2013–14 Top 14 season

2013–14 Top 14
Countries	France
Date	16 August 2013 – 31 May 2014
Champions	Toulon
Runners-up	Castres Olympique
Relegated	Perpignan Biarritz Olympique
Matches played	187
Attendance	2,678,932 (average 14,326 per match)
Tries scored	607 (average 3.246 per match)
Top point scorer	Gaëtan Germain (Brive) 299 points
Top try scorer	Metuisela Talebula (Bordeaux Bègles) 15 tries
Official website
www.lnr.fr
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The 2013–14 Top 14 competition is a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). Two new teams from the 2012–13 Pro D2 season were promoted to Top 14 this year, Oyonnax and Brive in place of the two relegated teams, Agen and Mont-de-Marsan. Home-and-away play began on 16 August 2013 and continued through to 3 May 2014.

The regular season was very closely fought, with a record few away wins, but ended up with the same six teams qualifying for the play-offs as the previous year. Toulon topped the table for the first time, one point clear of second-placed Montpellier, whilst defending champions Castres just managed to hold on to the last qualifying spot, finishing in sixth. At the other end of the table, Biarritz had a nightmarish season, spending virtually the whole year in the relegation zone, and finished bottom, while Perpignan, who had been in the top tier of French rugby since 1911, were also relegated. Oyonnax and Brive finished 12th and 9th, respectively, marking the first time since 2007 that both newly promoted teams managed to keep their places in the Top 14.

The quarter-final stage saw two major upsets, with Racing Métro avenging their loss from the previous year with a 21–16 away win at Toulouse, whose run of twenty consecutive semi-final appearances thus came to end, while Castres put an end to Clermont's record streak of 77 straight wins at Stade Marcel Michelin with a 22–16 win. This is the first time that both quarterfinals have resulted in away wins.

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