Top 14
Top 14 talking point: Video glitch try leaves Toulon fuming
French rugby’s new independent video referee system has been operational for just a few weeks. But a glitch at an inopportune moment means it is already the subject of controversy
James Harrington
France
Top 14 talking points: Doubting Thomas unloads on 45-second kick rule
Toulouse’s Thomas Ramos weighs in on the shortened time limit for penalties and conversions, the honest reaction of Jean-Noël Spitzer after Vannes were bullied off the ball by Montpellier, La Rochelle’s new teenage star ... and the always remarkable Jiuta Wainiqolo
James Harrington
Top 14 talking points: Fightbacks a-go-go
It was, mostly, all right on the night as French rugby's Top 14 returns with a series of close encounters of the comeback kind ... except in Bordeaux
France
France’s Jalimack 2.0 experiment: ‘We speak the same rugby’
With no group training to tune up a new 10-15 combo, the Ntamack / Jalibert duo – reunited for Les Bleus for the first time since two tests at 10-12 in November 2021 – worked together in a single set-up session
Top 14
Top 14 talking points: all over bar the play-off shouting
Who reached the Top 14 play-offs, who didn't, what they said, and what it means…
France
What Racing 92’s big Clermont win means for the final round of French rugby’s Top 14
The scale and manner of Racing 92’s Top 14 win on Sunday changed a host of top-six calculations for the final round of matches this coming weekend
France
Top 14 talking points: All about Bordeaux and Montpellier
How French Champions and Challenge Cup finalists Bordeaux and Montpellier fared the weekend before their title matches against Leinster and Ulster in Bilbao … along with the other 12 sides in the Top 14
France
Top 14 talking points: And then there were eight
With three rounds of the regular Top 14 season to go, eight teams are left in the hunt for just six play-off places
France
The other Kpoku brother
Quietly, and with little of the media fuss that has surrounded his brothers, Jonathan Kpoku is carving out a rugby career in France that he hopes will continue for a long time to come
France
Top 14 talking points: To the wire on a record-breaking weekend
Late drama and four away wins. French rugby's Top 14 had it all in the round before the Champions and Challenge Cup semi-final weekend
France
Top 14 talking points: La Rochelle want to believe again
France’s Top 14 returned with a Fan Days weekend to launch a two-match run before a hiatus for the Champions and Challenge Cup semi-finals.
France
Vannes, Montauban, Perpignan and French rugby’s play-off problem
French rugby is proud of its open pyramid structure that allows for any side to dream an impossibly big dream. In theory. But not, increasingly, in practice