The 2014–15 Rugby Pro D2 was the second-level French

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

club competition, behind the

Top 14 The Top 14 () is a professional rugby union club competition that is played in France. Created in 1892, the Top 14 is at the top of the national league system operated by the French National Rugby League, also known by its French initialism o ...

, for the 2014–15 season. It ran alongside the 2014–15 Top 14 competition; both competitions are operated by the

Ligue Nationale de Rugby The French National Rugby League (french: Ligue Nationale de Rugby), known as the LNR, manages the professional rugby sector in France, by delegation of the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the French Rugby Federation. LNR * organises, manages and ...

(LNR). The average team salaries at the outset of the 2014–15 season were €5.97m; Biarritz and Perpignan had the highest team salaries with €11.07m.

Teams

Changes in the lineup from 2013–14 were: *

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...

won the 2013–14 Pro D2 title and were thereby automatically promoted to the

La Rochelle La Rochelle (, , ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''La Rochéle''; oc, La Rochèla ) is a city on the west coast of France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department. Wi ...

won the promotion playoffs to secure the second promotion place. * The bottom two finishers in 2013–14,

Bourg-en-Bresse Bourg-en-Bresse (; frp, Bôrg) is the prefecture of the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ancient province of Bresse ( frp, Brêsse, links=no). In 2018, ...

and Auch, were relegated from Pro D2 to

Fédérale 1 Le championnat de France de première division fédérale, a.k.a. Fédérale 1, is a French rugby union club competition, the fifth highest level of amateur rugby. The competition has been organised by the Fédération Française de Rugby since 2 ...

. * The two bottom finishers in the 2013–14 Top 14 season, Perpignan and

Biarritz Olympique Biarritz Olympique Pays Basque (; ), usually known simply as Biarritz, is a French professional rugby union team based in the Basque city of Biarritz, Nouvelle-Aquitaine which competes in the Pro D2, the second division of French rugby. Biarritz p ...

, were relegated to Pro D2. * The two finalists in

, champion

Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, ...

and runner-up Massy, earned promotion.

Competition format

The top team at the end of the regular season (after all the teams played one another twice, once at home, once away), is declared champion and earns a spot in the next

season. Teams ranked second to fifth compete in promotion playoffs, with the semifinals being played at the home ground of the higher-ranked team. The final is then played on neutral ground, and the winner earns the second ticket to the next

. The LNR uses a slightly different bonus points system from that used in most other rugby competitions. It trialled a new system in 2007–08 explicitly designed to prevent a losing team from earning more than one bonus point in a match, a system that also made it impossible for either team to earn a bonus point in a drawn match. LNR chose to continue with this system for subsequent seasons. France's bonus point system operates as follows: * 4 points for a win. * 2 points for a draw. * 1 bonus point for winning while scoring at least 3 more tries than the opponent. This replaces the standard bonus point for scoring 4 tries regardless of the match result. * 1 bonus point for losing by 5 points (or less). This is a change from previous seasons, in which the margin was 7 points or less.

Table

Relegation

Previously, the teams that finish in 15th and 16th places in the table are relegated to

at the end of the season. In certain circumstances, "financial reasons" may cause a higher-placed team to be demoted instead, or prevent one of the two finalists in Fédérale 1 from promotion. This season saw an example of the latter situation. Following the 2014–15 season, 15th-place Dax was spared relegation after Fédérale 1 runner-up Lille was denied promotion due to excessive debt and failed in an appeal of the decision. The last instance of a team outside the bottom two places being relegated was at the end of the 2011–12 season, when 9th-place Bourgoin were relegated, thereby reprieving 15th-place Béziers.

Fixtures

The outline fixtures schedule was announced on 16 May 2014.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Weekend of 13 December 2014

Round 15

Weekend of 20 December 2014

Round 16

Weekend of 10 January 2015

Round 17

Weekend of 17 January 2015

Round 18

Weekend of 24 January 2015

Round 19

Weekend of 31 January 2015

Round 20

Weekend of 7 February 2015

Round 21

Weekend of 21 February 2015

Round 22

Weekend of 28 February 2015

Round 23

Weekend of 7 March 2015

Round 24

Weekend of 14 March 2015

Round 25

Weekend of 28 March 2015

Round 26

Weekend of 4 April 2015

Round 27

Weekend of 11 April 2015

Round 28

Weekend of 25 April 2015

Round 29

Weekend of 2 May 2015

Round 30

Weekend of 9 May 2015

Play–offs

The highest ranked team at the end of the regular season, Pau, earned automatic promotion to the

as ''champion de France de PRO D2 2015''.

Semi–finals

The semi–finals followed a 2 v 5, 3 v 4 system, with the higher ranked team playing at home. ---- * Under LNR rules, if a playoff match ends level after full-time, the first tiebreaker is try count. Agen advanced with 4 tries to Perpignan's 2.

Final

The winners of the semi–finals played off for the second promotion spot to the Top 14.

References

External links

*
Ligue Nationale de Rugby
– Official website *
Midi Olympique
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pro D2 season 2014-15 2014–15 in French rugby union leagues