Leyds, Forner, Loaloa: the Top 14’s untouchables

Dillyn Leyds has left his replacements just ten minutes of Top 14 rugby since the season began.

Three players started every round

After nine rounds, 595 players have featured in the Top 14. Only three have started every match for their club: Dillyn Leyds at La Rochelle, Théo Forner at Perpignan and Alivereti Loaloa at Clermont.

Leyds has come closest to playing the lot: 710 minutes out of a possible 720. The South African has been substituted only twice, in the 74th and 76th minutes. Forner follows with 694 minutes, Loaloa with 662.

Nobody has played every minute

No player has completed all 720 minutes. Paul Gabrillagues (Stade Français) and Harry Plummer (Clermont) have each played eight full matches out of nine, but both started one game on the bench: 31 minutes for the Paris lock, recalled by France to face South Africa, and 24 for the Clermont fly-half.

Jack Goodhue (Castres), Simeli Daunivucu (La Rochelle) and Thomas Banks (Montpellier) have never left the field in eight matches, 640 minutes each. All three missed one round, none through injury. Goodhue and Banks were rested in round 4, at Clermont and Toulouse. Daunivucu was left out against Bayonne on 8 November, with Jules Favre preferred at centre. Rodrigo Marta has gone one better at Pau: seven matches, 80 minutes every time.

No props, no hookers

Backs fill 22 of the top 30 places for playing time. The eight forwards are all locks or back-rowers: Gabrillagues, Killian Tixeront (Clermont, 634 minutes), Maxime Baudonne (Racing 92), Francisco Gorrissen (Vannes), Yacouba Camara (Montpellier), José Duarte Madeira (Perpignan), Tanginoa Halaifonua (Stade Français) and Tom Willis (Bordeaux-Bègles). There is not a single prop or hooker.

Clermont and Stade Français keep their spine

Clermont have three players in the top ten: Plummer, Loaloa and Tixeront. With scrum-half Baptiste Jauneau, four Clermont players have passed 560 minutes, the equivalent of seven full matches. Stade Français have as many: Gabrillagues, Louis Carbonel, Léo Barré and Jeremy Ward.

At the other end, Bordeaux-Bègles, Toulon, Bayonne and Toulouse have nobody above that mark. Toulouse’s most used player, Teddy Thomas, is on 480 minutes, the lowest total among each club’s most used player.

A pace rarely sustained

Over the last five seasons, the ten most used players after nine rounds were averaging 71 minutes per round. Over the remaining 17 rounds of the regular season, that fell to 51. Only 18 of the 51 players involved (ties included) were still in the top ten at the end of the regular season, and 9 played less than half their early-season rate.

Playing time also drops for players who had already passed 400 minutes at that stage, from 54 to 40 minutes per round, but less sharply.

Thomas Banks is the exception. Last season he was the only player to have played all 720 minutes after nine rounds, and he finished the regular season top of the playing-time list with 1,907 minutes. Harry Plummer, joint ninth at that stage, finished second with 1,899 minutes. At the other end, Leon Darricarrere, second after nine rounds, ended up 76th, and Lewis Ludlam 81st. Both were stopped by shoulder injuries: Darricarrere, hurt against Stade Français at the end of November and operated on, did not play again until March; Ludlam, injured at Perpignan on 28 March, did not play again that season.

Back on 28 November

The league resumes with round 10 on 28 November.