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For the first time this season, the Thursday Night Lights are on the Stade Pré - Fleuri, where Nevers host the league’s most successful away team, third-placed Colomiers.
For the first time this season, the Thursday Night Lights are on the Stade Pré-Fleuri, where Nevers host the league’s most successful away team, third-placed Colomiers.
Whether it be the storied French titles of Agen, the European pedigree and beachside glamour of Biarritz, or the stunning fortifications of Carcassonne, France’s second tier offers plenty to appease those hungry for French rugby history and a spot of sightseeing.
Nevers is very much one for the intrepid travellers and Pro D2 diehards. Although the club was originally founded in 1903, and the city possesses a mightily impressive cathedral, Nevers is situated in the middle of France’s famously sparse ‘Diagonale du Vide’ and is formerly most well known for its historic Nevers faïence earthenware pottery, and proximity to the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours that hosted the French Grand Prix between 1991 and 2008.
Visitors might therefore be surprised by the Stade Pré-Fleuri, one of the most modern playing and training facilities in the league, and Nevers’ operating budget that only trails league heavyweights Brive, Vannes and Provence.
Until the turn of the year, Nevers had comfortably sat in and around the Barrage places owing to an exceptional home record, living up to the age-old French rugby trope of disappointing away from home. They now sit in 9th, that home run obliterated in January in a 45-10 humbling to Provence, followed by a 29-29 draw against a Mont-de-Marsan side who previously hadn’t registered a single point away from home. Factor in two big losses away to Angoulême and Agen, and in short, their 2026 form has been disastrous.
Nevers will be desperate to put their season back on course tonight then, and there is plenty to admire in a 23 that hints to Nevers’ traditionally eclectic approach to international recruitment, with a renewed focus on exciting young French talent. The match day squad has an average age of only 25.
The young, entirely Georgian front of Luka Ungiadze, Luka Petriashvili and Lasha Pkhakadze will be tasked with gaining the ascendancy at scrum time in the one area where there remain question marks around Colomiers.
Arguably Nevers’ most exciting young talent is Perry Mayo, before Christmas the league’s leading try scorer and lethal whether on the wing or at full-back. It was a huge coup then when head coach Coenrad Basson – the South African who finished his playing career at the club he now coaches – announced Mayo would be remaining with the club until 2029, part of a raft of re-signings including Dylan Jaminet that nod to their longer-term ambitions.
Mayo began his career at Massy in the Paris suburbs, and Nevers’ links to the player factories of Paris and Clermont-Ferrand are evident throughout the squad, no more so than in the centres.
Mathys Belaubre, former France U20s player and on loan from Clermont, is incredibly highly rated. A physical unit, he impressed as a starter against Stade Français back in November, looking more than a match for Noah Néné and Joe Marchant in his last outing for his parent club. His centre partner quite literally bears the name of the city he started his playing career in – Léonard Paris has been a regular the last seven seasons at Nevers following his time at Racing 92.
Kevin Noah, another to have come off the Parisian production line (at Massy), is a huge ball-carrying option off the bench, as is the more mobile Mahmadou Coulibaly, another former Racing man. Their aggression will be needed with former Wallaby Caleb Timu lurking menacingly in the No. 20 shirt for Colomiers. Noah has been heavily linked with a move to La Rochelle in the last few days, the confirmed destination for the impressive youngster Thomas Adélaïde who starts at lock for the visitors.
Colomiers have a league-best six out of nine away wins, but are missing some key men in the shape of Valentin Delpy, who is back with his parent club Toulouse, and their Portuguese contingent of Nicholas Martins, Rodrigo Marta and Vincent Pinto, who will be lining up against Germany in their Rugby Europe Championship match in Dessau.
In spite of those absentees there is still plenty of class in evidence. Luka Plataret and Ray Nu’u have been Colomiers’ best forward and back respectively and start here; expect Plataret to be the standout forward again here, on his return to a place he called home for seven seasons until his switch last summer. Théo Giral, who has deputised superbly for Delpy at 10 throughout the season, switches to full-back to offer a second playmaker option to Max Auriac who makes his first start of the season at fly-half. Auriac previously played U20s alongside the likes of Nicolas Depoortère, Louis Bielle-Biarrey and Émilien Gailleton who have all already progressed to starring for Les Bleus; Auriac’s progression has clearly been slower, and he makes his first start in only his second game of the season after a horrible knee injury.
Even with ten rounds remaining, this feels like a huge fixture for the home side, who need to stop their current rot to have any chance of making the Barrage come the end of the season. For Colomiers, even with significant changes, they will fancy their chances of moving to a scarcely believable 7 from 10 away victories in what is undoubtedly the game of the round.
You can find an interview with Paris-based Welsh journalist Illtud Dafydd, including discussion Nevers recruitment and squad, in the latest episode of ‘The Rosbifs Rugby Podcast’, available on Apple and Spotify.
Provence have looked imperious of late and host an Oyonnax side peaking at the right point in the season, and will be desperate to avenge their last-play-of-the-game defeat to Vannes in the last round. The victors that day host Carcassonne in a top vs bottom tussle where a home loss would constitute probably the biggest upset in recent Pro D2 history. In fairness, Carcassonne have looked a far more accomplished side recently, but with three winnable home matches in their next four outings, expect a changed-up side to make the gargantuan trip north.
Soyaux-Angoulême have lost three in a row and convincingly at that, and host a Mont-de-Marsan team who arguably are in something like their best form of the season. That draw against Nevers was bookended by wins at home against fourth-placed Valence-Romans and a thrashing of a full-strength Brive side in the last round. The worst home record versus, until recently, the worst away record in the league, makes for a fascinating scrap at the Stade Chanzy.
Pro D2 continues this Thursday (12th February) with Nevers v Colomiers, available to UK & Ireland viewers for free via FRUK Rugby on YouTube.