2016–17 Rugby Pro D2 season

2016–17 Pro D2
Countries	France
Date	25 August 2016 – 21 May 2017
Champions	Oyonnax
Promoted	Agen
Relegated	Bourgoin, Albi
Matches played	480
Official website
www.lnr.fr
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

The 2016–17 Rugby Pro D2 was the second-level French rugby union club competition, behind the Top 14, for the 2016–17 season. It ran alongside the 2016–17 Top 14 competition; both competitions are operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR).

Club	City	Stadium	Capacity
SU Agen Lot-et-Garonne	Agen (Lot-et-Garonne)	Stade Armandie	14,000
SC Albi	Albi (Tarn)	Stadium Municipal d'Albi	13,000
Stade Aurillacois Cantal Auvergne	Aurillac (Cantal)	Stade Jean Alric	9,000
AS Béziers Hérault	Béziers (Hérault)	Stade de la Méditerranée	18,500
Biarritz Olympique	Biarritz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques)	Parc des Sports Aguiléra	15,000
CS Bourgoin-Jallieu	Bourgoin-Jallieu (Isère)	Stade Pierre Rajon	10,000
US Carcassonne	Carcassonne (Aude)	Stade Albert Domec	10,000
US Colomiers	Colomiers (Haute-Garonne)	Stade Michel Bendichou	11,400
US Dax	Dax (Landes)	Stade Maurice Boyau	16,170
US Montauban	Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne)	Stade Sapiac	12,600
Stade Montois	Mont-de-Marsan (Landes)	Stade Guy Boniface	22,000
RC Narbonne	Narbonne (Aude)	Parc des Sports Et de l'Amitié	12,000
Oyonnax Rugby	Oyonnax (Ain)	Stade Charles-Mathon	11,400
USA Perpignan	Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales)	Stade Aimé Giral	16,600
Soyaux Angoulême XV Charente	Angoulême (Charente)	Stade Chanzy	6,000
Rugby Club Vannes	Vannes (Morbihan)	Stade de la Rabine	9,500

Changes in the lineup from 2015–16 were:

• Lyon won the 2015–16 Pro D2 title and were thereby automatically promoted to the Top 14. Bayonne won the promotion playoffs to secure the second promotion place.
• The bottom finisher in 2015–16, Provence Rugby was relegated from Pro D2 to Fédérale 1. Tarbes was also relegated for financial reasons.
• The two bottom finishers in the 2015–16 Top 14 season, Oyonnax and Agen, were relegated to Pro D2.
• Soyaux Angoulême and Vannes won the Fédérale 1 promotion playoffs. The 2015–16 season was the first in which the promotion playoffs were separated from those for the traditional Fédérale 1 championship prize, Trophée Jean-Prat.

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 Top 14 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 Top 14.

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,^[1] 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.^[2]

France's bonus point system operates as follows:^[3]

• 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). The required margin had been 7 points or less until being changed in advance of the 2014–15 season.

The 2016–17 season was the last for the then-current Pro D2 promotion system. From 2017 to 2018 forward, Pro D2 will institute a playoff system identical to the one currently used in Top 14, with the top six teams qualifying for the playoffs and the top two teams receiving byes into the semifinals. The league championship and automatic promotion place will go to the winner of the playoffs; the runner-up will enter a playoff with the second-from-bottom Top 14 team, with the winner of that playoff taking up the final place in Top 14 for the following season.^[4]

2016–17 Rugby Pro D2 season

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TB	LB	Pts	Qualification
1	Oyonnax (C)	30	19	0	11	790	637	+153	7	7	90	Automatically promoted to Top 14
2	Agen	30	18	2	10	780	624	+156	5	6	87	Winner of the promotion play-offs
3	Montauban	30	19	0	11	726	533	+193	6	4	86	Qualified for promotion play-offs
4	Mont-de-Marsan	30	17	0	13	738	588	+150	6	9	83
5	Biarritz	30	18	0	12	730	637	+93	5	4	81
6	Perpignan	30	16	1	13	744	589	+155	9	4	79
7	Colomiers	30	17	1	12	760	593	+167	5	3	78
8	Aurillac	30	15	0	15	689	712	−23	5	5	70
9	Carcassonne	30	14	1	15	648	642	+6	3	3	64
10	Béziers	30	13	0	17	694	667	+27	7	4	63
11	Vannes	30	12	2	16	659	735	−76	2	7	61
12	Narbonne	30	14	1	15	616	746	−130	3	0	61
13	Soyaux Angoulême	30	13	1	16	565	686	−121	2	5	61
14	Dax	30	13	0	17	647	845	−198	1	6	59
15	Albi	30	12	2	16	641	781	−140	1	4	57	Relegation to Fédérale 1
16	Bourgoin	30	4	1	25	452	864	−412	1	6	17[a]

Normally, the teams that finish in 15th and 16th places in the table are relegated to Fédérale 1 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.

The highest ranked team at the end of the regular season, Oyonnax Rugby, earned automatic promotion to the Top 14 as champion de France de PRO D2 2017.

The semi–finals followed a 2 v 5, 3 v 4 system, with the higher ranked team playing at home.

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

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

Teams	Region or country	Team(s)
7	Occitanie	Albi, Béziers, Carcassonne, Colomiers, Montauban, Narbonne, and Perpignan
5	Nouvelle-Aquitaine	Agen, Biarritz, Dax, Mont-de-Marsan, and Soyaux Angoulême
3	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	Aurillac, Bourgoin, and Oyonnax
1	Brittany	Vannes

• 2016–17 Top 14 season

• (in French) Ligue Nationale de Rugby – Official website
• (in French) Midi Olympique