After long weeks of pre-season conditioning in the heat and friendly matches to take stock, the 16 Pro D2 clubs are finally getting back to the serious business. The season opens this Friday in the Basque Country with Biarritz – Béziers (7pm), followed shortly after by four more games at 7.30pm, the Alpine derby Oyonnax – Grenoble at 9pm and the heavyweight clash Brive – Vannes, exceptionally scheduled for Saturday evening (9pm) with no Top 14 competition to worry about.

And with this new season getting under way, a natural question arises: who is best placed on the starting grid to move up a level in ten months’ time? A legitimate question, but a complicated one given how close the contenders look on paper.

The coaches voted for Vannes

As the side relegated from the Top 14, Vannes logically demand particular attention. And it is no accident that the Breton club received by far the most votes (9) in the poll carried out by our colleagues at Midi Olympique among the division’s coaches on who they saw winning the title. Vannes have managed to keep a big core of important players from last season, such as Maxime Lafage, Mako Vunipola, Francisco Gorissen and Michael Ruru, and have improved behind with the arrival of former Pau man Eliott Roudil and above all the return of former Rabine star Anthony Bouthier, whose length off the boot should be a blessing for the side coached by Jean-Noël Spitzer.

Like Vannes, Brive are also built to be a Pro D2 heavyweight. Knocked out in the semi-finals last season by Montauban to widespread surprise, CAB come into this campaign with very solid arguments once again. The first of them is financial, with the division’s biggest budget (21.775 million euros), which is a marker even if it is no guarantee of performance, since the same was true last year. It has also been since 2022 and Aviron Bayonnais that the biggest budget in the Pro D2 has been crowned champion.

Grenoble still in the mix

Grenoble, who have reached the final in each of the last three seasons without ever getting over the line, cannot be left out of the equation either. The question is whether the Isère squad, of very high quality on paper, will manage to get their heads straight once again after so many failures. In these pages, director of rugby Aubin Hueber floated the idea of adding a mental skills coach to the performance unit and had asked his players and staff “to empty their heads, to enjoy family and mates and to switch off their phones.” We will see whether the former scrum-half’s advice has borne fruit.

The last of the leading pack, Provence Rugby also want to get over the line this year, having fallen at the semi-final stage twice in a row. The arrival of former national coach Philippe Saint-André in a cross-cutting role as head of rugby is intended to grow a club that dreams of the Top 14 still further. The retirement of New Zealand veteran Jimmy Gopperth has been offset by the signing of Fiji fly-half Caleb Muntz, who should be one of the league’s attractions. The Provence front row has also been beefed up with the arrivals of France international Sébastien Taofifenua, former Bordeaux man Romain Latterrade and Toulouse Espoirs prospect Malachi Hawkes, who has come to Aix on loan.

Finally, there is the X factor. The one you don’t see coming at the start of the journey and who manages to invite themselves to the top table. The finest example is Montauban, who were coming off a very complicated 2023-2024 season, in which USM had to go through the relegation play-off, and who pulled off the enormous feat three months ago of qualifying and sweeping all before them in the play-offs. A story that could give ideas to Oyonnax, Béziers or Colomiers for a season that promises to be both thrilling and terribly hard to call.