French Top 10 restarts this weekend.

The battle for the French club championship restarts this weekend, after the long Christmas break, and if the Part One was tension-filled for some, Part Two will be even worse.

The surviving eight clubs after the pool phase will play in two-legged quarter finals over the next two weekends, while Lons and Bordeaux meet to see who will finish 9thand 10th– though in practice this will mean little as both teams are already relegated.

However, they may not be the only ones playing the lower level Armelle Auclair championship next year. At the end of this season the bottom ranked team, after the knock-out stages, will have to play-off for their place in next season’s new “Top 8” against this season’s Armelle Auclair winner.

The complex play-off process - which is only being used this season – is part if a much larger restructuring of all of women’s club rugby in France. Every league will be affected in a plan which aims to reduce the famously long club season by reducing the size of the leagues.

This weekend (12thJanuary) and next (19th) the top four teams from the qualifying pools will play home-and-away, with the lower ranked sides at home in first weekend.

The draw looks like this:

Match 1: Blagnac Saint Orens v MontpellierMatch 2: La Valette v BobignyMatch 3: Caen v RennesMatch 4: Perpignan v Lille9thplace play-off: Bordeaux v Lons

Interestingly this brings together all of the northern teams in the bottom half of the draw which almost guarantees a northern team in the final, though the fourth team in this part of the draw – Perpignan – will be aiming to upset that particular party.

After the Six Nations, on 13thand 20thApril, the semi-finals (also over two legs) will take place:

Match 5: Winner Match 1 v Winner Match 2Match 6: Winner Match 3 v Winner Match 4Match 7: Loser Match 1 v Loser Match 2Match 8: Loser Match 3 v Loser Match 4

Then, on 27thApril, on neutral grounds:

Final: Winner Match 5 v Winner Match 6Third-place: Loser Match 5 v Loser Match 6Fifth-place: Winner Match 7 v Winner Match 8Seventh-place: Loser Match 7 v Loser Match 8Final: Armelle Auclair

The winner of the Armelle Auclair final will then play meet loser of the seventh place play-off, probably the following weekend (though this has yet to be confirmed).

In February and March a separate club competition for players not involved in the Six Nations is planned. In addition the club sevens championship – which in previous seasons was played in September - will now take place after the fifteens season has finished.