The Top 14 France 2013/14 season kicks off on Friday 16 August.
We look forward to another action packed series from the premier competition in France. Can Castres repeat there fine end to the 2012/13 season or will one of the wealthy clubs take the prize. We think it could be ASM Clermont who claim the trophy this time out. The runners up being Toulon with Toulouse and Castres as losing semi-finalists. There are quite a few new faces to look out for this year and games will be televised by the new BT Sport channels as well as ESPN in the UK.
The new boys this season, Oyonnax winners of Pro2 play Bayonne at Bayonne in their opening game and they could cause an upset. The Pro2 play-off winners Brive back in the big time open against the money men of Racing Métro Paris a tough ask but yet again a game they can win given the fragile nature of Racing Métro during the last season. We will however go with Bayonne and Racing Métro.
Here are all the matches in round one and our tips as usual in Bold:
Fixtures Round One
All Times UK Time
Fri 16 Aug 19:45 Montpellier v Toulon Stade Yves Du Manoir BTSport
Sat 17 Aug 14:00 Biarritz v ASM Clermont Parc des Sports d’Aguilera ESPN
Sat 17 Aug 14:00 Bayonne v Oyonnax Stade Jean Dauger
Sat 17 Aug 17:30 Bordeaux v Toulouse Jacques Chaban-Delmas
Sat 17 Aug 17:30 Grenoble v Paris Stade Lesdiguières
Sat 17 Aug 17:30 Racing Métro v Brive Stade Marcel Deflandre
Sat 17 Aug 19:35 Perpignan v Castres Stade Aimé Giral