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2020–21 Rugby Pro D2 season

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2020–21 Pro D2
Countries France
Date3 September 2020 – 13 June 2021
Official website
www.lnr.fr

The 2020–21 Rugby Pro D2 is the second-level French rugby union club competition, behind the Top 14, for the 2020–21 season. It will run alongside the 2020–21 Top 14 competition; both competitions are operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). After play was suspended following the 23rd Matchday of the 2019–20 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in France, the season was officially cancelled without any winner or promotion/relegation on 6 May.[1]

Teams

Number of teams by regions

Teams Region or country Team(s)
5  Occitanie Béziers, Carcassonne, Colomiers, Montauban, Perpignan
4  Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Aurillac, Grenoble, Oyonnax, Valence
3  Nouvelle-Aquitaine Biarritz, Mont-de-Marsan, Soyaux Angoulême
1  Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Nevers
 Brittany Vannes
 Normandy Rouen
 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence

Competition format

The regular season uses a double round-robin format, in which each team plays the others home and away.

The LNR uses a slightly different bonus points system from that used in most other rugby competitions. It trialled a new system in 2007–08 explicitly designed to prevent a losing team from earning more than one bonus point in a match,[2] a system that also made it impossible for either team to earn a bonus point in a drawn match. LNR chose to continue with this system for subsequent seasons.[3]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:[4]

  • 4 points for a win.
  • 2 points for a draw.
  • 1 bonus point for winning while scoring at least 3 more tries than the opponent. This replaces the standard bonus point for scoring 4 tries regardless of the match result.
  • 1 bonus point for losing by 5 points (or less). The required margin had been 7 points or less until being changed in advance of the 2014–15 season.

Starting with the 2017–18 season, Pro D2 conducts a play-off system identical to the one currently used in Top 14, with the top six teams qualifying for the play-offs and the top two teams receiving byes into the semi-finals. The winner of the play-offs earns the league championship and automatic promotion to the next season's Top 14; the runner-up enters a play-off with the second-from-bottom Top 14 team, with the winner of that play-off taking up the final place in Top 14.[5]

This replaced the previous system in which the top team at the end of the regular season was declared champion, also earning a Top 14 place, while the second- through fifth-place teams competed in promotion play-offs. The play-off semi-finals were played at the home ground of the higher-ranked team. The final was then played on neutral ground, and the winner earned the second ticket to the next Top 14.

Promotion

Pro D2 to Top 14

As noted above, both promotion places will be determined by play-offs from 2017–18 forward, with the winner of the Pro D2 play-offs earning promotion and the runner-up playing the second-from-bottom Top 14 team for the next season's final Top 14 place.

Fédérale 1 to Pro D2

At the same time, LNR and the French Rugby Federation (FFR) changed the promotion process from Fédérale 1 to Pro D2. For three seasons (2017–18 to 2019–20), only one team will be promoted to Pro D2 through the Fédérale 1 competition. The second promotion place will be a "wild card" granted by LNR to a club that meets the following criteria:[5]

  • must be located in northern France (with the dividing line running approximately from La Rochelle to Lyon)
  • have a long-term development plan
  • location in an area that can demographically and economically support a fully professional club

Starting with the 2020–21 season, the FFR created a third professional league, slotting between Pro D2 and Fédérale 1 in the league system called Nationale.[5]

Relegation

Normally, the teams that finish in 15th and 16th places in the table are relegated to Fédérale 1 at the end of the season. In certain circumstances, "financial reasons" may cause a higher-placed team to be demoted instead, or bar a Fédérale 1 team from promotion.

Table

Template:2020–21 Rugby Pro D2 Table

See also

Notes

  1. ^ In recent years, Rouen has taken occasional home matches to Stade Robert Diochon.

References

  1. ^ "Top 14 - Pro D2 : les présidents d'accord pour ne pas attribuer de titre". L'Equipe. 6 May 2020.
  2. ^ "French try out new bonus point system". Planet-Rugby.com. 27 June 2007. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
  3. ^ "Article 330, Section 3.2. Points "terrain"" (PDF). Règlements de la Ligue Nationale de Rugby 2008/2009, Chapitre 2 : Règlement sportif du Championnat de France Professionnel (in French). LNR. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 February 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
  4. ^ "Article 330, Section 3.2. Points "terrain" et points de bonus" (PDF). Statuts et Reglements de la Ligue Nationale de Rugby 2014/2015, Chapitre 2 : Règlement sportif des championnats profesionnels (in French). Ligue Nationale de Rugby. p. 166. Retrieved 2014-08-26.
  5. ^ a b c Mortimer, Gavin (18 August 2016). "French rugby enjoys a popularity boom as it looks to the future". Rugby World. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
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