A third of the way through the championship, RC Vannes is last in the Top 14 with 11 points. Three points from Stade Français and 4 from Pau and Montpellier. What are the prospects at the end of the season with this total of points and this ranking? Looking back at the last 10 years.
6 times, the last ones had fewer points…
Last season, Montpellier had 7 points, Perpignan 8 and the promoted Oyonnax had 16. The start of the season was different with a block of three matches and a break of almost two months due to the World Cup. In the end, the promoted Oyonnax finished last with only 34 points, Montpellier, 13th with 44 points and Bayonne 12th with 52 points, Perpignan was 10th.
READ ALSO. The results after the first block
In 2020-2021, Agen only had 2 points, Perpignan 3 the previous season, Oyonnax 7, Bayonne 8 and Oyonnax another 10 the seasons before. Four times out of five, these teams remained last in the final ranking. The only exception is Oyonnax in 2017-2018 which finished 13th behind Brive. The Oyomens were nevertheless relegated by losing the play-off match against Pro D2 finalist Grenoble.
…7 times they have been relegated
If the RCV is therefore rather in the high range in terms of points, this does not guarantee anything for the end of the season. Of the three seasons where the bottom had more points, Brive (12 points in 2022-2023) and Biarritz (14 points in 2021-2022) finished in last place with 36 and 24 points respectively. Oyonnax (2014-2015) with 12 points had secured a place in the Top 6.
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2 rescues only
We have to go back to the 2014-2015 season to see a last third of the championship qualify for the Top 6: Oyonnax therefore in 2014-2015, another era. More recently, it was Montpellier last season which had 7 points. The Montpellier residents finally obtained 44 points and a 13th place in the end. They held on by beating Grenoble in an access match.
Finally for the anecdote, only twice have teams obtained 11 points after nine days: Castres (2020-2021) and Grenoble (2016-2017). At the end of the championship, the Castres had moved up to 7th place with 69 points. Grenoble finished 13th and went down to Pro D2.
