At the Olympia in Paris, on Monday 6 October, the 21st Nuit du Rugby crowned Stade Toulousain’s England back-rower Jack Willis as player of the 2024-2025 season. The Haute-Garonne club also dominated the awards, with several individual and collective honours.

At the traditional French rugby awards ceremony, bringing together the cream of the oval-ball game, the 2025 edition of the Nuit du Rugby confirmed the supremacy of Stade Toulousain. The highlight was Jack Willis being voted best player in the Top 14, ahead of his team-mate Thomas Ramos and Bayonne’s Sireli Maqala.

At 28, the England flanker, who arrived in Toulouse in 2022 after the collapse of Wasps, succeeds Antoine Dupont, the winner in the previous two years. A tireless tackler, jackler and ball-carrier, he embodied at the end of the season the energy and the selfless soldier that Toulouse needed, particularly during Dupont’s prolonged absence.

Beyond that prestigious title, the Red and Blacks picked up other major awards. As yet another statement of the obvious, the best Top 14 coaching staff award went to the Toulouse set-up run by Ugo Mola, Jean Bouilhou, Clément Poitrenaud and Laurent Thuéry. Toulouse also took the social commitment trophy, in recognition of the “Sport et Cancer” project, which invites people affected by the illness to take part in supervised physical activity.

On the national front, several other awards marked the evening. Louis Bielle-Biarrey (Union Bordeaux-Bègles) was voted best France international, ahead of Thomas Ramos and Maxime Lucu, carried in particular by a remarkable international season and a string of tries in the Six Nations. A Championship in which he was also named player of the tournament. In the Pro D2, the best player title went to Jérôme Bosviel (Montauban); Montauban also took the best Pro D2 coaching staff award. The breakthrough of the year is wing Gaël Dréan (RC Toulon).

On the women’s side, Madoussou Fall Raclot was voted best player in Elite 1 and Teani Feleu best France international. Refereeing was not forgotten either: Pierre Brousset, from Rieumes and on the rise on both the national and international stage, was named referee of the year. Finally, the try of the season went to Louis Bielle-Biarrey for his remarkable piece of play with UBB in round 21.

This night of celebration confirms the Toulouse reign over French rugby: collective excellence, squad depth, systemic reward in the staff and commitment trophies. The Olympia, where players, coaches and rugby figures converged on 6 October, was the stage for a genuine celebration of the oval-ball game, where individual performance turned into collective success.