Montpellier Herault Rugby enters 2026-27 with a very different question than it faced a year ago. MHR no longer needs to prove it can climb back toward the top of French rugby.
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After finishing second in the Top 14, reaching the league final and winning the EPCR Challenge Cup, Montpellier Hérault Rugby established itself as a legitimate contender again. Now the challenge is sustaining that level.
The next step is harder: turning progress into another championship.
Can Montpellier Turn A Top 14 Final Run Into A Title?
Montpellier finished 17-1-8 with 82 table points in 2025-26 before beating Castres and Stade Français in the playoffs.
Toulouse stopped MHR 28-20 in the final, but getting that far changed expectations. Montpellier won the Top 14 in 2022, and its return to the championship match suggests the club has moved beyond simply recovering from what followed.
Another deep playoff run now feels like the standard rather than the surprise.
Montpellier's Attack Has Become Its Defining Weapon
MHR scored 824 points and 101 tries during the Top 14 regular season, giving Joan Caudullo's team one of the clearest attacking identities in the competition.
That firepower carried into Europe. Montpellier scored nine tries in a 59-26 Challenge Cup final victory over Ulster.
The formula combines a powerful scrum, maul and lineout platform with an ambitious backline willing to attack width and transition space. Maintaining that production will be central to Montpellier's Top 14 ambitions.
Adam Hastings Headlines An Important Montpellier Recruitment Class
Montpellier did not stand still after reaching the final.
Adam Hastings arrives from Glasgow, while Reda Wardi, Ruben van Heerden, Sébastien Bézy and Dimitri Delibes add experience and depth across the squad.
Those arrivals also create meaningful competition. Hastings joins a fly-half group featuring Domingo Miotti, while Bézy strengthens scrum-half following Léo Coly's departure to Bayonne.
How quickly the new pieces settle could determine whether Montpellier improves on 2025-26.
Can MHR Fix Its Defensive And Road Consistency?
Montpellier's attack was spectacular, but its defense was less dominant. MHR conceded 587 points and 69 tries in league play.
Road consistency also remains part of the larger equation after Montpellier managed only three away wins in 2024-25.
The playoff victory at Castres showed MHR can win an important match away from home. Doing so more consistently would make Montpellier significantly harder to stop over a full season.
Joan Caudullo Has A Chance To Establish Lasting Stability
Caudullo enters his third season as head coach, with Bernard Laporte continuing as director of rugby.
That continuity matters because Montpellier now appears to have a recognizable rugby identity: forward power, set-piece strength and an increasingly expansive attack.
The 2026-27 season will show whether that identity can become sustainable at championship level.
Montpellier Rugby has already made the climb back toward the top. The next question is whether MHR can stay there long enough to turn another promising season into the Brennus Shield.
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