2007-08 Rugby Pro D2 season

The 2007-08 Rugby Pro D2 was a French rugby union club competition. The season ran alongside the 2007-08 Top 14 competition, which is the highest club competition. Both competitions were operated by the Ligue nationale de rugby (LNR).

At the end of the previous season, Auch were champions and thus automatically promoted to Top 14. They were eventually followed by Dax who beat La Rochelle in the final providing the second promotion place. Colomiers were relegated to Fédérale 1; Limoges finished in a relegation spot, but were reprieved when Gaillac were denied a professional license for the 2007-08 season due to serious financial problems. Aurillac and Blagnac earned promotion from Fédérale 1.

The new season showed a bright future for two particular clubs who signed several quality players in the transfer market in hopes of promotion at the end of the season. Some notables include George Gregan, Victor Matfield, Andrew Mehrtens and Anton Oliver who all signed with Toulon. The team also signed former All Black and Toulon player Tana Umaga as their Manager Sportif. Meanwhile Sireli Bobo, Carlo Festuccia and Argentine captain Agustín Pichot moved to Racing Métro. Pichot's move wasn't a long distance one since he was simply switching from one Parisian team to the other.

Toulon jumped to an early lead on the ladder and never looked back, ultimately clinching the title and automatic promotion with two rounds to spare. Mont-de-Marsan won the promotion playoffs, defeating Racing Métro in the final, to secure the second promotion place.

This season, LNR trialled a modification to the bonus point system in both the Top 14 and Pro D2. The system being used this season was:cite web|url=http://www.planet-rugby.com/Story/0,18259,3559_2450951,00.html |title=French try out new bonus point system |publisher=Planet-Rugby.com |date=2007-06-27 |accessdate=2007-08-13]

*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 7 points (or less).

This system was explicitly intended to prevent a losing team from earning two bonus points, as is possible under the standard system.

eason table

:

Promotion playoffs

All times CET.

emifinals

* 15 June, 15:15 — Mont-de-Marsan 12–6 Lyon
* 15 June, 19:00 — Racing Métro 23–17 La Rochelle

Final

* 21 June, 15:00 at Limoges — Racing Métro 23–32 Mont-de-Marsan (extra time)

ee also

* 2007-08 Top 14 season

Notes and references

External links

* [http://www.lnr.fr/ LNR.fr]
* [http://lnr.fr/Menus.asp?CR=75627&CSR=75630&CSSR=75631 Table]