2000–01 French Rugby Union Championship

2000–01 French Rugby Union Championship
Countries	France
Champions	Toulouse (16th title)
Runners-up	Montferrand
Relegated	Auch, Aurillac, Brive, Mont-de-Marsan, Périgueux e Grenoble

The 2000–01 French Rugby Union Championship was the top level of French club rugby in 2000–01. The competition was played by 21 teams. It was the last French season before the top level was reorganized into a 16-team league known as Top 16, now known as Top 14.

In the first phase, two pools (one of 10 teams, one of 11) were played. The first 4 of each pool were admitted to the "top 8", the tournament for the title.

The last two of the pool containing 10 teams, and the last three of the other, were relegated directly to the second division. The 8th team in each pool had a play-off to determine the sixth team relegated. Only one club was promoted from the second division in order to reduce the number of clubs for next session to 16.

Toulouse won their 15th title, beating Montferrand in the final

Preliminary phase

Pool 1

Home \ Away	AGE	BEZ	BOR	BOU	CAS	MON	PAU	PRG	PRP	STF
Agen		36–19	25–12	32–13	34–16	20–13	29–15	33–8	43–6	25–25
Béziers	26–18		57–7	12–16	24–13	47–29	33–23	56–10	21–25	33–20
Bègles-Bordeaux	26–18	28–25		14–26	27–34	26–17	17–13	35–18	33–10	30–38
Bourgoin	19–16	34–35	56–20		22–19	24–16	34–15	74–8	20–21	22–42
Castres	70–17	25–9	49–22	18–8		21–9	31–18	86–15	28–16	29–0
Mont-de-Marsan	18–19	12–23	23–15	18–14	16–20		26–21	41–11	27–15	20–37
Pau	29–18	30–16	16–35	38–17	18–16	28–3		43–7	22–29	21–6
Périgueux	13–47	34–47	20–21	9–10	12–18	27–22	23–25		20–30	21–26
Perpignan	30–28	26–9	33–15	28–16	23–28	45–17	31–25	83–12		32–33
Stade Français	27–22	28–23	55–19	18–18	34–37	68–10	33–27	79–11	55–9

Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Castres	18	14	0	4	558	324	+234	46	Quarters of final
2	Stade Français	18	12	2	4	624	409	+215	44
3	Perpignan	18	11	0	7	492	452	+40	40
4	Agen	18	10	1	7	480	385	+95	39
5	Béziers	18	10	0	8	515	414	+101	38
6	Bourgoin	18	9	1	8	443	379	+64	37
7	Bourdeaux-Begles	18	8	0	10	402	533	−131	34
8	Pau	18	8	0	10	427	404	+23	34	Relegation play-off
9	Mont-de-Marsan	18	5	0	13	337	481	−144	28	Relegated to second division
10	Périgueux	18	1	0	17	279	776	−497	20

Source:
Notes:

Pool 2

Home \ Away	AUC	AUR	BIA	BRI	COL	DAX	GRE	ROC	MON	NAR	TOU
Auch		30–11	23–46	21–23	18–36	22–19	11–21	9–24	6–18	9–22	13–56
Aurillac	19–20		18–23	40–34	16–23	22–33	26–25	18–13	33–28	22–28	28–39
Biarritz	50–25	33–18		31–29	48–6	49–10	41–8	37–3	35–35	26–25	23–20
Brive	27–16	18–20	18–43		23–16	28–20	22–12	20–16	9–37	35–39	19–32
Colomiers	22–13	28–30	35–23	12–14		45–27	31–22	38–20	30–10	27–19	20–32
Dax	17–16	45–17	23–12	34–19	21–17		19–16	20–10	9–8	9–21	15–10
Grenoble	27–18	33–19	15–6	29–16	31–23	41–14		17–15	18–24	43–6	15–28
La Rochelle	35–13	27–15	17–21	40–19	24–18	25–19	21–8		26–36	49–42	19–18
Montferrand	66–17	22–43	37–19	46–35	16–5	37–10	30–18	67–7		32–27	28–15
Narbonne	44–10	31–25	32–20	9–12	19–21	49–33	59–17	56–21	18–27		25–31
Toulouse	39–10	44–24	11–8	50–19	24–21	42–22	50–12	46–22	24–29	50–8

Source:
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Montferrand	20	15	1	4	633	404	+229	51	Quarters of final
2	Toulouse	20	15	0	5	661	380	+281	50
3	Biarritz	20	13	1	6	594	408	+186	47
4	Colomiers	20	10	0	10	474	450	+24	40
5	Narbonne	20	10	0	10	579	519	+60	40
6	Dax	20	10	0	10	419	506	−87	40
7	La Rochelle	20	9	0	11	434	537	−103	38
8	Grenoble	20	9	0	11	428	479	−51	38	Relegation play-off
9	Brive	20	8	0	12	439	563	−124	36	Relegated to second division
10	Aurillac	20	7	0	13	464	577	−113	34
11	Auch	20	3	0	17	320	615	−295	26

Source:
Notes:

Quarters of final

QUARTERS OF FINAL 25 May Castres - Colomiers 37–26 25 May Toulouse - Perpignan 20–15 25 May Stade Français - Biarritz 19–35 25 May Montferrand - Agen 33–21

Semifinals

SEMIFINALS 2 jun. Castres - Toulouse 21–32 Stadium, Toulouse 2 jun. Biarritz - Montferrand 9–16 Stade Gerland, Lyon

Final

9 June 2001

Toulouse	34 – 22	Montferrand
Try: Marfaing Con: Marfaing Pen: Michalak (4) Marfaing (2) Drop: Delaigue (3)		Try: Audebert Con: Merceron Pen: Merceron (5)

Stade de France, Saint-Denis Referee: Gérard Borréani

FB 15 Nicolas Jeanjean RW 14 Xavier Garbajosa OC 13 Cédric Desbrosse  76' IC 12 Clément Poitrenaud  80' LW 11 Michel Marfaing FH 10 Yann Delaigue SH 9 Frédéric Michalak N8 8 Fabien Pelous (c) OF 7 Christian Labit  76' BF 6 Jean Bouilhou RL 5 David Gérard  73' LL 4 Hugues Miorin  61' TP 3 Franck Tournaire HK 2 Yannick Bru LP 1 Christian Califano  58' Substitutions: PR 16 Cédric Soulette  58' LK 17 Franck Belot  73' FL 18 Didier Lacroix  76' N8 19 Sylvain Dispagne  61' SH 20 Jérôme Cazalbou FH 21 Alain Penaud  80' FB 22 Stéphane Ougier  76' Coach: Guy Novès

FB 15 Jimmy Marlu RW 14 Aurélien Rougerie  80+6' OC 13 Johnny Ngauamo  55' IC 12 Nicolas Nadau LW 11 David Bory FH 10 Gérald Merceron SH 9 Alessandro Troncon N8 8 Selborne Boome OF 7 Olivier Magne BF 6 Alexandre Audebert RL 5 Éric Lecomte (c) LL 4 David Barrier  67' TP 3 Alessio Galasso HK 2 Yves Pedrosa  72' LP 1 Abraham Tolofua  77' Substitutions: HK 16 Marco Caputo  72' PR 17 Brendan Reidy  77' FL 18 Jan Macháček  67' FL 19 Christophe Dongieu SH 20 Kevin Dalzell FH 21 Éric Nicol  80+6' FB 22 Sébastien Viars  55' Coach: Christophe Mombet

Relegation play-off

25 May Pau - FC Grenoble 33 – 21 o.t.

External links

• LNR.fr