2018–19 Élite 1 season

2018–19 Élite 1 season
Countries France
Date16 September 2018–19 May 2019
ChampionsMontpellier (8th title)
Runners-upToulouse
RelegatedSO Villelonguet
Stado Tarbes-Pyrénées
Official website
www.ffr.fr

The 2018–2019 Élite 1 season was the 48th edition of the competition and featured 16 teams.

Montpellier HR defeated Stade Toulousain in the final and were crowned champions. SO Villelonguet and Stado Tarbes Pyrénées were relegated to Élite 2 at the end of the season.[1]

Participants

For the 2018–2019 season, Elite 1 was structured as follows:

  • The 8 clubs of the Elite 1 Top 8 championship 2017–2018.
  • The top 8 clubs of Elite 2 2017–2018.[2]
Club 2017–18
Ranking
Coach Stadium
AS Bayonne 6th Jean-Matthieu Alcalde
Samuel Dylbaitys
Vincent Corret
Stade Pierre-Cacareigt
Blagnac SCR 4th Nicolas Tranier
Jean Lassere
Laurent Tranier
Stade Ernest-Argelès
AC Bobigny 7th Alexandre Gau Stade Henri-Wallon
Stade Bordelais 2nd (Elite 2, Group 2) Clément Millet
Florent Torregaray
Stade Chaban-Delmas
Ovalie Caennaise 3rd (Elite 2, Group 2) Gilles Rabier
Jean-François Mouton
Stade Hélitas
FC Grenoble Amazones 1st (Elite 2, Group 1, Champion) Emmanuel Pellorce
Cristian Spachuk
Stade Jean-Julien
Stade Villeneuvois LM 2nd Frédéric Cocqu
Cyril Fouda
Terrain Emmanuel Théry
Stadium Lille Métropole
Lons Section Paloise 1st (Elite 2, Group 2) Christophe Barraqué
Laurent Vitalla
Stade du Bourg (Complexe Georges Martin)
Montpellier HR 1st (Champion) Patrick Raffy
Olivier Clessienne
Stade Sabathé
Stade Français 2nd (Elite 2, Group 1) Olivier Carreiras
Anaïs Lagougine
Stade René-Leduc
Stade Rennais 5th Vincent Brehonnet
Anne Berville
Stade du Commandant Bougouin
ASM Rugby 8th Fabrice Ribeyrolles
Vincent Fargeas
Stade Michel-Brun
ASRUC Rugby 4th (Elite 2, Group 1) Cyrille Lloza Stade de l'ASRUC
Stado Tarbes Pyrénées 4th (Elite 2, Group 2) Thierry Escoubas
Laurent Abadie
Philippe Mallet
Stade Toulousain 3rd Anthony Granja
Pascal Belaubre
Stade Ernest-Wallon
SO Villelonguet 3rd (Elite 2, Group 2) Pierre Vergés
Jean-Marie Faveaux
Stade Joseph-Raynal

Regular season

Format

The competition consists of two groups of eight teams, established based on their rankings in the 2017–2018 seasons of the Elite 1 Top 8 and Elite 2 Armelle Auclair competitions, with matches played home and away. The championship was interrupted by a long winter break, which lasted from 17 December 2018 to 23 March 2019, apart from a few postponed matches played in mid-January. During this period, the international players participated in the 2019 Women's Six Nations Tournament while the clubs competed in the French Women's Rugby 10s Cup.[2]

Regular season standings

Pool 1

Rank Club P W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Montpellier HR 14 14 0 0 754 94 +660 69
2 Blagnac SCR 14 12 0 2 488 174 +314 56
3 ASM Rugby 14 8 1 5 293 177 +116 41
4 Stade Rennais 14 8 0 6 386 281 +105 39
5 Stade Français 14 7 1 6 217 294 -77 34
6 Lons Section Paloise 14 3 1 10 195 343 -148 18
7 ASRUC Rugby 14 1 1 12 126 649 -523 6
8 SO Villelonguet 14 1 0 13 91 563 -472 2

Pool 2

Rank Club P W D L PF PA PD Pts
1 Stade Toulousain 14 13 0 1 602 65 +537 64
2 AS Bayonne 14 12 0 2 518 200 +318 56
3 AC Bobigny 14 10 0 4 415 198 +217 47
4 FC Grenoble Amazones 14 7 0 7 221 290 -69 32
5 Stade Villeneuvois LM 14 6 0 8 195 271 -76 29
6 Stade Bordelais 14 5 0 9 182 312 -130 26
7 Ovalie Caennaise 14 2 0 12 105 509 -404 10
8 Stado Tarbes Pyrénées 14 1 0 13 87 480 -393 5

Final phase

  • The top 4 ranked teams in each group qualify for the quarter-finals.
  • Each quarter-final will take place on the home ground of the team with the highest ranking at the end of the qualifying phase. The semi-finals and the final will be played on neutral ground, with the winner of the final being crowned French Champion.

Bracket

 
Quarter-finalsSemi-finalsFinal
 
          
 
4 May 2019 – Stade Éric Béchu
 
 
Montpellier HR 51
 
11 May 2019 – Stade Jacques-Fouroux
 
FC Grenoble Amazones 7
 
Montpellier HR 40
 
4 May 2019 – Stade Pierre-Cacareigt
 
AS Bayonne 12
 
AS Bayonne 21
 
18 May 2019 – Stade Maurice Trélut
 
ASM Rugby 15
 
Montpellier HR 22
 
4 May 2019 – Stade Ernest-Wallon
 
Stade Toulousain 13
 
Stade Toulousain 22
 
11 May 2019 – Stade Jacques-Fouroux
 
Stade Rennais 10
 
Stade Toulousain 30
 
4 May 2019 – Stade Ernest-Argelès
 
Blagnac SCR 15
 
Blagnac SCR 20
 
 
AC Bobigny 18
 

Semi-finals

11 May 2019 Stade Toulousain 30–15 Blagnac SCR Stade Jacques-Fouroux  
12:15 PM Referee: Pierre Bru
11 May 2019 Montpellier HR 40–12 AS Bayonne Stade Jacques-Fouroux  
2:15 PM Referee: Yannick Vals

Final

18 May 2019 Montpellier HR 22–13 Stade Toulousain Stade Maurice Trélut  
9 PM Referee: Hervé Lasausa

Relegation phase

  • The bottom four teams in each group compete in the relegation phase.
  • The relegation/play-off matches first and second are played at the home ground of the higher-ranked team from the qualifying phase. The four losing teams from the first round of relegation/play-offs compete in a second round to try and avoid relegation from Elite 1 Féminine. The two losing teams are relegated to Elite 2 Féminine.

Round 1

Following SO Villelonguet's withdrawal from the remainder of the season, only half of the relegation playoff matches were played. The teams from Lille, Lons, and Caen automatically secured their place in Elite 1.

5 May 2019 Stade Français 56–5 Stado Tarbes Pyrénées Stade René-Leduc  
2 PM Referee: Sylvain Desvaux
5 May 2019 Stade Bordelais 17–20 ASRUC Rugby Stade Chaban-Delmas  
2 PM Referee: Thibault Santamaria

Round 2

12 May 2019 Stade Bordelais 25–5 Stado Tarbes Pyrénées Stade Sainte-Germaine  
3 PM Referee: Fabrice Alejo

References

  1. ^ "2018-19 Elite 1 Season". www.rugbyarchive.net. Retrieved 2026-02-21.
  2. ^ a b "Féminines - Adieu Top 8, bonjour l'élite 1 à... 16 équipes". rugbyamateur.fr (in French). 2018-07-02. Retrieved 2026-02-21.