2024–25 Rugby Pro D2 season

2024–25 Pro D2
Countries France
Date30 August 2024 – 7 June 2025
Official website
www.lnr.fr

The 2024–25 Pro D2 is the second-level French rugby union club competition, below the Top 14, for the 2024–25 season. It will run alongside the 2024–25 Top 14 competition; both competitions are operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).

Teams

Number of teams by regions

Teams Region Team(s)
6 Nouvelle-Aquitaine Agen, Biarritz, Brive, Dax, Mont-de-Marsan, Soyaux Angoulême
4 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Aurillac, Grenoble, Oyonnax, Valence Romans
3 Occitanie Béziers, Colomiers, Montauban
2 Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Nice, Provence
1 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Nevers

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,[1] 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.[2]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:[3]

  • 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.[4]

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 to 2018 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.

Nationale to Pro D2

Starting with the 2021–22 season, the FFR created a third professional league, slotting between Pro D2 and Fédérale 1 in the league system called Nationale.[4]

Relegation

Normally, the teams that finish in 15th and 16th places in the table are relegated to Nationale 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

2024–25 Pro D2 Table
Pos Team Pld W D L PF PA PD TB LB Pts Qualification
1 Grenoble 30 21 0 9 987 677 +310 11 3 98 Semi-final promotion playoff place
2 Brive 30 20 0 10 764 615 +149 10 4 94
3 Colomiers 30 18 1 11 926 778 +148 7 5 86 Quarter-final promotion playoff place
4 Provence 30 17 1 12 818 722 +96 7 5 82
5 Soyaux Angoulême 30 17 2 11 761 727 +34 6 2 80
6 Montauban 30 17 0 13 781 762 +19 4 5 77
7 Béziers 30 16 0 14 769 695 +74 7 6 77
8 Valence Romans 30 13 0 17 840 782 +58 4 8 64
9 Biarritz 30 14 0 16 718 757 −39 4 5 64
10 Nevers 30 14 0 16 706 857 −151 3 3 62
11 Dax 30 13 1 16 634 745 −111 3 4 61
12 Oyonnax 30 12 1 17 749 716 +33 6 5 61
13 Mont-de-Marsan 30 13 0 17 768 838 −70 3 5 60
14 Agen 30 12 0 18 699 727 −28 3 8 59
15 Aurillac 30 13 0 17 700 873 −173 2 3 57 Relegation play-off
16 Nice 30 7 0 23 592 941 −349 1 6 35 Relegation to Nationale
Updated to match(es) played on 16 May 2025. Source: [1]

Relegation playoff

The team finishing in 15th place faces the runner-up of the Nationale, with the winner of this match playing in the 2025–26 Pro D2 and the loser in the 2025–26 Nationale.

1 June 2025
15:00 CEST (UTC+2)
Chambéry15–45Aurillac
Report
Chambéry Savoie Stadium, Chambéry
Attendance: 6,100
Referee: Benjamin Hernandez

Aurillac won and therefore both clubs remained in their respective leagues.

Promotion playoffs

Semi-final Qualifiers Semi-finals Final
1 Grenoble 38
4 Provence 49 4 Provence 17
5 Soyaux Angoulême 22 1 Grenoble 19
6 Montauban 24
2 Brive 13
3 Colomiers 23 6 Montauban 29
6 Montauban 26

See also

Notes

References

  1. ^ "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.
  2. ^ "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.
  3. ^ "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.
  4. ^ a b 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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