2013–14 Top 14 season

The 2013–14 Top 14 competition is a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby. Two new teams from the 2012–13 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this year, Oyonnax and Brive in place of the two relegated teams, Agen and Mont-de-Marsan. Home-and-away play began on 16 August 2013 and continued through to 3 May 2014.
The regular season was very closely fought, with a record few away wins, but ended up with the same six teams qualifying for the play-offs as the previous year. Toulon topped the table for the first time, one point clear of second-placed Montpellier, whilst defending champions Castres just managed to hold on to the last qualifying spot, finishing in sixth. At the other end of the table, Biarritz had a nightmarish season, spending virtually the whole year in the relegation zone, and finished bottom, while Perpignan, who had been in the top tier of French rugby since 1911, were also relegated. Oyonnax and Brive finished 12th and 9th, respectively, marking the first time since 2007 that both newly promoted teams managed to keep their places in the Top 14.
The quarter-final stage saw two major upsets, with Racing Métro avenging their loss from the previous year with a 21–16 away win at Toulouse, whose run of twenty consecutive semi-final appearances thus came to end, while Castres put an end to Clermont's record streak of 77 straight wins at Stade Marcel Michelin with a 22–16 win. This is the first time that both quarterfinals have resulted in away wins.

Teams

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity
Bayonne	Bayonne	Stade Jean Dauger	16,934
Biarritz	Biarritz	Parc des Sports Aguiléra	15,000
Bordeaux Bègles	Bordeaux	Stade Chaban-Delmas Stade André Moga	34,700 10,000
Brive	Brive-la-Gaillarde	Stade Amédée-Domenech	16,300
Castres	Castres	Stade Pierre-Antoine	11,500
Clermont	Clermont-Ferrand	Parc des Sports Marcel Michelin	18,030
Grenoble	Grenoble	Stade Lesdiguières	12,000
Montpellier	Montpellier	Stade Yves-du-Manoir	14,700
Oyonnax	Oyonnax	Stade Charles-Mathon	11,400
Perpignan	Perpignan	Stade Aimé Giral	14,593
Racing Métro 92	Colombes	Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir	14,000
Stade Français	Paris, 16th arrondissement	Stade Jean-Bouin	20,000
Toulon	Toulon	Stade Mayol	15,250
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 7 points.
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 & Results

After the General Assembly of the Ligue Nationale de Rugby, held at Aix-en-Provence on 5 and 6 July 2013, the outline calendar of fixtures for the 2013–14 season were released. Detailed fixtures information evolves as the season progresses. Match attendances are from the official web site.

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

This match was postponed due to heavy rain. Despite the pitch being covered since Friday, the referee took the decision to cancel the match. It has been rescheduled to 14 March.
Round 18

Round 19

This match was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch. It has been rescheduled to 5 April.
Round 20

Round 21

Round 17 rescheduled match

This match – originally scheduled to be played on 25 January 2014 – was postponed due to heavy rain.
Round 22

Round 23

This result means that Biarritz Olympique will finish the season at the bottom of the table.
Round 19 rescheduled match
This match – originally scheduled to be played on 15 February 2014 – was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.
Round 24

Round 25

Round 26

Playoffs

All times are in Central European Summer Time.

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals