USA Perpignan spent another season trying to escape the bottom of the Top 14 in 2025-26, finishing 13th with six wins, 20 losses and 29 points. USAP conceded 797 points, the most in the league, and its season ultimately came down to another relegation playoff.
Perpignan responded when it mattered, beating Provence Rugby 47-24 to retain its Top 14 place. But needing one final performance to preserve another season in France's top division also reinforced how little margin USAP had throughout the campaign.
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The response for 2026-27 has been ambitious. Sevu Reece headlines a group of additions intended to give Laurent Labit's team more quality, while changes across the front row and backline suggest Perpignan wants more than another year spent near 13th place. The question is whether those upgrades can translate into enough week-to-week consistency to change USAP's place in the table.
What Perpignan's 2025-26 Season Revealed
The final numbers illustrate the scale of Perpignan's problems.
USAP went 6-20 with no draws and finished with a minus-247 point differential after scoring 550 points and conceding 797. After seven rounds, Perpignan had managed only one victory, leaving the club chasing the season almost from the beginning.
There were moments when USAP remained competitive, but defensive lapses, inconsistent goal kicking and an inability to close matches repeatedly cost it. A 52-7 loss at Bayonne in the final round was an especially stark example of how badly games could get away from Perpignan.
Then came the response against Provence Rugby.
A 47-24 victory secured another Top 14 season and offered a much stronger conclusion to a difficult campaign. But for 2026-27, the objective must be making that kind of performance less exceptional.
The most important lesson is straightforward: Perpignan needs more consistency. Adding attacking talent matters, but a team that conceded 797 league points will not climb significantly without becoming more dependable defensively.
Perpignan Transfers And Offseason Changes
No addition changes the profile of this squad more than Reece.
The New Zealand wing arrives from the Crusaders with 37 All Blacks caps and gives Perpignan a proven finisher capable of transforming opportunities on the outside. His arrival immediately raises the attacking ceiling of a team that has too often needed to manufacture points through pressure rather than individual strike power.
Cédrate Gomes Sa adds veteran front-row depth after joining from Lyon. Other reported additions include Italy prop Marco Riccioni, scrum-half Luke McGrath, center Braydon Ennor and forward Lachlan Swinton.
There are meaningful losses, too.
Longtime wing-center Alivereti Duguivalu departed for Stade Français after a decade with USAP, while fly-half Tommaso Allan left for Zebre Parma. Benjamin Urdapilleta retired, further increasing the importance of establishing a reliable hierarchy at fly-half and from the kicking tee.
Seilala Lam's midseason move to Clermont also removed an experienced leader from the front row.
Laurent Labit remains in charge, giving Perpignan coaching continuity while the squad around him changes.
The offseason therefore is not simply about adding names. USAP has increased its potential in several important areas, but it also must replace experienced decision-makers. How quickly the new pieces settle could determine whether Perpignan starts climbing or spends the opening months trying to establish an identity.
Perpignan Projected Starting XV And Bench
This is a projection based on the available squad information, with reported or unconfirmed additions not treated as automatic starters.
Starting XV
- Pietro Ceccarelli — Prop
- José Madeira — Hooker
- Cédrate Gomes Sa — Prop
- Jonathan Gray — Lock
- Jacobus van Tonder — Lock
- Posolo Tuilagi — Flanker
- Mattéo Le Corvec — Flanker
- Peceli Yato — No. 8
- James Hall — Scrum-half
- Antoine Aucagne — Fly-half
- Sevu Reece — Wing
- Jerónimo de la Fuente — Center
- Lucas Dubois — Center/Wing
- Jefferson-Lee Joseph — Wing
- Maëlan Rabut — Fullback
Projected Bench Options
- Victor Montgaillard
- Enzo Forletta
- Giorgi Tetrashvili
- Mathieu Tanguy
- Noé Della Schiava
- Tom Ecochard,
- Tristan Tedder
- Theo Forner
Several positions could change substantially depending on how the reported newcomers fit into the squad.
The most important competition may come through the halfbacks. Allan's departure creates an obvious game-management and goal-kicking question, while the back three suddenly offers considerably more attacking potential with Reece alongside USAP's younger outside backs.
Perpignan Players To Watch In 2026-27
Sevu Reece
Reece is the headline attraction. The All Blacks wing arrives with 37 international caps and 22 tries, bringing finishing ability and speed to a team that needs more ways to turn attacking opportunities into points.
The important question is not simply how many tries Reece scores. It is whether his presence changes how defenses treat Perpignan's entire backline.
Jerónimo de la Fuente
De la Fuente provides experience and stability in midfield. With considerable change around the backline, his leadership becomes especially valuable.
He can be an important link between Perpignan's direct forward game and its potentially more dangerous outside backs.
Peceli Yato
Yato supplies carrying power and breakdown influence from the back row. Perpignan's tactical approach depends heavily on forwards capable of generating momentum, and Yato remains central to that formula.
James Hall
The scrum-half enters an important season following the changes around USAP's halfbacks.
Perpignan needs clarity at nine and 10, particularly after losing Allan and Urdapilleta. Hall has an opportunity to become an important part of that transition.
Cédrate Gomes Sa
Perpignan wanted to reinforce its front row, and Gomes Sa gives Labit another experienced option.
If USAP is going to build its game around pressure, territory and forward carries, its scrum cannot merely survive. It needs to provide a dependable platform.
How USA Perpignan Plays
Perpignan's current identity begins with physicality and territory.
USAP has leaned toward a forward-oriented approach built around carries, kicking and pressure rather than consistently expansive attacking rugby. Players such as Yato and Tuilagi can provide the power, while the halfbacks are responsible for getting Perpignan into the right areas of the field.
The scrum was an area requiring improvement in 2025-26, helping explain the investment in front-row reinforcements. The lineout provides another platform for a team that wants to establish territory before attacking.
At the breakdown, Perpignan was competitive without consistently controlling matches. That makes the work of the back row especially important.
The kicking game presents a more complicated problem.
Allan's departure and Urdapilleta's retirement remove experience and established kicking options. Aucagne and Tedder are among those capable of assuming greater responsibility, but Perpignan needs dependable game management as much as accuracy from the tee.
Reece potentially changes the attacking equation.
Rather than relying so heavily on pressure and forward carries, USAP now possesses a major strike threat out wide. If Perpignan can produce quicker ball and create space in wider channels, its attack should have another dimension.
None of it matters enough, however, without defensive improvement.
The 797 points conceded in 2025-26 provide the clearest statistical warning entering the new season. USAP wants to pressure opponents with aggressive defense and force them to play from unfavorable areas, but missed tackles and defensive lapses repeatedly undermined that approach.
For Perpignan to climb, its defense must become an asset rather than something its attack is constantly trying to overcome.
Why Stade Aimé-Giral Matters
Stade Aimé-Giral holds approximately 14,600 spectators, giving Perpignan a relatively compact home environment.
The stadium's intensity is closely tied to USAP's Catalan identity. Supporters sit close to the action, and the atmosphere gives home matches a distinctive edge even without the capacity of some larger Top 14 grounds.
Results demonstrate why home performance matters so much to Perpignan's prospects.
USAP went 9-2 at home in 2024-25 before its home effectiveness declined considerably during the difficult 2025-26 campaign. Reestablishing Aimé-Giral as a place where Perpignan consistently collects points would immediately improve the club's chances of moving upward.
For a team trying to create separation from the bottom of the table, home victories are not simply helpful. They are the foundation.
Perpignan's Biggest Strength
Its increased attacking ceiling.
Reece is the centerpiece, but the broader point is that Perpignan enters 2026-27 with more ways to threaten opponents.
USAP already possesses powerful carriers and experienced players. Adding a finisher of Reece's quality gives the attack something different: a player capable of converting a small opening into a major gain or a try.
If the forward reinforcements improve the platform, Perpignan should have more opportunities to exploit that talent.
The Biggest Question Facing Perpignan
Can USAP fix its defense?
Nothing matters more.
Perpignan conceded 797 points and finished with a minus-247 differential in 2025-26. Those numbers are difficult to reconcile with serious ambitions to move substantially higher in the Top 14.
The roster looks capable of creating more attacking danger, but improvement cannot depend upon simply scoring enough to compensate for defensive breakdowns.
If Labit's team becomes considerably harder to score against, its offseason additions could push USAP upward. If the defensive problems continue, the margin between progress and another difficult season remains thin.
What Should We Expect From Perpignan In 2026-27?
Perpignan appears better equipped to climb than it was a year ago.
There is more attacking upside, front-row reinforcements and continuity under Labit. Reece gives USAP a genuine difference-maker, while younger players have opportunities to assume larger roles.
But projecting Perpignan as a playoff team requires a substantial leap from what happened in 2025-26.
The more reasonable target is to create clear separation from 13th place and establish USAP higher in the middle of the Top 14 table. A playoff challenge becomes plausible only if the defense improves dramatically, the new arrivals integrate quickly and Perpignan converts Aimé-Giral into a consistent source of victories.
CEILING:
A major step forward into the upper half of the table and an outside challenge for a Top 6 playoff place.
MOST LIKELY OUTCOME:
USAP improves on 13th, establishes greater separation from the bottom and spends more of the season competing in the middle of the Top 14 table.
FLOOR:
Defensive problems persist, the revamped squad struggles for cohesion and Perpignan again becomes involved in the battle near the bottom.
Perpignan has made enough changes to believe 2026-27 can look different. Reece raises the ceiling, the pack has received reinforcements and USAP has retained continuity on the coaching staff.
Now comes the harder part. To genuinely change its place in the Top 14 hierarchy, Perpignan must turn an upgraded roster into consistency — particularly defensively — and make 13th place something it leaves behind rather than revisits.
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