JAMES HARRINGTON
FRENCH COLUMN

THE final weekend of 2023 – and we’re almost at the halfway point of the Top 14 season. There’s still a long way to go, but this point is often a waymarker for the remainder of the campaign.
It’s safe to say that the side at the bottom of the table at the turn of the year is in deep trouble. That is Sam Simmonds’ club Montpellier, who returned to losing ways after an all-too-brief three-match winning run that took in the first two rounds of the Challenge Cup, and the return of the Top 14. They find themselves eight points from total safety, and one behind 13...