2008–09 Rugby Pro D2 season

2008–09 Rugby Pro D2 season
Countries  France
Champions Racing Métro
Promoted Racing Métro
Albi
Relegated Bourg-en-Bresse
Béziers
Matches played 243
Attendance 1,139,050 (average 4,687 per match)
Tries scored 703 (average 2.893 per match)
Top point scorer France Pierre-Yves Montagnat (336)
Top try scorer France Yoann Huguet (14)

The 2008–09 Rugby Pro D2 was the second-level French rugby union club competition, behind the Top 14, in the 2008–09 season. It ran alongside the 2008–09 Top 14 competition; both competitions were operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).

Previous season

At the end of the previous season, Toulon were champions and thus automatically promoted to Top 14. They were eventually followed by Mont-de-Marsan, who beat Racing Métro in extra time in the final providing the second promotion place. Blagnac, which had been newly promoted to Pro D2 for the 2007–08 season, finished bottom of the table and were initially relegated to Fédérale 1, but were further relegated by French sporting authorities to Fédérale 2 due to financial problems. Limoges finished second-from-bottom for the second consecutive year; unlike 2006–07, when Limoges were reprieved when Gaillac were denied a professional license due to financial issues, they received no such break in 2007–08. The other promoted team in 2007–08, Aurillac, stayed up, finishing in 11th.

Colomiers and Bourg-en-Bresse earned promotion from Fédérale 1 for the 2008–09 season, while Albi and Auch were relegated from the 2007–08 Top 14.

2008–09 synopsis

Racing Métro, which had barely missed out on promotion the previous season, easily won the title, clinching with three rounds to spare. The three promotion playoff games were decided by a total of 5 points, with the semifinal between Albi and La Rochelle being tied after extra time and decided on the third step of the tiebreaker, penalties scored during the match. Albi ultimately defeated Oyonnax in the final to secure an immediate return to the Top 14.

The two newly promoted teams, Colomiers and Bourg-en-Bresse, were in relegation trouble throughout the season, but Colomiers escaped, finishing in 14th, the last safe spot. Bourg-en-Bresse were provisionally joined in relegation by Béziers.

However, this did not end the relegation saga. In order to keep a professional license and stay in Pro D2, all clubs must pass a postseason audit conducted by DNACG (Direction nationale d'aide et de contrôle de gestion), the LNR's financial arm. On June 12, DNACG announced that Tarbes and Bourg-en-Bresse had failed their audits and would be relegated. Tarbes would be relegated to Fédérale 1, while Bourg-en-Bresse, already consigned to Fédérale 1, would face a further drop to Fédérale 2.[1] Béziers would have been spared the drop if Tarbes had not successfully appealed its relegation. However, Tarbes were able to come up with sufficient financial guarantees to satisfy DNACG, and its relegation to Fédérale 1 was officially rescinded on June 26.[2]

The competition

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,[3] a system that also makes it impossible for either team to earn a bonus point in a drawn match. LNR chose to continue with this system for 2008–09.[4]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:[4]

Season table

Key to colors
     Champions automatically promoted to Top 14
     Winner of playoffs between second- through fifth-place teams for the second promotion place
     Remaining participants in promotion playoffs
     Bottom two teams are relegated to Fédérale 1.
2008–09 Rugby Pro D2 Table
Club Total points Bonus points Match points Games Won Drawn Lost Points for Points against Diff
1 Racing Métro 107 11 96 30 24 0 6 754 469 +285
2 Agen 94 10 84 30 21 0 9 799 543 +256
3 Albi 87 7 80 30 19 2 9 569 493 +76
4 La Rochelle 87 15 72 30 18 0 12 647 499 +148
5 Oyonnax 85 11 74 30 18 1 11 605 438 +167
6 Lyon 84 14 72 30 17 1 12 600 448 +152
7 Tarbes 73 11 62 30 15 1 14 602 534 +68
8 Pau 72 10 62 30 15 1 14 523 507 +16
9 Aurillac 72 6 66 30 16 1 13 615 653 −38
10 Grenoble 60 14 46 30 11 1 18 416 469 −53
11 Bordeaux-Bègles 60 8 52 30 13 0 17 591 639 −48
12 Auch 53 9 44 30 11 0 19 416 533 −117
13 Narbonne 49 7 42 30 9 3 18 494 672 −178
14 Colomiers 47 7 40 30 9 2 19 541 679 −138
15 Bourg-en-Bresse 43 9 34 30 8 1 21 507 813 −306
16 Béziers 41 5 36 30 8 2 20 465 755 −290

Schedule and results

Matches are listed in the following order:

  1. By date.
  2. If matches are held on the same day, by kickoff time.
  3. Otherwise, in alphabetic order of home club.

All times CET.

Rounds 1 to 5

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Rounds 6 to 10

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Rounds 11 to 15

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Rounds 16 to 20

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Rounds 21 to 25

Round 21

Round 22

Round 23

Round 24

Round 25

Rounds 26 to 30

Round 26

Round 27

Round 28

Round 29

Round 30

Promotion playoffs

All times CEST.

Semi-finals

23 May 2009
16:00
Albi 15 – 15 (a.e.t.) La Rochelle
Pen: Manca (1/1) 12'
Stewart (2/2) 20', 43'
Boulogne (2/2) 54', 94'
Report Pen: Boboul (4/7) 15', 34', 67', 90'
Drop: Boboul 7'
Stade Municipal, Albi
Attendance: 11,500
Referee: Romain Poite

24 May 2009
15:00
Agen 15 – 18 Oyonnax
Pen: Miquel (5/6) 23', 37', 46', 53', 73' Report Pen: Montagnat (5/8) 14', 17', 29', 39', 59'
Bouillot (1/1) 77'
Stade Armandie, Agen
Attendance: 12,500
Referee: David Rosich
  • ^1 In the case of a draw at the end of extra-time, the team who has received the fewer red cards goes through. If the number of red cards is the same for both teams, the team that has scored the more tries, then the more penalties qualifies. Albi went through thanks to their 5 penalties to La Rochelle's 4.

Final

31 May 2009
15:10
Albi 14 – 12 Oyonnax
Try: Lakafia 30' m
Pen: Manca (2/5) 43', 50'
Boulogne (1/1) 75'
Report Pen: Montagnat (3/5) 15', 53', 78'
Drop: Guilloux 33'
Stade Yves-du-Manoir, Montpellier
Attendance: 12,000
Referee: Franck Maciello

See also

Notes and references

  1. "Bourgoin reste parmi l'élite" (in French). L'Équipe. 2009-06-12. Archived from the original on 15 June 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
  2. "News: Tarbes escape relegation from ProD2 after cash boost; France ring the changes". FrenchRugbyClub.com. 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  3. "French try out new bonus point system". Planet-Rugby.com. 2007-06-27. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-08-13.
  4. 1 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). Ligue Nationale de Rugby. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2008-08-27.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/20/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.