The winners of those matches face the top two teams in the semi-finals, which are held at neutral sites, and the semi-final winners advance to the final at Stade de France (the traditional site, although the 2016 final was held at Camp Nou in Barcelona due to conflict with UEFA Euro 2016).
Beginning in 2017–18, Pro D2 adopted a playoff system identical to that used by the Top 14, with the first and second-placed teams receiving byes into the semifinals, where they await winners of quarterfinals that involve the third- through sixth-place teams.
As with Pro D2, the top two teams at the end of the season qualify directly for the semifinals.
The last two teams in the table are directly relegated to National 2 at the end of the regular season.
As with Nationale, at the end of the regular season, both pool's top 2 teams automatically qualify for their respective semifinals, with positions 3 - 6 playing off in the quarter-finals.
Quarter-finals and semi-finals are played over 2 legs (home and away) with aggregate winners progressing.
The two pool winners at the end of this process automatically qualify for promotion to National 1, and play off against each other for the title of champion of Nationale 2.
Preliminary phase 12 teams compete on a Round-robin tournament basis in each of the 4 groups.
The top 4 teams of each group move into the play-offs (Trophée Jean-Prat), and the bottom 4 move into play-downs Second phase The lowest ranked 24 teams from the preliminary phase play another round-robin competition in 4 groups of 6.
The top 2 teams of each group move on to a sudden death competition (quarter-finals, semi-finals, final), at the end of which an honorary title is awarded.
These teams play semifinals and finals to decide the winner of the Nationale 2 division.