Paul Sackey scored twice as Toulon beat Top 14 leaders Toulouse 22-9 to keep their play-off hopes alive on Saturday.
English player scores two tries in win over league leaders
Paul Sackey scored twice as Toulon beat Top 14 leaders Toulouse 22-9 to keep their play-off hopes alive on Saturday.
Toulon might have been knocked out of the Heineken Cup last week but they're still hanging on in the Top 14 by the tips of their fingers.
Sackey scored twice in four minutes as Toulon's perfect Top 14 record at French football champions Marseille's Stade Velodrome was maintained with their fifth successive win there.
However, Toulon have a tough final two matches as they host 2009 champions Perpignan - who knocked them out of the European Cup last Saturday - and then travel to Montpellier in the final match.
Stade Francais 12-20 Clermont Auvergne
Clermont were easy winners over Stade Francais, finally getting their second win on the road and - more importantly - maintaining their place in the top six.
A mediocre first half ended with Clermont leading 10-3 thanks to a try on the quarter-hour mark from Fijian wing Kini Murimuriva
Lionel Beauxis landed a drop for the hosts in the third minute but the uninspired Parisians hardly threatened again, with the visitors extending their lead to 17-6 when Brock James's cross-field kick found Julien Malzieu unmarked out wide.
Stade Français scrum-half Julien Dupuy had hit the target with one penalty but missed a couple of others so Beauxis took over the kicking responsibilities and reduced the gap with two three-pointers to 17-12.
Clermont would have the last laugh though, as James slotted a late penalty to assure victory for
les Juanards.
Perpignan 23-16 Racing-Metro
Racing-Metro maintained second place in the standings thanks to a losing bonus point snatched in the 80th minute when Sebastien Chabal bolted 60 metres to score a try on the counter attack.
After booking their place in the Heineken Cup semi-finals last weekend, Perpignan found the resource to put in a very big performance to stay in the play-offs race, although they still lie eighth - three points off the pace.
The battle up front was ferocious in the first half, especially at scrum time. USAP led 6-3 at half-time but Racing drew level immediately after the restart.
Perpignan moved clear however thanks to tries from full-back Joffrey Michel and centre Rudi Coetzee.
Biarritz 52-26 CA Brive
A week after crashing out of Europe, Biarritz confirmed they are still in the running for silverware this year with a demolition job of Brive.
Eight tries in a dominant display was just what the doctor ordered as the Basques rise to fifth in the standings.
Number eight Raphael Lakafia and his loose forward partner Magnus Lund score two tries each while centre Marcelo Bosch, flank Wenceslas Lauret and wings Ilikena Bolakoro and Takudzwa Ngwenya all got one each.
Brive where 33-0 down when South African flank Gerhard Vosloo scored the first of his two tries for the visitors in the second half.
Late tries for scrum-half Shaun Perry and Jean-Philippe Bonrepaux added some respectability to the Brive scoreline but they failed to pick up the losing bonus point that would have assured their safety and relegated La Rochelle.
Montpellier 16-22 Bayonne
Montpellier chose the worst possible moment to concede their first defeat at home this season as they drop to sixth in the standings with Toulon and Perpignan breathing down their necks.
The hosts will harbour many regrets having had victory within reach, but despite their domination for large parts of the match they couldn't round off their opportunities.
Montpol got off to the perfect start when winger Timoci Nagusa scored in the first minute. But Bayonne replied immediately as flank Abdellatif Boutaty touched down in the fourth minute.
Guillaume Bernad scored another for the Basques but the pressure applied by Montpellier allowed them to keep the scoreboard ticking with penalties.
But it was Bayonne centre Sam Gerber who snatched victory for the visitors in the 70th minute with his seventh try in six games.
Bourgoin 22-33 Castres
Castres came out on top in a hectic contest, outscoring their hosts four tries to three for their second win on the road this season.
Castres wing Mathieu Nicolas score on either side of half time as the visitors generally controlled the game having led 18-5 at the break.
CO move up to third in the standings, just one point behind Racing.
La Rochelle 19-29 Agen
Agen assured themselves of a place in the top flight of French rugby next season with a hard-fought victory on Friday.
The result also means that relegation is near-unavoidable for La Rochelle.
In a ding-dong battle that went right down to the wire, Agen secured victory in the very last minute when Sylvere Tian broke clear for a counter-attacking try.
