Pro D2 After Three Rounds: The Favourites Are Flying with France’s Second Tier 'Already Producing Chaos'

Oyonnax, Brive and Provence are three from three, Agen have stunned Grenoble and Montauban have gone from early contenders to a 45-7 reality check. Three rounds into the season, Pro D2 is already demonstrating why British rugby supporters should be paying attention.

Three rounds and already it feels as though we know considerably more about this season’s Pro D2 than we did at the end of August.

Some of the pre-season predictions look remarkably good; whilst others already need revisiting.

Most significantly, three of the clubs expected to challenge towards the top have wasted virtually no time establishing themselves.

Oyonnax, Brive and Provence Rugby are all three from three.

Oyonnax lead with 14 points, Brive and Provence have 13 apiece. Biarritz sit fourth on 10, with Soyaux-Angoulême and Dax both on nine. ?

At the opposite end, Colomiers are winless and bottom with a single point while Nevers have also lost all three — although remarkably they have collected a losing bonus from every one of them.

Oyonnax are making an enormous statement

Start with the leaders.

Oyonnax haven’t simply won three matches.

They have scored 130 points, the best attacking return in the competition with their sequence reading:

Béziers 21-31 Oyonnax.

Oyonnax 47-25 Biarritz.

Oyonnax 52-17 Aurillac.

Three victories, two attacking bonus points and a points difference of +67.

The latest performance contained one of the more remarkable individual cameos of the young season.

Hooker Teddy Ratajczak entered against Aurillac in the 47th minute and scored a hat-trick, the first coming almost immediately and two of the three originating from the power of Oyonnax’s maul. ?

For a club accustomed to moving between the Top 14 and Pro D2, the objective is obvious.

Brive might be doing something even more interesting

If Oyonnax have been explosive, Brive might be the team worth studying most closely.

Three games have brought three victories:

23-21 against Valence-Romans.

37-14 away at Agen.

38-17 against promoted Nissa.

They also possess the competition’s best defensive record, having conceded just 52 points, but there is something else happening at Brive; they are trying to change the way they play.

Under Grégory Patat and Fabien Fortassin, the intention is to move away from an overly predictable, power-orientated game towards something with more movement and variety.

The early numbers support it. After the opening two rounds, Brive were averaging around 160 passes per match compared with 140 last season. The interesting British and Irish connection is at half-back, where John Cooney and Jamie Shillcock have been central distributors within the new system. ?

For TRU, that’s worth following.

Provence: favourites doing what favourites should do

Then there is Provence. We entered the season discussing the weight of expectation around Aix-en-Provence. They were widely regarded among the leading promotion candidates and their squad appeared equipped accordingly.

So far:

Provence 44-10 Agen.

Colomiers 13-18 Provence.

Provence 47-42 Narbonne.

Three wins.

Thirteen points.

The interesting result isn’t necessarily either of those big home scores.

It is Colomiers away.

Promotion campaigns aren’t built solely on scoring 40 or 50 points at home. They are built on evenings when the rugby isn’t quite working and you leave a difficult ground with four points.

Provence did precisely that.

Their coaching staff had spoken after Round One about remaining calm despite an excellent start. Three rounds later, that caution looks justified rather than artificial. ?

Then Pro D2 did what Pro D2 does

At which point the neat early-season narrative began falling apart.

We spent last week examining Montauban’s 20-17 victory over Grenoble.

It was their second victory in succession following relegation from the Top 14.

We asked whether Montauban had rediscovered their Pro D2 DNA; the ability to stay in matches, absorb pressure and somehow win.

Seven days later:

Soyaux-Angoulême 45 Montauban 7.

Welcome back to Pro D2.

Montauban went from two wins from two to conceding six tries at Chanzy, where Soyaux-Angoulême’s Fijian combination produced one of the moments of the weekend, a spectacular Rasaku offload finished by Niusalelekitoga. ?

Does that invalidate what we said about Montauban?

Not really, it probably reinforces the broader point about this competition.

Montauban are seventh with eight points.

They’re capable of winning at Nevers and beating Grenoble but they’re also capable of losing by 38 at Angoulême.

And Thursday’s response against Béziers at Sapiac suddenly becomes very interesting. ?

What on earth is happening at Grenoble?

Perhaps the biggest early-season puzzle is Grenoble.

They began by putting 57 points on Aurillac.

Then they lost 20-17 at Montauban.

Now they have lost 33-39 at home to Agen.

That last result is significant.

Agen arrived at Stade des Alpes after losing their opening two matches - 44-10 at Provence and 37-14 at home to Brive.

Few would have selected Grenoble away as the obvious place for their season to ignite.

Yet Agen scored five tries and became the first side this season to win at Grenoble. The LNR described it as the first major upset of the campaign. ?

Grenoble therefore sit eighth.

More concerningly, they have conceded 92 points in three games.

This is a club that has spent recent seasons knocking repeatedly at the Top 14 door.

Three games certainly don’t constitute a crisis.

But one win and two defeats wasn’t the opening Grenoble envisaged.

Don’t overlook Dax

One of the pleasures of looking beyond the headline names is finding the teams quietly inserting themselves into the conversation.

Dax are sixth with nine points and their results have been extraordinary:

57-19 against Narbonne.

35-65 at Aurillac.

27-20 against Valence-Romans.

That is 119 points scored and 104 conceded in three matches. ?

If you want controlled rugby, perhaps look elsewhere.

If you want entertainment, put Dax on the list.

The extraordinary 65-35 defeat at Aurillac also illustrates the attacking nature of the opening weeks. Aurillac themselves have already scored 115 points despite losing twice.

This isn’t a competition afraid of the ball.

And then there are Nevers and Colomiers

At the bottom we find two clubs whose starts deserve attention for different reasons.

Nevers have lost three times:

21-25 against Montauban.

28-26 at Narbonne.

21-20 at Béziers.

Three defeats with three losing bonus points.

Their total losing margin across those matches is only seven points.

That doesn’t look like a hopeless side.

It looks like a team that has forgotten how to close games.

Nevers themselves identified their lack of efficiency in the opposition 22 after the opening defeat to Montauban. Two rounds later, the problem is beginning to become expensive. ?

Colomiers may be the bigger surprise.

They finished second in the regular season last year and reached the semi-finals. Now they are 0-3:

38-26 at Soyaux-Angoulême.

13-18 at home to Provence.

38-20 at Biarritz.

One point from three games leaves them 16th. ?

Again, September doesn’t decide promotion.

What have we learned?

Perhaps the biggest lesson is that there may already be a distinction developing between the promotion favourites and everyone else.

Oyonnax, Brive and Provence are unbeaten.

All three have shown they can score.

More importantly, all three have already demonstrated different ways of winning.

Behind them comes an intriguing second group.

Biarritz have ten points.

Soyaux-Angoulême and Dax have nine.

Montauban have eight.

Grenoble have six.

That is before we even consider Agen’s sudden awakening.

But there is another conclusion for British rugby.

Perhaps we really should be watching

When we began following Pro D2 more closely on Talking Rugby Union, part of the attraction was the British and Irish connection.

That remains.

John Cooney and Jamie Shillcock are helping drive Brive’s evolving attack.

Johnny Matthews and several players familiar to British rugby followers are at Montauban.

There are British and Irish connections scattered throughout the league.

But three rounds in, something else is becoming apparent.

We don’t actually need the British connection as an excuse to watch it.

Pro D2 is interesting enough on its own.

Historic rugby towns.

Big crowds.

Promotion and relegation.

Enormous differences in resources.

Young players looking for opportunities.

Former internationals.

Coaches trying different ideas.

And a league where a team can beat Grenoble one Friday and lose 45-7 the next.

The top three may already look familiar.

Everything underneath them looks anything but predictable.

And perhaps that’s where we’ll leave our Pro D2 notebook after three rounds.

Oyonnax are setting the pace. Brive are changing. Provence are delivering. Grenoble are wobbling. Agen are alive. Montauban have been reminded how unforgiving this league can be.

And Colomiers and Nevers?

They already need a win.

It’s only September.

That’s Pro D2. ?