Club | City | Stadium | Capacity | Previous season |
Agen | Agen | Stade Armandie | 13,863 | 13th |
Bayonne | Bayonne | Stade Jean Dauger | 16,934 | 11th |
Bordeaux Bègles | Bordeaux | Stade Chaban-Delmas | 33,500 | 1st |
Brive | Brive-la-Gaillarde | Stade Amédée-Domenech | 13,979 | 10th |
Castres | Castres | Stade Pierre-Fabre | 12,500 | 9th |
Clermont | Clermont-Ferrand | Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin | 19,022 | 6th |
La Rochelle | La Rochelle | Stade Marcel-Deflandre | 16,000 | 5th |
Lyon | Lyon | Matmut Stadium de Gerland | 25,000 | 2nd |
Montpellier | Montpellier | Altrad Stadium | 15,697 | 8th |
Pau | Pau | Stade du Hameau | 18,324 | 12th |
Racing | Nanterre | Paris La Défense Arena | 30,681 | 3rd |
Stade Français | Paris, 16th arrondissement | Stade Jean-Bouin | 20,000 | 14th |
Toulon | Toulon | Stade Mayol | 18,200 | 4th |
Toulouse | Toulouse | Stade Ernest-Wallon | 18,754 | 7th |
Number of teams by regions
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 the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.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. The margin had been 7 points until being changed prior to the 2014–15 season.
Table