# 2000–01 French Rugby Union Championship

The 2000–01 French Rugby Union Championship was the top level of French club rugby in 2000–01. The competition was played by 21 teams. It was the last French season before the top level was reorganized into a 16-team league known as Top 16, now known as Top 14.
In the first phase, two pools (one of 10 teams, one of 11) were played. The first 4 of each pool were admitted to the "top 8", the tournament for the title.
The last two of the pool containing 10 teams, and the last three of the other, were relegated directly to the second division. The 8th team in each pool had a play-off to determine the sixth team relegated. Only one club was promoted from the second division in order to reduce the number of clubs for next session to 16.
Toulouse won their 15th title, beating Montferrand in the final

## Preliminary phase
### Pool 1

| Home \ Away | AGE | BEZ | BOR | BOU | CAS | MON | PAU | PRG | PRP | STF |
| Agen | | 36–19 | 25–12 | 32–13 | 34–16 | 20–13 | 29–15 | 33–8 | 43–6 | 25–25 |
| Béziers | 26–18 | | 57–7 | 12–16 | 24–13 | 47–29 | 33–23 | 56–10 | 21–25 | 33–20 |
| Bègles-Bordeaux | 26–18 | 28–25 | | 14–26 | 27–34 | 26–17 | 17–13 | 35–18 | 33–10 | 30–38 |
| Bourgoin | 19–16 | 34–35 | 56–20 | | 22–19 | 24–16 | 34–15 | 74–8 | 20–21 | 22–42 |
| Castres | 70–17 | 25–9 | 49–22 | 18–8 | | 21–9 | 31–18 | 86–15 | 28–16 | 29–0 |
| Mont-de-Marsan | 18–19 | 12–23 | 23–15 | 18–14 | 16–20 | | 26–21 | 41–11 | 27–15 | 20–37 |
| Pau | 29–18 | 30–16 | 16–35 | 38–17 | 18–16 | 28–3 | | 43–7 | 22–29 | 21–6 |
| Périgueux | 13–47 | 34–47 | 20–21 | 9–10 | 12–18 | 27–22 | 23–25 | | 20–30 | 21–26 |
| Perpignan | 30–28 | 26–9 | 33–15 | 28–16 | 23–28 | 45–17 | 31–25 | 83–12 | | 32–33 |
| Stade Français | 27–22 | 28–23 | 55–19 | 18–18 | 34–37 | 68–10 | 33–27 | 79–11 | 55–9 | |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Castres | 18 | 14 | 0 | 4 | 558 | 324 | +234 | 46 | Quarters of final |
| 2 | Stade Français | 18 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 624 | 409 | +215 | 44 | Quarters of final |
| 3 | Perpignan | 18 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 492 | 452 | +40 | 40 | Quarters of final |
| 4 | Agen | 18 | 10 | 1 | 7 | 480 | 385 | +95 | 39 | Quarters of final |
| 5 | Béziers | 18 | 10 | 0 | 8 | 515 | 414 | +101 | 38 | |
| 6 | Bourgoin | 18 | 9 | 1 | 8 | 443 | 379 | +64 | 37 | |
| 7 | Bourdeaux-Begles | 18 | 8 | 0 | 10 | 402 | 533 | −131 | 34 | |
| 8 | Pau | 18 | 8 | 0 | 10 | 427 | 404 | +23 | 34 | Relegation play-off |
| 9 | Mont-de-Marsan | 18 | 5 | 0 | 13 | 337 | 481 | −144 | 28 | Relegated to second division |
| 10 | Périgueux | 18 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 279 | 776 | −497 | 20 | Relegated to second division |
* ↑ Bourdeaux-Begles classified 7th for better score in the direct matches with Pau

### Pool 2

| Home \ Away | AUC | AUR | BIA | BRI | COL | DAX | GRE | ROC | MON | NAR | TOU |
| Auch | | 30–11 | 23–46 | 21–23 | 18–36 | 22–19 | 11–21 | 9–24 | 6–18 | 9–22 | 13–56 |
| Aurillac | 19–20 | | 18–23 | 40–34 | 16–23 | 22–33 | 26–25 | 18–13 | 33–28 | 22–28 | 28–39 |
| Biarritz | 50–25 | 33–18 | | 31–29 | 48–6 | 49–10 | 41–8 | 37–3 | 35–35 | 26–25 | 23–20 |
| Brive | 27–16 | 18–20 | 18–43 | | 23–16 | 28–20 | 22–12 | 20–16 | 9–37 | 35–39 | 19–32 |
| Colomiers | 22–13 | 28–30 | 35–23 | 12–14 | | 45–27 | 31–22 | 38–20 | 30–10 | 27–19 | 20–32 |
| Dax | 17–16 | 45–17 | 23–12 | 34–19 | 21–17 | | 19–16 | 20–10 | 9–8 | 9–21 | 15–10 |
| Grenoble | 27–18 | 33–19 | 15–6 | 29–16 | 31–23 | 41–14 | | 17–15 | 18–24 | 43–6 | 15–28 |
| La Rochelle | 35–13 | 27–15 | 17–21 | 40–19 | 24–18 | 25–19 | 21–8 | | 26–36 | 49–42 | 19–18 |
| Montferrand | 66–17 | 22–43 | 37–19 | 46–35 | 16–5 | 37–10 | 30–18 | 67–7 | | 32–27 | 28–15 |
| Narbonne | 44–10 | 31–25 | 32–20 | 9–12 | 19–21 | 49–33 | 59–17 | 56–21 | 18–27 | | 25–31 |
| Toulouse | 39–10 | 44–24 | 11–8 | 50–19 | 24–21 | 42–22 | 50–12 | 46–22 | 24–29 | 50–8 | |
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Montferrand | 20 | 15 | 1 | 4 | 633 | 404 | +229 | 51 | Quarters of final |
| 2 | Toulouse | 20 | 15 | 0 | 5 | 661 | 380 | +281 | 50 | Quarters of final |
| 3 | Biarritz | 20 | 13 | 1 | 6 | 594 | 408 | +186 | 47 | Quarters of final |
| 4 | Colomiers | 20 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 474 | 450 | +24 | 40 | Quarters of final |
| 5 | Narbonne | 20 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 579 | 519 | +60 | 40 | |
| 6 | Dax | 20 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 419 | 506 | −87 | 40 | |
| 7 | La Rochelle | 20 | 9 | 0 | 11 | 434 | 537 | −103 | 38 | |
| 8 | Grenoble | 20 | 9 | 0 | 11 | 428 | 479 | −51 | 38 | Relegation play-off |
| 9 | Brive | 20 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 439 | 563 | −124 | 36 | Relegated to second division |
| 10 | Aurillac | 20 | 7 | 0 | 13 | 464 | 577 | −113 | 34 | Relegated to second division |
| 11 | Auch | 20 | 3 | 0 | 17 | 320 | 615 | −295 | 26 | Relegated to second division |
* ↑ Colomiers classified 4th for better score in the direct matches with Narbonne and Dax
* ↑ La Rochelle classified 7th for better score in the direct matches with Grenoble

## Quarters of final

QUARTERS OF FINAL :
| 25 May | Castres | - | Colomiers | 37–26 |
| 25 May | Toulouse | - | Perpignan | 20–15 |
| 25 May | Stade Français | - | Biarritz | 19–35 |
| 25 May | Montferrand | - | Agen | 33–21 |

## Semifinals

SEMIFINALS :
| 2 jun. | Castres | - | Toulouse | 21–32 | Stadium, Toulouse |
| 2 jun. | Biarritz | - | Montferrand | 9–16 | Stade Gerland, Lyon |

## Final

* 9 June 2001
| Toulouse | 34 – 22 | Montferrand |
| Try: Marfaing Con: Marfaing Pen: Michalak (4) Marfaing (2) Drop: Delaigue (3) | | Try: Audebert Con: Merceron Pen: Merceron (5) |
* Stade de France, Saint-Denis Referee: Gérard Borréani
| FB | 15 | Nicolas Jeanjean |
| RW | 14 | Xavier Garbajosa |
| OC | 13 | Cédric Desbrosse | 76' |
| IC | 12 | Clément Poitrenaud | 80' |
| LW | 11 | Michel Marfaing |
| FH | 10 | Yann Delaigue |
| SH | 9 | Frédéric Michalak |
| N8 | 8 | Fabien Pelous (c) |
| OF | 7 | Christian Labit | 76' |
| BF | 6 | Jean Bouilhou |
| RL | 5 | David Gérard | 73' |
| LL | 4 | Hugues Miorin | 61' |
| TP | 3 | Franck Tournaire |
| HK | 2 | Yannick Bru |
| LP | 1 | Christian Califano | 58' |
| Substitutions: ||
| PR | 16 | Cédric Soulette | 58' |
| LK | 17 | Franck Belot | 73' |
| FL | 18 | Didier Lacroix | 76' |
| N8 | 19 | Sylvain Dispagne | 61' |
| SH | 20 | Jérôme Cazalbou |
| FH | 21 | Alain Penaud | 80' |
| FB | 22 | Stéphane Ougier | 76' |
| Coach: ||
| Guy Novès ||
| FB | 15 | Jimmy Marlu |
| RW | 14 | Aurélien Rougerie | 80+6' |
| OC | 13 | Johnny Ngauamo | 55' |
| IC | 12 | Nicolas Nadau |
| LW | 11 | David Bory |
| FH | 10 | Gérald Merceron |
| SH | 9 | Alessandro Troncon |
| N8 | 8 | Selborne Boome | |
| OF | 7 | Olivier Magne |
| BF | 6 | Alexandre Audebert |
| RL | 5 | Éric Lecomte (c) |
| LL | 4 | David Barrier | 67' |
| TP | 3 | Alessio Galasso | |
| HK | 2 | Yves Pedrosa | 72' |
| LP | 1 | Abraham Tolofua | 77' |
| Substitutions: ||
| HK | 16 | Marco Caputo | 72' |
| PR | 17 | Brendan Reidy | 77' |
| FL | 18 | Jan Macháček | 67' |
| FL | 19 | Christophe Dongieu |
| SH | 20 | Kevin Dalzell |
| FH | 21 | Éric Nicol | 80+6' |
| FB | 22 | Sébastien Viars | 55' |
| Coach: ||
| Christophe Mombet ||

## Relegation play-off

| 25 May | Pau | - | FC Grenoble | 33 – 21 o.t. |