Top 14 – The figures to know before the 15th day: pruner Ibrahim Diallo, Lyon in difficulty in Bordeaux…

• 139 tackles: a pruner named Diallo

After fourteen days, Racing 92 is not at its best, stuck in ninth place in the ranking. However, the Ile-de-France club has been able to count on an irresistible Ibrahim Diallo since the start of the year. The sky and white flanker stirs meat without counting. While he has taken part in twelve championship matches, Diallo is currently the best tackler in the Top 14 with no fewer than 139 tackles to his name. He has fifteen more than his runner-up, the Vannes native Sione Kalamafoni (124). It is Clermontois Fritz Lee who completes the podium with 120 successful interventions in defense.

• 14 scratches: Willis king of the ground game

It's not just in the Champions Cup that Jack Willis dominates the ground game. Last Sunday, the Toulouse third row stood out with six scratched balls against the Leicester Tigers. It's no surprise to anyone: Willis is also king in the ground game in the Top 14. Before this 15th day, he is the player who recovered the most ammunition in the rucks. Hold on tight, there have been fourteen in nine contested matches for the former Wasps man. A statistic which proves its importance in Ugo Mola's system. Above all, the Englishman is alone on his planet. His pursuer is the Bayonnais Facundo Bosch, “only” 8.

• 18 points separate the defenses of Toulouse and Montpellier

This match will feature the two best defenses in the Top 14. Stade Toulouse, with only 233 points conceded, has the best defense in the Top 14. The MHR is hot on the heels of Toulouse by occupying second place, with 251 points conceded in fourteen matches. . Defense, one of the great virtues of this Montpellier team which must nevertheless progress in attack, since the Cistes only occupy twelfth place in the ranking of the best attacks in the Top 14 with 312 points scored. Toulouse are second with 404 points scored.

• 2 defeats for Bayonne in Perpignan since its return to the top 14

Two clear defeats. Last season Rowing lost 36 to 10, in 2022-2023, 34 to 27. And at home, the Basques won three times but on the wire each time.

• 20 points: the average gap against Lou at Chaban-Delmas

During his last ten trips to Bordeaux, Lou has never won. Worse, he never brought home a single point and regularly suffered bitter defeats, since the Girondins scored an average of 31.4 points compared to 10.9 for the Lyonnais.

• 32 yellow cards: Pau and Clermont, two poor students of discipline

With fifteen and seventeen yellow cards conceded, Clermont and Pau were penalized too often in the first half of the season. In the ranking of temporary exclusions, ASM and the Section appear, respectively, in 10th and 12th position, well behind Usap and Toulouse, with only six yellow cards conceded…

• 35: the number of Vannes players called to prepare for the match

New, a group of 35 players prepared this week for the reception at the Stade Français (instead of the usual 45). Spitzer's explanation: “We found that during the second training of the week, there were a few of us, there were a few too many rotations, coaching, and we had a loss of communication.”