2024–25 Rugby Pro D2 season
| 2024–25 Pro D2 | |
|---|---|
| Countries |  France |
| Date | 30 August 2024 – June 2025 |
| Official website | |
| www | |
The 2024–25 Pro D2 is the second-level French rugby union club competition, below the Top 14, for the 2024–25 season. It will run alongside the 2024–25 Top 14 competition; both competitions are operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).
Teams
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Number of teams by regions
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Competition format
[edit]The regular season uses a double round-robin format, in which each team plays the others home and away.
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,[1] 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.[2]
France's bonus point system operates as follows:[3]
- 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 (or less). The required margin had been 7 points or less until being changed in advance of the 2014–15 season.
Starting with the 2017–18 season, Pro D2 conducts a play-off system identical to the one currently used in Top 14, with the top six teams qualifying for the play-offs and the top two teams receiving byes into the semi-finals. The winner of the play-offs earns the league championship and automatic promotion to the next season's Top 14; the runner-up enters a play-off with the second-from-bottom Top 14 team, with the winner of that play-off taking up the final place in Top 14.[4]
This replaced the previous system in which the top team at the end of the regular season was declared champion, also earning a Top 14 place, while the second- through fifth-place teams competed in promotion play-offs. The play-off semi-finals were played at the home ground of the higher-ranked team. The final was then played on neutral ground, and the winner earned the second ticket to the next Top 14.
Promotion
[edit]Pro D2 to Top 14
[edit]As noted above, both promotion places will be determined by play-offs from 2017 to 2018 forward, with the winner of the Pro D2 play-offs earning promotion and the runner-up playing the second-from-bottom Top 14 team for the next season's final Top 14 place.
Nationale to Pro D2
[edit]Starting with the 2021–22 season, the FFR created a third professional league, slotting between Pro D2 and Fédérale 1 in the league system called Nationale.[4]
Relegation
[edit]Normally, the teams that finish in 15th and 16th places in the table are relegated to Nationale at the end of the season. In certain circumstances, "financial reasons" may cause a higher-placed team to be demoted instead, or bar a Fédérale 1 team from promotion.[citation needed]
Table
[edit]| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | TB | LB | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Provence | 10 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 245 | 192 | +53 | 3 | 2 | 31 | Semi-final promotion playoff place |
| 2 | Grenoble | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 263 | 229 | +34 | 2 | 1 | 31 | |
| 3 | Montauban | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 274 | 251 | +23 | 1 | 2 | 31 | Quarter-final promotion playoff place |
| 4 | Brive | 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 265 | 217 | +48 | 3 | 2 | 29 | |
| 5 | Biarritz | 10 | 6 | 0 | 4 | 249 | 234 | +15 | 2 | 1 | 27 | |
| 6 | Béziers | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 252 | 191 | +61 | 2 | 5 | 27 | |
| 7 | Soyaux Angoulême | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 225 | 215 | +10 | 1 | 1 | 26 | |
| 8 | Colomiers | 10 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 212 | 235 | −23 | 0 | 2 | 24 | |
| 9 | Agen | 10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 230 | 232 | −2 | 0 | 5 | 21 | |
| 10 | Mont-de-Marsan | 10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 264 | 247 | +17 | 2 | 3 | 21 | |
| 11 | Dax | 10 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 192 | 219 | −27 | 0 | 1 | 21 | |
| 12 | Nevers | 10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 194 | 243 | −49 | 1 | 2 | 19 | |
| 13 | Oyonnax | 10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 201 | 217 | −16 | 1 | 1 | 18 | |
| 14 | Aurillac | 10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 231 | 282 | −51 | 0 | 1 | 17 | |
| 15 | Nice | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 193 | 267 | −74 | 0 | 4 | 16 | Relegation play-off |
| 16 | Valence Romans | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 255 | 274 | −19 | 0 | 3 | 15 | Relegation to Nationale |
Relegation playoff
[edit]The team finishing in 15th place faces the runner-up of the Nationale, with the winner of this match playing in the 2025–26 Pro D2 and the loser in the 2025–26 Nationale.[citation needed]
Promotion playoffs
[edit]| Semi-final Qualifiers | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||||||
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See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "French try out new bonus point system". Planet-Rugby.com. 27 June 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
- ^ "Article 330, Section 3.2. Points "terrain"" (PDF). Règlements de la Ligue Nationale de Rugby 2008/2009, Chapitre 2 : Règlement sportif du Championnat de France Professionnel (in French). LNR. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
- ^ "Article 330, Section 3.2. Points "terrain" et points de bonus" (PDF). Statuts et Reglements de la Ligue Nationale de Rugby 2014/2015, Chapitre 2 : Règlement sportif des championnats profesionnels (in French). Ligue Nationale de Rugby. p. 166. Retrieved 2014-08-26.
- ^ a b Mortimer, Gavin (18 August 2016). "French rugby enjoys a popularity boom as it looks to the future". Rugby World. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
External links
[edit]- (in French) Ligue Nationale de Rugby – Official website
- (in French) Midi Olympique