2009–10 Top 14 season
Club Captain Head Coach
Albi Vincent Clément Jean Christophe Bacca Philippe Laurent
Bayonne Rémy Martin Christian Gajan
Biarritz Jérôme Thion Jack Isaac Jean-Michel Gonzalez
Bourgoin Julien Frier Éric Catinot Xavier Péméja
Brive Fabrice Estebanez Ugo Mola Christophe Laussucq
Castres Alexandre Albouy Sébastien Tillous-Borde Laurent Labit Laurent Travers
Clermont Aurélien Rougerie Vern Cotter
Montauban Matthew Clarkin Sébastien Calvet Marc Raynaud
Montpellier Fulgence Ouedraogo Warren Britz
Perpignan Nicolas Mas Jacques Brunel
Racing Métro Lionel Nallet Pierre Berbizier
Stade Français Rodrigo Roncero Jacques Delmas Didier Faugeron
Toulon Joe van Niekerk Philippe Saint-André
Toulouse Thierry Dusautoir Guy Novès
Teams -- Captains and head coaches
The 2009-10 Top 14 competition was a French domestic rugby union club competition operated by the Ligue Nationale de Rugby (LNR). It began on August 14, 2009 with a match between Toulon and Stade Français at Stade Mayol in Toulon, and continued through to the final at the Stade de France on May 29, 2010. This year's edition of the Top 14 welcomed Racing Métro, winners of the 2009 title in the second-level Pro D2, and Albi, victors in the 2009 promotion playoffs between the second- through fifth-placed teams in Pro D2, thus becoming the first team to achieve promotion to the Top 14 only one year after being relegated. They took the place of the two clubs from Landes, Dax and Mont-de-Marsan, relegated at the end of the 2008-09 Top 14. Mont-de-Marsan, which had been promoted to the Top 14 for 2008-09, finished bottom of the table and went down. The other newly promoted team in 2008-09, Toulon, finished ninth, sending Dax, who had already finished second-to-bottom the previous season before being allowed to stay in the Top 14 due to Albi's financial troubles, to Pro D2. The two teams promoted for 2009-10 had very different results. Albi finished bottom of the table by a wide margin and went directly back to Pro D2. Racing Métro, on the other hand, finished sixth, giving them a berth in the newly expanded playoffs and a place in the 2010-11 Heineken Cup. Bayonne finished in the other relegation spot of 13th place, but were reprieved due to the financial problems of 12th-place Montauban. The season ended with Clermont winning their first French national title in their nearly century-long history, defeating defending champions Perpignan 19-6 in a rematch of last season's final. This result ended decades of frustration for Les Jaunards and their supporters, who had previously tasted defeat in all 10 of their previous final-game appearances.