Bayonne push Agen one step nearer the inevitable
Midway through the second half of Italy v Wales, the Top 14 caught up with its Covid-hit schedule as the final whistle sounded on Bayonne’s match against Agen – the only French domestic topflight game of the weekend.
To put it another way, 13th entertained 14th in a vital game as the French top flight delivered another powerful advert in favour of promotion and relegation and joined-up competition thinking just as the Premiership looks to ringfence itself from the rest of rugby in England.
Players from those two clubs now join the league’s 12 other sides on a much-needed break before the first of the final block of domestic and European games.
With the top six just threatening to break away from the rest of the league, the bottom of the table is the place to watch right now.
One of the two relegation places has all-but been decided. Bottom-ofthe-table Agen – ironically, one of just two French teams still in the Challenge Cup – have a near-perfect Top 14 record of 19 defeats in 19 matches. They have just two defensive bonus points in the bank.
They are not officially relegated yet – a maximum 35 points are up for grabs in their last seven games and they are currently a mere 29 adrift of 13th-place and a play-off shot at survival.
But Agen’s run-in includes trips to Toulon, La Rochelle and Lyon, where bonus-point wins are tidy teenager’s bedroom-level unlikely, and they would still need a long string of other results to go their way to keep even their closest rivals within strawclutching reach.
Top 14 survival has long been a galaxy-sized credulity stretch for Agen, whose infirmary is bursting with 15 players out injured. It was already all-but silent when head coach Regis Sonnes arrived at the club in mid-November with a rebuild and return remit.
Two players have already left, and ten more are known to be leaving at the end of the season. Another 12 are coming to the end of contracts, and others could activate exit clauses.
Bayonne were in the relegation play-off place when yesterday’s match kicked off at Stade Jean Dauger. Their 48-20 bonus-point win means they are now 12th, four crucial points ahead of Pau, who they visit for a crunch game on April 17.
They will be without injured winger Joe Ravouvou for a month in that run-in period. He’s likely to miss next week’s match against Racing, the trip to Pau, and home games against Castres and Bordeaux. The run-in for Yannick Bru’s side ends with trips to Toulouse and Montpellier and a home match against Stade Francais. Every one of those games will matter.
Before the match against Bayonne, Pau are at Castres on March 27 – a side unbeaten at home since the turn of the year, and who have picked up 27 points in their last nine matches to ease away from the relegation zone and give themselves an outside shot at the play-offs.
Pau then have trips to Stade Francais, Agen and La Rochelle, while also facing Montpellier, currently 11th, at home. Every match is vital.
Two places and five points away from that relegation play-off spot, Montpellier – who have still to confirm the identity of their head coach next season – have eased their own worries in recent weeks, with three wins in their last four outings.
It’s starting to look like it’s safe to believe they are safe, though their final block of matches features away games at Toulouse, Bordeaux, Stade Francais and Pau, while they welcome Toulon, La Rochelle and Bayonne to the GGL. They will still want every point they can muster.
Meanwhile, in the ProD2, Perpignan, Vannes and Biarritz are well clear of the pack.
But promotion is still on the cards for several teams, including Oyonnax, Colomiers, Grenoble, and Nevers, as the title – and the Top 14 place that comes with it – are decided in a six-team post-season play-off competition that was brought in the same year the English competitions decided this form of promotion was a bad idea. It is the only aspect of the French domestic competition that is, arguably, behind the English system.
The winner of the play-off final will take Agen’s place in the Top 14. The loser will welcome the 13thplaced side in a play-off game, with that top-flight place up for grabs.
It’s convoluted, there’s an unnecessary additional game, though it’s often an exciting, tense, affair, and it means clubs can’t recruit for Top 14 rugby until many contract pickings have already been hoovered up.
On the flipside, the ProD2 is a rich competition in its own right, and flecked with rugby stardust and every one of its matches broadcast live on French TV as part of its own deal with Canal Plus.
Third-place Biarritz, who lost 34-21 at home to promotion rivals Oyonnax on Friday night, have Steffon Armitage and former Wallaby Henry Speight in their ranks; leaders Perpignan, who walloped Aix 42-3 on Thursday, boast George Tilsley, Damian Chouly and the unlucky Lucas Bachelier.
France internationals Thomas Ramos, Demba Bamba, Kilian Geraci, Anthony Bouthier, and recent training squad call-up Gaetan Barlot are all ProD2 alumni. Before injury halted his season, Oyonnax’s Sacha Zegueur was a regular on Galthie’s lists. Another member of the training squad for yesterday’s England match, Wilfrid Hounkpatin joined Castres direct from then-Federale 1 side Rouen.
The organisation that runs the Top 14 also runs the ProD2. The interests of the second-tier are the interests of the top flight, and vice versa. It makes a difference.
Now, there’s a third professional tier – the National – to bridge the gap between the pro and amateur game and allow ambitious and well-organised clubs a pathway to the top.
There are plenty of faults in the French professional game. The link between leagues is not one of them. Nor is promotion and relegation – and that, in turn, makes for more meaningful matches. Who would want to lose that?
“Bottom-of-table Agen have a Top 14 record of 19 defeats in 19 matches”