Who will succeed Stade Bordelais in the Élite 1? French champions in 2023, 2024 and 2025, the Gironde side are up against Toulouse and the Auvergne side from Romagnat. Advantage Toulouse as the season resumes.

After ten rounds played and a break, action resumed last weekend. Here are the results from this round 10:

  • Bobigny – Stade Bordelais: 15-25
  • Lyon – Stade Toulousain: 7-62
  • Blagnac – Toulon: 55-3
  • Stade Villeneuvois/Lille Métropole – ASM Rugby (Romagnat): 10-24
  • Montpellier – Grenoble: 17-10

These scores confirm the current pecking order. In the table, the top three are pulling clear: Toulouse (47 points), Romagnat (44 pts) and Stade Bordelais (68 pts). While Blagnac (31 pts) look cut adrift and those behind are “struggling”, a top-of-the-table clash is already looming on 28 February with a tasty Romagnat – Bordeaux…

Toulouse are crushing defences (424 points, an average of 40 a match), Romagnat are defending well (fewer than 10 points conceded per game) and Stade Bordelais remain an excellent student (second-best attack, second-best defence). The same three clubs come out on the performance index for tries scored: 64 for Toulouse, 50 for Bordeaux and 48 for Romagnat.

A new cycle for France

Influenced by performances in this Élite 1 season, the new coaches have drawn up a list of 38 players with — no surprise — a majority from Toulouse and Bordeaux. A huge rejuvenation: around fifteen of them will hear the Marseillaise for the first time, and the remaining twenty or so have fewer than 10 caps. The project is clearly the 2029 World Cup, with a squad whose average age is under 23.

What next? The weekend of 28 February / 1 March. Then? Round 12 on 14/15 March, round 13 on 22 March. Then the women’s Six Nations: France – Italy in Grenoble on 11 April. But that is another story.