Top 14 Round 10 Returns As Clubs Battle Absences In High-Stakes Weekend
Top 14 Round 10 Returns As Clubs Battle Absences In High-Stakes Weekend
Top 14 Round 10 returns as clubs confront major absences with depth, form and momentum all on the line in a pivotal French rugby weekend.
The Top 14 is back in action this weekend for Round 10, but the fixtures scheduled for France’s top-flight rugby competition won’t come without some added wrinkles.
The international break is still going on, and the end-of-year internationals will continue on into this weekend, with numerous top-tier nations due to clash worldwide.
- Subscribe To FloRugby To Watch Every Match Of The Investec Champions Cup
- Investec Champions Cup Round 1 To Stream Free On FloRugby YouTube
- Bordeaux Begles, Penaud Defeat Northampton To Win First Champions Cup Final
- Check Out More Investec Champions Cup News
That means a wealth of talent at every Top 14 club will be unavailable, forcing teams to adjust to their situations and manage their squad depth efficiently and effectively.
Of course, that doesn’t mean we’re not bound to see a little bit of chaos — and a few new heroes burst through the woodwork — as the Top 14 gets back underway.
Here’s a look at the weekend ahead in the Top 14 calendar, streamed live and exclusively in the United States on FloRugby:
NOTE: All match kickoff times are in Eastern Time.
Pau At Bordeaux Begles, 3 p.m. Friday
We may look back at this match as being the defining fixture of Pau’s season, especially if it comes out of it with a victory.
Why?
It’s because La Section is hitting Bordeaux Begles when it’s weakened.
Yes, Pau will be missing some major names this weekend, as well. with players fulfilling their international requirements in the end-of-year internationals, including star young center Emilien Gailleton and impressive lock Hugo Auradou to France national team duty, but it’s rare that teams get to face Bordeaux nowadays without some of the major pieces of its world-renowned attack.
UBB’s Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Damian Penaud and Maxime Lucu, all of whom were integral pieces to Bordeaux lifting the EPCR Champions Cup title for the first time in club history last season, will all be among those in the club away in Paris preparing for Les Bleus’ showdown with Australia.
That means if there was ever a time for third-place Pau to strike and get a major victory over a current French club power — especially when there are possible implications for taking first in the table — that time is now.
Expect Round 10’s opener to be a flyer of a match, where unsung heroes may make the difference in a match with decreased star power.
Clermont At Lyon, 8:30 a.m. Saturday
Lyon is amid a freefall, losing three matches in a row going into the international window as the league’s early pacesetter — being top of the table after three rounds with victories in all three — has dropped all the way down to 12th, just one spot above the relegation places.
It isn’t quite time to worry about LOU being in danger of the drop yet, as it holds an 11-point advantage over the next-closest team below it (Montauban), but still, Lyon’s run of form over the past two months, which has seen it capture just one win from six matches, has been abysmal.
It’s a new beginning out of the fall break; however, Lyon welcomes in a Clermont team which, to counter, has had an excellent past couple of months.
Les Jaunards grinded out a 9-7 win over Montpellier in Round 9, a sharp contrast from the usual fast-paced style from coach Christophe Urios that has seen them score 41 tries in league play this season. That ranks second in the Top 14 behind Toulouse.
Clermont's chances will be helped by the omission in the Lyon squad of Fijian flyer Jiuta Wainiqolo, the Top 14’s joint-leading try scorer, who will be suiting up for his country this weekend against Spain.
Castres At La Rochelle, 10:35 a.m. Saturday
The strong form Castres established with three straight victories has been all but erased after back-to-back losses, first by way of giving up 63 points to Clermont, then coming up short in a tight battle with Bordeaux in Round 9.
Can Castres rebound at La Rochelle, which is more prepared for the task of playing without some major names than most other teams in the Top 14?
La Rochelle lost in a rescheduled fixture to Toulon on Nov. 8, but it may prove valuable as the rest of the league gets back to action, as coach Ronan O’Gara — who publicly voiced his displeasure with the rescheduled fixture date and threatened to withdraw from the match entirely — will field a side Saturday that has played more recently together than its competition.
After only winning two from its first five matches, La Rochelle has won 3 of 4 in what’s been a much more familiar type of form from the two-time Champions Cup winners, though the absence of stalwarts like French national team call-up and backrower Gregory Aldritt undoubtedly will impact Les Martitimes’ setup at the Stade Marcel-Deflandre.
Bayonne At Racing 92, 10:35 a.m. Saturday
Bayonne’s home form has been well-documented already, having gone 5-0 at the Stade Jean-Dauger this season, while going undefeated at home domestically for the entirety of the last campaign.
But L’Aviron’s away form? That has left a lot to be desired.
Bayonne has been beaten three times on the bounce when it’s had to travel, a major reason why the team is just outside the top spots in the standings, sitting three points back of the league leaders in fifth place, while holding a one-point cushion in the top 6.
Outscored by 76 points when playing away, compared to being outscored by 89 points at home this season, Bayonne is a different team when it isn’t playing in the comforts of the French Basque Country, and must secure a strong showing on the road to remove its hex.
An opportunity to do just that at Racing 92 this weekend awaits, and while Racing also is unbeaten at home at 4-0, its 14 tries given up in its home ground this season are the most in the league. That’s great news for Bayonne, whose last match before the international window began saw it score 49 points, with a bonus point, against Montauban.
Montpellier At Perpignan, 10:35 a.m. Saturday
Perpignan finally got off the mark in Round 9, giving title-chasing Pau a scare in a 27-23 defeat and picking up its first point of the season via the losing bonus point.
Now, with its season in jeopardy, Perpignan will be hoping its first sign of life this season isn’t merely a flash in the pan.
At 17 points adrift of automatic safety already, chasing 13th-place Montauban (six points ahead) for the relegation playoff spot seems like the more realistic goal for Perpignan, and it’ll get to host a sputtering Montpellier team that lost back-to-back matches prior to the international break for the opportunity to make some headway.
However, there’s a catch that could dampen Perpignan’s spirits: Les Cistes have allowed the fewest tries (20) in the competition so far this year, and that fact should make them the on-paper favorites away from home against a Perpignan side that’s been abysmal in attack, being the Top 14’s lowest-scoring team by far (142 points) through nine weeks of play.
That being said, Montpellier will be without some key players due to international duties, though not as many as other clubs, as Georgian props Nika Abuladze and Luka Japaridze, plus Scottish backrower Alex Masibaka, are among the notable names out of the picture.
Toulouse At Montauban, 10:35 a.m. Saturday
No club sent more players to France’s national team this international window than Toulouse’s 11 (on top of plenty other players named to other national teams), and with Les Bleus preparing for a showdown this weekend against Australia at the Stade de France, the most successful squad in French rugby history will be heavily short-handed this weekend when it takes a trip to Occitania.
However, it shouldn’t matter.
Toulouse’s depth (and breadth) of talent is among the best in the world, and against a freshly promoted Montauban side that should be up for the challenge with an all-out attacking style that in turn often leaves it shredded in defense (56 tries allowed this season), anything but a comfortable result from the league leaders — even with a largely second-team squad — would be a cause for concern.
On the flip side, any extra points in the table for Montauban this weekend, especially as it battles potential relegation in its first top-flight campaign in 15 years, would be a monumental result, though its last appearance before the international break didn’t exactly scream encouraging, as it was blasted 49-7 by Bayonne in Round 9.
Toulon at Stade Francais, 3:05 p.m. Sunday
Unlike every other club in the Top 14 this season, Toulon already has had experience playing — and winning — with a secondhand squad this international break.
In what was a replay of a previously scheduled match from earlier in the season against La Rochelle (their original date in Round 3 was postponed due to torrential rainfall and flooding), Toulon ran riot in a 39-14 triumph at the Stade Mayol on Nov. 8 in the only match played in the Top 14 since Nov. 2.
Fullback Melvyn Jaminet was locked in with a brace, three conversion kicks and a penalty, and Toulon was rewarded for its efforts in the form of rocketing up to the top of the table, putting them level on points with league leader Toulouse coming into the return to play.
Toulon gets the marquee Sunday match in Paris against Stade Francais, which suffered a defeat at the hands of Toulouse three weeks ago and needs a quick bounce-back win to keep pace, being in sixth place and in danger of falling behind the pack in what’s still a very tight top half of the standings.
How To Watch Rugby Matches In The United States On FloRugby
The URC will stream all its matches on FloRugby and the FloSports app in the United States. FloRugby and FloSports also are the U.S. home to:
FloRugby also is home to match archives and match replays.