Four teams have turned heads so far in the French Top 14 — well at least our heads — so going into Round 3 here are who we noticed, and the games we're showing.

See all of FloRugby's Top 14 Games and Highlights On-Demand

Stade Francais

Paris revamped basically half its squad and the message was pretty clear: perform or au revoir. Well perform Stade has done these last two weeks, thumping Perpignan (live on FloRugby in Round 1), and then stifling Bordeaux.

They could afford to make those changes in part because the French Top 14 is pretty flush. That’s mostly because the clubs actually draw very well — something you don’t see across the board in professional rugby. With the strong club support comes sponsorship money, and it builds on itself from there.

A press report from New Zealand (which continues to lose players to the Top 14), points out that the five richest clubs in France total more income than all of New Zealand rugby. Stade has the biggest budget, at 34 million Euros (U.S. $39.5 million, or more than double all of USA Rugby’s budget).

Castres

Having run the table in the playoffs after finishing the regular season sixth, Castres is 2-0, but it’s been a close 2-0, including a dramatic 25-20 win over Montpellier in Round 1 (live on FloRugby), and a 19-16 escape against Lyon.

Benjamin Urdapilleta was uncharacteristically inaccurate kicking for goal, and Castres replaced him with another kicker before Rory Kockoff’s penalty won the game. Two second-half tries from Thomas Combezou put Castres in front.

Clermont

You saw it on FloRugby — Clermont can punish you even if you stop them scoring tries. Scottish star Greig Laidlaw kicked six penalties and Racing 92 was unwise in going down to 13 men thanks to two silly yellow cards, and the scoreboard just kept ticking over.

Toulon

What? Last place? Two losses and only 19 points scored? What happened to another of those very rich clubs? The only team to fail to get even a bonus point so far has some soul-searching to do.

Next Up

So now what? We get to see the drama of Castres once more, this time against that Toulon team we mentioned. Toulon has too much talent to stay in the cellar for long, but the rebound has to start now.

Castres is on the road and, as we’ve said, has escaped close games twice. This could be upset special time.

LIVE on FloRugby Sunday, September 9 at 10:50 am CT.

On Saturday, it’s Toulouse vs La Rochelle in a game where, if you’re a USA fan, you are hoping Toulouse (David Ainuu is on the club, albeit not expected to play just yet) will win. La Rochelle is 1-1  with a close win over Grenoble and a competitive loss to Montpellier. Toulouse is 1-0-1 having tied Lyon (a club unlucky to be winless) and edged Grenoble (see video above).

LIVE on FloRugby Saturday, September 8 at 10 am CT.

And watch also for detailed highlights on Flo as we recap the clash between 2-0 Clermont and 2-0 Paris. That’s a power matchup for sure.