Page "Top 14" Paragraph 22

The Top 14 is contested by fourteen professional rugby union clubs throughout France.

The domestic season runs from August through to June.

Every club contests 26 games during the regular season – over 26 rounds of competition.

The season is split into two halves for scheduling purposes ; both halves are scheduled in the same order, with the team at home in the first half of the season on the road in the second.

Throughout the August – June competition there are breaks during the season, as there are also European Rugby Cup ( Heineken Cup and European Challenge Cup ) fixtures that are played during the rugby season, as well as the Six Nations Championship, in which many top French players are involved, as well as a few players from the other European powers.

The schedule may be adjusted somewhat in World Cup years ; this was especially true in the 2007 – 08 season, which ran up against the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France.

That season, the Top 14 played on all of the Six Nations weekends and on some of the Heineken Cup weekends.