The 2014–15 Top 14 competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Two new teams from the 2013–14 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this season, Lyon and La Rochelle in place of the two relegated teams, Perpignan and Biarritz Olympique. Home-and-away play began on 16 August 2014 and ended on 23 May 2015.^[3] This was followed by a playoff stage involving the top six teams, culminating in the final on 13 June 2015.^[4]

Quick Facts Countries, Date ...

2014–15 Top 14
Countries	France
Date	16 August 2014 – 13 June 2015
Champions	Stade Français (14th title)
Runners-up	Clermont
Relegated	Lyon, Bayonne
Matches played	187
Attendance	2,692,804 (average 14,400 per match)
Highest attendance	79,000 (play-offs) Stade Français v Clermont 13 June 2015 64,819 (league stage) Toulon v Toulouse 28 March 2015
Lowest attendance	5,000 Stade Français v Lyon 23 August 2014
Tries scored	735 (average 3.9 per match)
Top point scorer	Jonathan Wisniewski (Grenoble) 325 points[1]
Top try scorer	David Smith (Toulon) 13 tries[2]
Official website
www.lnr.fr/rugby-top-14
← 2013–14 2015–16 →

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The top six teams at the end of the regular season (after all the teams played one another twice, once at home, once away) enter a knockout stage to decide the Champions of France. This consists of three rounds: the teams finishing third to sixth in the table play quarter-finals (hosted by the third and fourth placed teams). The winners then face the top two teams in the semi-finals, with the winners meeting in the final at Stade de France.^[3]

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,^[5] 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.^[6]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:^[7]

• 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). This is a change from previous seasons, in which the margin was 7 points or less.

Normally, the teams that finish in 13th and 14th places in the table are relegated to Pro D2 at the end of the season. In certain circumstances, "financial reasons" may cause a higher placed team to be demoted instead. This last happened at the end of the 2009–10 season when 12th place Montauban were relegated thereby reprieving 13th place Bayonne.

The outline fixtures schedule was announced on 16 May 2014.^[4][3] Detailed fixtures information evolved as the season progressed (i.e. specific kick off times).^[10]

All times are in Central European Summer Time (UTC+2).

Final

13 June 2015 20.00

Stade Français	12 – 6	Clermont
Pen: Steyn (4/6) 14' 21' 28' 80'	Stats[194]	Pen: Parra (0/2) Lopez (1/1) 39' James (1/2) 62'

Stade de France, Saint-Denis Attendance: 79,000 Referee: Pascal Gaüzère

FB 15 Djibril Camara  66' RW 14 Julien Arias OC 13 Waisea Nayacalevu  79' IC 12 Jonathan Danty LW 11 Jérémy Sinzelle FH 10 Morné Steyn SH 9 Julien Dupuy  69' N8 8 Sergio Parisse (c) OF 7 Raphaël Lakafia BF 6 Antoine Burban  65' RL 5 Alexandre Flanquart LL 4 Hugh Pyle  26' TP 3 Rabah Slimani HK 2 Rémi Bonfils 33' to 40+1'  56' LP 1 Heinke van der Merwe  63' Substitutions: HK 16 Laurent Sempéré  33'  40+1'  56' PR 17 Sakaria Taulafo  63' LK 18 Pascal Papé  26' N8 19 Jono Ross  65' SH 20 Jérôme Fillol  69' FH 21 Meyer Bosman  79' CE 22 Geoffrey Doumayrou  66' PR 23 Davit Kubriashvili Coach: Gonzalo Quesada

FB 15 Nick Abendanon RW 14 Jean-Marcellin Buttin OC 13 Aurélien Rougerie IC 12 Benson Stanley  69' LW 11 Napolioni Nalaga FH 10 Camille Lopez  51' SH 9 Morgan Parra  69' N8 8 Fritz Lee OF 7 Julien Bardy 14' to 24'  69' BF 6 Damien Chouly (c) RL 5 Sébastien Vahaamahina LL 4 Paul Jedrasiak  51' TP 3 Davit Zirakashvili  73' HK 2 John Ulugia  20' LP 1 Thomas Domingo  73' Substitutions: HK 16 Benjamin Kayser  20' PR 17 Raphaël Chaume  73' LK 18 Julien Pierre  51' FL 19 Alexandre Lapandry  69' SH 20 Ludovic Radosavljevic  69' FH 21 Brock James  51' FB 22 Mike Delany  69' PR 23 Clément Ric  73' Coach: Franck Azéma