The biggest and best league in the rugby world starts this weekend. Vibrant, full stadiums are the norm, especially when the likes of Bordeaux-Bègles, Toulouse and La Rochelle are at home, and the Top 14’s lucrative TV deals dwarf rival leagues in both hemispheres. What’s more, the Top 14 is only going to flex its pecs even more.

Canal+ has secured the broadcast rights again from next season for both the Top 14 and Pro D2 until 2032, paying a whopping €696.8 million for the privilege. This equates to an annual payment of €128.7 million for the Top 14; a 13.3 per cent increase on the existing agreement. This is about double what the Super Rugby Pacific and the URC generate in TV income, and about 3½ the revenue of the Premiership.

Despite the deal with a TV subscription service, the Top 14’s reach in France is still far greater than that of other leagues in their countries, as selected matches in the Top 14, along with one match in each of the Champions Cup pool stages, are also screened on free-to-air France 2. So, in addition to the 80,000 people that, as usual, filled the Stade de France for last June’s final between Toulouse and Montpellier, the game was watched by an estimated audience of 4.75 million.

The popularity is also reflected in the booming attendances in other matches. The average attendance for French Top 14 rugby matches reached a record 16,256 spectators per match during last season, a 10 per cent increase on the preceding three seasons.

The average attendance for matches in the Premiership, which has shrunk to just 11 clubs, was 14,769 spectators per match during the 2025/2026 season while the average in the more diverse URC – spread over five countries in two hemispheres – was 10,804 last season.

The greater wealth of the French clubs allows them to acquire some of the best talent in the world game to complement a golden era for domestic talent – which has been driven by the restrictions on overseas players and the requirement to play home-grown players in line with the Jiff ruling. This in turn has led to unprecedented dominance in the Champions Cup, with French clubs being crowned champions for the last six seasons in a row.

What Irish rugby can learn from France

The Top 14 is a ferociously competitive, 26-match slog of a league, a fact that also makes it very fluid. Four of the top six from two seasons ago – Bordeaux-Bègles, Bayonne, Clermont and Castres – did not even make last season’s play-offs and were instead replaced by Stade Français, Pau, Racing and La Rochelle.

Despite retaining the Champions Cup, Bordeaux-Bègles missed out on the play-offs altogether for the first time in five years when letting slip a 24-7 lead at home to Clermont on a wildly unpredictable last day of the 26-match campaign.

Toulon, a top-four side in the previous two seasons, were so far off the pace that they finished ninth and didn’t even qualify for this season’s Champions Cup.

Montpellier were champions four seasons ago, yet finished 11th, 13th and ninth in the ensuing three campaigns, and only avoided relegation by beating Grenoble 20-18 in the “access match” in 2023-24 thanks to a late Tommaso Allan penalty.

Yet, as Ulster can testify after their Challenge Cup final beating in Bilbao, Montpellier are back with a vengeance. Their low-key former hooker Joan Caudullo has brought stability and identity after years of volatility with head coaches and they also finished second domestically last season and reached the French championship final.

Yet amid such fierce competition, one thing has remained constant: Toulouse. Ugo Mola’s side have won the coveted Bouclier de Brennus for the last four seasons in a row, equalling their own record from 1994 to 1997 and that of Stade Bordelais from 1904 to 1907.

Toulouse are thus seeking to become the first side to win the French championship five years in succession, and Mola has mastered the art of managing their big squad to ensure they finish the season fresher than their rivals. In addition to winning the last four titles, they topped the table in each of those campaigns, restricting their losses to between seven and nine matches each time.

As usual, they have not drastically changed their squad, and the departure of young centre Paul Costes to Racing and winger Dimitri Delibes to Montpellier has been offset by the signature signing of brilliant Italian centre Tommaso Menoncello from Benetton.

Their opening clash in the Sunday evening prime-time slot, away to Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle, will be televised live on Premier Sports (kick-off 8pm Irish time). Premier Sports will have up to four games, live or deferred, from each of the 26 rounds as well as their highlights package. In this weekend’s opening round, they will screen the meeting of Montpellier and Pau on Saturday (kick-off 6pm Irish time) followed by Bordeaux-Bègles hosting Racing 92 (kick-off 8.10pm Irish time).

Toulouse apart, a striking feature of the French season is how some teams suffer one game too many. Witness Bordeaux-Bègles losing the final to Toulouse by 59-3 three seasons ago after a huge effort to reach their first decider. Last season, six days after beating Pau 33-31 in a play-off, Racing hit a wall and Toulouse when losing 71-17 in Marseilles. It was a crueller watch than bullfighting.

A similar fate befell O’Gara’s team, after a run of six successive wins earned them sixth place, whereupon a week later they conceded four tries in the last quarter in losing 45-5 to Stade Français.

Although out of contract at the end of the season, O’Gara and La Rochelle have started discussions about extending his stay at the club, which would rule him out of contention to succeed Leo Cullen at Leinster. He has sought to offset the enforced retirement of club legend Uini Atonio by acquiring Sione Ahio from the Chiefs.

Another intriguing signing is that of Ben Healy. The three-year segue to Edinburgh didn’t really pay off for the 27-year-old product of Glenstal Abbey and former Ireland Under-20 outhalf, but that mighty kicking game could prove very profitable for both himself and La Rochelle.

There is much more to Healy than his kicking off the ground and out of hand, for he is an underrated playmaker and distributor. Healy is also a smart lad who can only benefit from the tutelage of the king of all Munster 10s.

It is a sign of the heightened intent of Bordeaux-Bègles and Toulon that they have made several notable signings, with Tom Willis rejoining UBB from Saracens, while the Scottish and Lions centre Huw Jones will add further X factor to the Toulon backline.

There is also Irish interest in keeping an eye on impending European opposition. Munster, who again travel to Bordeaux to renew acquaintances with UBB’s attack coach from Clare, Noel McNamara, in round three in January, will fittingly host Racing 92 in the Simon Zebo Derby at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on October 17th in round one.

Connacht will host Toulouse and travel to La Rochelle in January, and Leinster, in addition to hosting Pau that month, will begin their campaign away to Clermont, who are rebuilding their side around yet another brilliant French scrumhalf in 22-year-old Baptiste Jauneau, an Under-20 World Cup winner three years ago who is seen as Clermont’s new Morgan Parra. What is it about the French and scrumhalves?

By contrast, the URC doesn’t start for another three weeks. Hence, there will be little or no rugby for people to watch hereabout in September, historically a month of bounty. That means the French clubs will have played six matches compared with three for the Irish provinces, and thus be more battle hardened, by that opening weekend of European rugby.

As if they didn’t have enough going for them.