Le Notebook: Pau are for real, Tom Willis makes his mark and the road to Australia takes shape
Theo Attissogbe's Pau have made a strong start to the Top 14 season
©Photo by Yuichi Masuda - Nations Championship/Nations Championship via Getty Images
Five rounds into the Top 14 season, the early noise is beginning to turn into evidence.
Toulouse remain out in front, Pau are refusing to disappear, Tom Willis is making an extraordinary impact at Bordeaux and the French game continues to provide intriguing clues ahead of Rugby World Cup 2027.
Five rounds in and Toulouse are top. Nothing particularly unusual about that. Look a little further down the table, though, and this Top 14 season is beginning to develop some fascinating subplots.
Section Paloise are second, just a point behind Toulouse, with Bayonne third. Bordeaux-Bègles have rediscovered their attacking swagger, while Lyon, leaders after three rounds, have now lost twice in succession.
At the other end, Toulon are 13th after being shut out completely by Montpellier, while promoted Vannes remain bottom despite coming within three points of producing one of the comebacks of the season against Pau last weekend.
Toulouse have 19 points, Pau 18, Bayonne 17 and Bordeaux 15. The table is beginning to tell us something.
Pau: perhaps it is time to believe
We have been cautious about Pau in these pages. Not any more.
Their 43-40 victory at Vannes was their fourth win in five matches and their first away from home this season, yet the manner of it was almost more revealing than the result. Pau scored 40 first-half points to lead 40-14 at the interval before Vannes produced an extraordinary second-half response, eventually closing to 43-40 and leaving Pau hanging on.
One passage captured exactly why Pau are becoming one of the most watchable sides in France. Defending close to their own line, Portugal international Rodrigo Marta won possession, Théo Attissogbe launched the counterattack from virtually his own in-goal area and, after Thibault Daubagna joined in, Axel Despérès completed a remarkable length-of-the-field score.
It wasn't simply spectacular. It was fearless, and perhaps that tells us something about this Pau side. They have now scored 204 points in five matches, second only to Racing's 212, with a +49 points difference.
Pau aren't sneaking up the table. They are attacking it.
Willis Watch: this week belongs to Tom
One Willis brother spent the week collecting another major award. The other spent Saturday afternoon showing why his own reputation in France is growing so rapidly.
Jack Willis was named Top 14 Player of the Year for the second successive season after another outstanding campaign with Toulouse. Jack is currently sidelined with a knee injury, so last weekend the Willis limelight belonged firmly to his younger brother Tom.
Bordeaux destroyed Lyon 51-28, having led 39-7 before half-time, and Tom Willis was once again in the middle of it.
The England international No.8 scored his fifth try in five Top 14 appearances, and Rugbyrama credited him with 16 carries, three defenders beaten and five offloads on the way to an 8.5/10 rating, describing his influence within the Bordeaux system as already considerable.
Five games, five tries, and an older brother who is the back-to-back best player in the competition. Willis Watch might be with us for some time.
Toulouse can win this way too
The previous weekend Toulouse put 40 points on Montpellier. At Castres they scored eight, and perhaps that second performance tells us just as much about the champions.
Matthis Lebel's first-half try and a Juan Cruz Mallía penalty proved enough for an 8-7 win at Pierre-Fabre. Castres scored shortly after half-time, but Toulouse protected their one-point advantage for the rest of the match. There was no Antoine Dupont-inspired festival and no avalanche of tries - just an away win at one of the Top 14's more demanding venues.
That makes it four consecutive victories since their opening-round defeat at La Rochelle. Champions who can win 40-18 one week and 8-7 the next tend to be difficult to dislodge.
Road to Australia: the Iberian connection
One of the themes we want Le Notebook to follow this season is how France's professional competitions are developing players who could matter at Rugby World Cup 2027. Last weekend gave us another excellent example.
Spain international Joël Merkler started for Toulouse not at tighthead but in the second row. The official LNR team sheet listed the normally front-row forward at No.5 against Castres, and he played 53 minutes before being replaced. For Spain, that kind of versatility could prove extremely valuable.
Then there is Marta. The Portuguese back didn't add to his remarkable early-season try tally against Vannes, but his turnover close to his own line created Pau's spectacular counterattack. That's why our Road to Australia watch shouldn't simply count tries and appearances.
Spain and Portugal will both be in Australia in 2027. What interests us is what their players are learning while operating every weekend in environments such as Toulouse and Pau.
Bordeaux: brilliant at home, but what happens away?
UBB might be the most difficult side in the competition to assess. At Chaban-Delmas, the European Champions have been devastating: Racing were beaten 64-5, Stade Français went down 40-10 and Lyon conceded 51 last week.
Against Lyon, Bordeaux scored eight tries, with Nicolas Depoortère, Cameron Woki, Salesi Rayasi, Louis Bielle-Biarrey, Willis and Hugo Reus all getting on the scoresheet.
Yet both of their away games have ended in defeat, which makes this Saturday's trip to Clermont particularly interesting. If Bordeaux can take their Chaban rugby on the road, Toulouse may have another genuine challenger.
And what on earth is happening at Toulon?
Perhaps the biggest warning light of last weekend came at Montpellier, where Toulon lost 28-0. They failed to score a single point, finished with 41 per cent possession and missed 26 tackles, while Montpellier collected an attacking bonus despite the torrential conditions.
Toulon's season so far reads like a story of two halves. Their first three games were defeats by 27-26, 21-20 and 29-27 - a combined total of four points. A 28-10 win followed against Vannes, then this. That leaves them 13th.
The first three losses could legitimately be put down to fine margins. Twenty-eight unanswered points at Montpellier cannot.
What we're watching next
Round Six gives us three particularly useful tests. Pau v Castres asks whether Pau can back up an exhilarating but imperfect win at Vannes and keep the pressure on Toulouse.
Clermont v Bordeaux asks the question we have just raised: Can UBB reproduce their extraordinary home rugby away from Chaban-Delmas? And on Sunday night comes Toulouse v Bayonne, first against third.
But perhaps the most important conclusion after five rounds is that Le Notebook is beginning to find characters as well as clubs: Jack and Tom Willis, Rodrigo Marta, Joël Merkler, Joe Simmonds and Pau's young French backs. They give us ways of following the Top 14 that go beyond simply asking who can stop Toulouse.
Although five rounds in, that particular question isn't going away either.
