At 36, Hamza Mbarki is a big asset for Trignac in Fédérale 3. Behind him lie eighteen years with the Tunisia national team, legs of the World Sevens Series and one last Africa Cup in his sights. We spoke to him.
Round 1 of the Top 14 is played this weekend and four clubs go into it with depleted front rows. Bordeaux have four props unavailable, Lyon have lost three, Toulon have just lost Beka Gigashvili to surgery and Bayonne are without Pierre Castillon, who has cruciate ligament damage. The medical joker market has almost nothing to offer.
This season the LNR and the FFR require 33 internationals to be rested twice in every block of eight matches. The list of 33 names, drawn up in the spring by Fabien Galthié, has not been made public, so it is impossible to say who is affected at which club. What can be measured is the pool it was drawn from. Since July 2025, 81 players have worn the France shirt, 78 of whom play in the Top 14 this season. Toulouse have 17, Vannes just one.
On 27 August the Federal Appeals Committee upheld the sanction imposed on Stade Toulousain for breaching the salary cap, reduced from €2.88m to €2.725m. The club had the charge relating to win bonuses thrown out, but not for the reason it claims. It says it will take the case to the CNOSF (French National Olympic and Sports Committee) and the administrative courts.
Six moves are already known for the summer of 2027, and the season only starts on Saturday. Clermont president Jean-Claude Pats on Monday called on professional rugby to legislate against these early announcements. But his counterparts are not asking for the same thing: Ugo Mola wants to be able to cash in on departures, while Laurent Marti says he did not have the salary cap room to make a move. Three readings of the same mechanism.
USAP have pulled off one of the biggest coups in their recent history by signing Sevu Reece for three seasons. The 29-year-old Fiji-born New Zealand wing arrives with 74 tries in 102 Super Rugby matches for the Crusaders and 37 All Blacks caps, the most recent on 22 November 2025. Perpignan travel to Stade Français on Saturday to open their season.
The LNR disciplinary committee has banned Racing 92's Fijian wing Wame Naituvi for five weeks after he was sent off on 21 August in a pre-season match at Brive for a kick. He will miss the first five rounds of the Top 14 and will not be able to return until the trip to Toulon on 10 or 11 October. Racing open their season on Saturday in Bordeaux.
Hamish Watson signed for Castres on 17 July, three days after Dalton Papali'i's serious injury opened up a spot in the back row. The Scot arrives off a season of just 305 minutes, compared with 1,264 the year before. He played 181 matches for Edinburgh, the last on 14 December 2025, and has 59 caps. At almost 35, he will be the fourth-oldest back-row forward in the Top 14.
Jonathan Danty has not played a single match since 13 September 2025, the day he ruptured both cruciate ligaments in his right knee. Eleven and a half months later, the Stade Rochelais centre is back running and has completed a Bronco, the benchmark fitness test. He is aiming for a return in October or November without guaranteeing it, and no longer rules out playing beyond June 2027, when his contract ends. His 2025-2026 season stopped at two appearances.
Stemming from the agreement between the FFR (French Rugby Federation) and the LNR (French professional league), a trial will for the first time cap the number of matchday squads for 33 France internationals, for club and country. Last season, players who featured for France were named in an average of 23.5 matchday squads.
Avé Maalo dislocated his right shoulder in the friendly against Leinster, and both tighthead props signed this summer are already injured. A week before hosting Clermont in Round 1 of the Top 14, LOU are looking for a medical joker.
On his first appearance in a Toulon shirt, in the friendly against Clermont at Issoire, the international centre wore the armband. Pierre Mignoni praised an exemplary performance, one week before the Top 14 season gets under way.
The international lock leaves Castres Olympique a year before the end of his contract and signs a one-season deal with USON Nevers, joining on 31 August. His two seasons in the Tarn amounted to just 19 matches, 10 of them as a starter.
Under contract at RCT until June 2027, Jules Coulon has been released with immediate effect and joins Perpignan. Yet the 24-year-old back row is coming off his busiest Top 14 season, with 17 appearances.
Stade Toulousain beat LOU 35-28 in the final of the second leg of the Supersevens on Saturday at the Stade du Hameau. In the women's event, Lyon beat Toulouse 17-14. The same two clubs met in both finals, and each won one.
Vienne beat Rennes 23-21 on Saturday night to close Round 2 of Nationale, thanks to a 78th-minute penalty from full-back Jules Dorrival. Seven days earlier, the Rhône club had been beaten 47-0 at Mont-de-Marsan without scoring a point. It is their first win since returning to the division.
The All Blacks queried World Rugby over the South African scrum after their win at Ellis Park, and the Springboks did the same over New Zealand's so-called "seatbelt" tackle technique. Five years after Rassie Erasmus was banned over a video targeting a referee, both camps now go through official channels.
The Springboks beat the All Blacks 33-26 at the DHL Stadium to level the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry series at 1-1. Cheslin Kolbe, ruled out of the squad four days earlier, kicked 18 points without scoring a try, his best tally in a Test for South Africa.
