It's a Top 14 that doesn't say its name.
An elite that is getting tighter and tighter, year after year, with constantly changing championship formulas ... And in the midst of all this, three Ile-de-France teams and their French internationals at 7, returned from Tokyo with the money, who will try to get out of the game: Stade Français, Bobigny and Chilly-Mazarin are part of the fourteen competitors, divided into two pools of seven, on the starting line of this competition (Elite 1) which opens this weekend .
And it starts strong for them.
All at home.
In pool 1, the Seine-Saint-Denis club will have the privilege of hosting this Sunday (3 p.m.) nothing less than the defending champion, Romagnat (Puy-de-Dôme), surprise winner of the championship last season. In this same pool, the Parisiennes will face Grenoble that same day (13:45). The Essonniennes, they play in Pool 2 and will receive from this Saturday (4:30 p.m.) Blagnac (Haute-Garonne), the 2021 finalist.
The final objective is obviously to do better than last season when none of the three Ile-de-France clubs managed to reach the final phase. Bobigny, quarter-finalist in 2019, and second in his group before the end of competitions due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, seems to have the best arguments to reach it by integrating the Top 4 of group 1. The Stade Français, including three players - Julie Annery, Lénaïg Courson and Coumba Diallo - were selected to participate in the women's XV de France camp in early September in order to start preparing for the autumn tour (South Africa in Vannes on November 6, then New Zealand on the 13th in Pau, and on the 20th in Castres),may also covet a folding seat but it will already have to ensure its maintenance by avoiding finishing in one of the last two places which give rise to roadblocks.
LOUVES |
ELITE 1 🏉
Serious things start again for the Louves!
And what better way to start the season well than to face the reigning champions?
🏆
RDV Sunday at 3
p.m.
for the clash against the Auvergne of @ ASMROMAGNATRF!
💪
Sanitary pass required 😷 pic.twitter.com/08hmeuHnXE
- AC Bobigny 93 Rugby (@ ACBobigny93) September 17, 2021
Chilly-Mazarin, where Coralie Bertrand and Shannon Izar also play with the Blue, promoted to Elite 1 in 2019, will also try to snatch his ticket for the quarter-finals in an increasingly tightened championship.
Next season, in fact, the Elite 1 will be reduced to twelve clubs.