3 Must-Watch Matches From Top 14 Round 16
3 Must-Watch Matches From Top 14 Round 16
Toulouse could be in trouble at home, while Montpellier and Stade Francais get ready for a big showdown.
The Top 14 season rolls into Round 16, as the grueling schedule prepares — like the URC and Gallagher PREM — for a Six Nations hiatus.
But for the French league, the break isn’t nearly as long.
The league will be off next week, then return Feb. 14, followed by another bye week, before coming back Feb. 28 for Round 18. Then the real winter pause begins, with no matches between Feb. 28 and March 21.
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The top teams in the competition find themselves at a disadvantage.
Toulouse, seeking its fourth straight Top 14 title, holds an 11-0-4 record and a six-point lead in match points after demolishing No. 2 Pau in Round 15.
After that, everything is bunched.
The gap between Pau (47 match points) and No. 10 Racing 92 is just 10 points, and the gap between No. 8 Castres (37) and No. 11 Bayonne — which topped the table in the fall — is just two match points.
The disadvantage for Toulouse, Bordeaux (which just lost to Stade Français at home) and La Rochelle, among others, is rosters filled with internationals heading to the Six Nations and Rugby Europe competitions.
Toulouse already has shown how vulnerable a rotated squad can be. The club lost to Perpignan, No. 13 on the table, last month.
Meanwhile, Bordeaux — controversially in France — won’t lose Damian Penaud to the national team but will be missing several other internationals.
Pau is losing six players. Bordeaux will miss eight, and Toulouse will be without 11 — not counting internationals from other countries, such as Scotland’s Blair Kinghorn.
This creates opportunity for clubs not loaded with national stars.
Here are three Top 14 must-watch matches:
Montpellier vs. Stade Français: 8:30 a.m. ET, Saturday, Jan. 31 — GGL Stadium
The first match of the round also might be the best.
Montpellier (7-1-7) hosts a surging Stade Français side that just beat Bordeaux — the No. 1 seed in the Investec Champions Cup — on the road.
Stade Français loses Noah Nene to the French national team, and Montpellier will be without Lenni Nouchi, but both clubs should have the bulk of their first-choice lineups available.
This one matters. Montpellier is chasing a return to the Champions Cup, while Stade Français sits third on the table and firmly in the playoff picture. Montpellier is seventh.
Toulouse vs. Bayonne: 3 p.m. ET, Saturday, Jan. 31 — Stade Ernest-Wallon
Toulouse almost never loses at home, but based on what we’ve seen from a diminished Toulouse side, Bayonne — missing just two players to the French national team — has a chance.
Road wins are the most valuable currency in the tight Top 14 standings, and this would be one of the rarest of them all.
Pau vs. Toulon: 3:05 p.m. ET, Sunday, Feb. 1 — Stade du Hameau
In a vacuum, this is the best match of the week. But Pau’s recent struggles — combined with six players away and possibly more heading to the U-20 Six Nations — complicate matters.
Toulon will be missing five players to the French national team.
This is a test of organizational depth and a massive matchup in the standings.
Pau holds just a four-point lead over No. 3 Stade Français and Toulon and would fall behind both with a home loss.
As strong as Top 14 clubs typically are at home, Pau lost both of its Champions Cup matches at its Pyrenees stronghold.
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