Leinster is winless. Gloucester can't stop scoring. And Toulouse is still Toulouse. Welcome to the FloRugby power rankings.
The Top 14 is five rounds deep, while two weeks of United Rugby Championship and Gallagher PREM action already have given contenders opportunities to strengthen their cases, preseason sleepers a chance to emerge and some established powers reasons for concern.
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That brings us to the first in-season edition of the FloRugby Club Power Rankings. Unlike league standings, these rankings compare clubs across the URC, PREM and Top 14, weighing current form alongside opponent strength, location, margin, previous performance, roster quality and evidence against elite competition. There is no predetermined number of spots for any league.
Stade Toulousain entered the season at No. 1 and remains the club to catch, but plenty has changed behind the French champion.
FloRugby Club Power Rankings Top 15
- Stade Toulousain (Top 14) ↔
- Union Bordeaux-Bègles (Top 14) ↑ 1
- Hollywoodbets Sharks (URC) ↑ 12
- Bath Rugby (PREM) ↑ 5
- Glasgow Warriors (URC) ↔
- DHL Stormers (URC) ↓ 2
- Section Paloise (Top 14) ↑ 6
- Gloucester Rugby (PREM) ↑ 25
- Bristol Bears (PREM) ↑ 14
- Aviron Bayonnais (Top 14) ↑ 11
- Leinster Rugby (URC) ↓ 9
- Montpellier Hérault Rugby (Top 14) ↓ 2
- Stade Rochelais (Top 14) ↓ 2
- Cardiff Rugby (URC) ↑ 10
- Edinburgh Rugby (URC) ↑ 15
Previous FloRugby Club Power Rankings:
No. 1 Stade Toulousain
Previous Ranking: No. 1
The standard remains the standard.
Stade Toulousain is 4-1 and atop the Top 14 with 19 points after following its season-opening loss with four consecutive victories. The latest required a different kind of performance, as Toulouse escaped Castres with an 8-7 road victory.
The reigning Top 14 champion entered the season at No. 1 because of its combination of international talent, depth, championship experience and proven ability against Europe's best. Nothing through five rounds has provided a compelling reason to knock Toulouse from the top.
No. 2 Union Bordeaux Begles
Previous Ranking: No. 3
Union Bordeaux Begles might sit fourth in the Top 14 table at 3-2, but this is where the difference between standings and power rankings matters.
UBB owns a league-best +63 point differential and just handed Lyon a 51-28 loss after Lyon opened the season with three consecutive victories. Bordeaux also carries the résumé of a club that has proven itself well beyond domestic competition.
Back-to-back Champions Cup titles established UBB among Europe's elite. An uneven start costs Bordeaux a shot at No. 1 for now, but its ceiling and latest performance are enough to move it up one spot.
No. 3 Hollywoodbets Sharks
Previous Ranking: No. 15
No club near the top of these rankings has done more to change the conversation around itself than the Sharks.
The question entering the season wasn't whether the Sharks possessed elite talent. It was whether a roster loaded with international quality could consistently produce elite results.
Two rounds have provided an emphatic start to the answer. The Sharks opened with a 41-24 victory over Ospreys before beating defending URC champion Leinster 26-20 in Durban.
At 2-0 with 10 points, the Sharks finally are pairing their talent with the type of résumé required to challenge the very best clubs in Europe.
No. 4 Bath Rugby
Previous Ranking: No. 9
Bath remains the PREM club FloRugby trusts most after a perfect opening two weeks.
A 33-17 victory over Harlequins started the season before Bath survived an 11-try battle with Exeter Chiefs, 40-34, at The Rec. Bath has collected the maximum 10 points through two matches.
Last season's 13-5 record and deep runs in both the PREM and Champions Cup already had Bath knocking on the door of Europe's top clubs. Starting 2-0 pushes that case forward.
No. 5 Glasgow Warriors
Previous Ranking: No. 5
Glasgow hasn't been perfect, but there isn't enough here to knock the Warriors far from their preseason position.
A 26-20 road victory at Munster immediately gave Glasgow a quality result away from Scotstoun. The Warriors then played Ulster to a 33-33 draw in Round 2.
That comes after Glasgow finished atop the URC regular-season table in 2025-26 and went unbeaten through its Champions Cup pool. The Warriors have established enough credibility against high-level opposition to hold their place at No. 5.
No. 6 DHL Stormers
Previous Ranking: No. 4
The DHL Stormers take a small step backward after splitting their opening two matches.
They began impressively with a 29-15 road victory over Connacht before Edinburgh handed them a 17-13 loss at Hive Stadium.
One four-point road defeat isn't enough to erase what made the Stormers a preseason top-five club. They reached the URC semifinals last season and entered 2026-27 with a roster capable of another title push. For now, though, Glasgow gets the edge.
No. 7 Section Paloise
Previous Ranking: No. 13
Paloise isn't sneaking up on anyone anymore.
Pau is 4-1 through five Top 14 rounds and sits second behind Toulouse with 18 points. Its latest victory required surviving a 43-40 shootout on the road against Vannes.
This isn't simply an early-season hot streak from a club that came from nowhere. Pau won 17 league matches last season and entered these rankings at No. 13. Another strong start pushes Pau firmly into the European top 10.
No. 8 Gloucester Rugby
Previous Ranking: No. 33
Welcome to the Top 10, Gloucester.
No club has made a larger jump from FloRugby's preseason rankings. The Cherry and Whites opened by winning 45-24 at Exeter and somehow were even more convincing in Round 2, dismantling Harlequins 48-0 at Kingsholm.
That leaves Gloucester atop the PREM at 2-0 with 10 points and an outrageous +69 point differential.
Last season's 5-13 record was the primary reason Gloucester began at No. 33, and two matches aren't enough to erase every concern from a year ago. They are, however, more than enough to recognize that this looks like a dramatically different Gloucester side.
No. 9 Bristol Bears
Previous Ranking: No. 23
Bristol's 2-0 record comes with some substance behind it.
The Bears opened with a 34-24 road victory over Sale Sharks before welcoming defending PREM champion Northampton Saints to Ashton Gate and winning 41-26.
Beating the reigning champion is the type of result that carries weight in a cross-league power ranking, and Bristol already has two bonus-point wins to its name.
The Bears entered the season with questions after an inconsistent 2025-26 campaign. Two weeks later, they're beginning to provide answers.
No. 10 Aviron Bayonnais
Previous Ranking: No. 21
Four wins in five matches make Bayonne impossible to ignore.
Aviron Bayonnais sits third in the Top 14 with 17 points and has won three consecutive matches, including a 35-32 victory over Stade Français in Round 5.
There is one number keeping Bayonne from climbing even higher: a -13 point differential despite the 4-1 record. The wins count, but the underlying results suggest there still is something to prove before Bayonne joins the very top tier.
For now, a jump from No. 21 to No. 10 feels earned.
No. 11 Leinster Rugby
Previous Ranking: No. 2
Leinster is 0-2. The defending URC champion lost 27-26 to the Lions in Johannesburg before falling 26-20 to the Sharks in Durban. A winless club cannot remain No. 2 in an in-season power ranking simply because of its reputation.
But context matters, too.
Both losses came in South Africa against clubs that are 2-0, and Leinster lost those matches by a combined seven points. This remains the club that won last season's URC title, including a 36-7 victory over the Bulls in the final.
The results demand a major drop. Leinster's larger body of work prevents an overreaction all the way out of the Top 15.
No. 12 Montpellier Herault Rugby
Previous Ranking: No. 10
Montpellier hasn't had the cleanest opening to the season, but its latest performance was difficult to overlook.
After reaching last season's Top 14 final, Montpellier has opened 2026-27 at 2-2. The second victory came in emphatic fashion with a 28-0 shutout of Toulon.
Consistency will determine whether Montpellier climbs back toward the top 10, but shutting out a club that entered the season seventh in FloRugby's rankings is a powerful reminder of what Montpellier can look like at its best.
No. 13 Stade Rochelais
Previous Ranking: No. 11
La Rochelle remains in familiar territory near the edge of Europe's top 10.
A 38-13 bonus-point victory over Clermont moved Stade Rochelais to 3-2 through five rounds. The record hasn't demanded a dramatic move in either direction from a preseason ranking of No. 11.
For now, La Rochelle remains one of the clubs with enough pedigree and current form to stay comfortably inside the Top 15, even if the teams above it have made stronger early cases.
No. 14 Cardiff Rugby
Previous Ranking: No. 24
Cardiff has turned last season's playoff appearance into a perfect start to 2026-27.
A 21-15 road victory over Scarlets got things moving before Cardiff returned home and beat Zebre Parma 40-27. Two matches, two wins and nine points have Cardiff among the URC's early leaders.
Last season's sixth-place finish provides another reason to take the start seriously. Cardiff isn't jumping into the Top 15 solely because of two September victories. The club already had begun building this case last season.
No. 15 Edinburgh Rugby
Previous Ranking: No. 30
Edinburgh grabs the final spot after putting together one of the URC's more impressive two-match résumés.
The Scottish club opened by winning 34-29 on the road against Ulster before returning home and beating the Stormers 17-13. Taking down FloRugby's preseason No. 4 club gives Edinburgh a signature result that several other unbeaten teams still lack.
Edinburgh finished 12th in the URC last season, so there remains plenty to prove. But a road win followed by a victory over the Stormers is enough to earn the final place in this week's rankings.
Just Outside The FloRugby Club Power Rankings
Munster Rugby, the Vodacom Bulls, Northampton Saints, the Lions and Saracens F.C. were among the toughest clubs to leave outside the Top 15.
The 2-0 Lions have an especially strong argument after beating Leinster and Ospreys, while Munster Rugby responded to its opening loss by beating the Bulls. With the URC and PREM only two rounds into their seasons, the line between the final few ranked clubs and the chasing pack remains thin.
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