Top 14 round-up
Sergio Parisse inspired Stade Francais to a much-needed 28-24 victory over Toulouse, while Toulon battered Bayonne.
Last Updated: 27/10/12 9:56pm
Two tries from Italy captain Sergio Parisse inspired Stade Francais to a much-needed 28-24 victory over Top 14 champions Toulouse on Saturday night.
Parisse's second try, seven minutes from time, inflicted Toulouse's third away defeat of the season and leaves them in third spot behind Clermont, who edged Biarritz 19-12 on Friday.
Stade had raced into an 11-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes with full-back Jerome Porical landing two penalties and Parisse scoring the first of his tries, while a rattled Toulouse had veteran prop Jean-Baptiste Poux sin-binned.
Sebastien Bezy got Toulouse off the mark in the 22nd minute with a penalty but Porical replied in kind shortly afterwards.
However, on the half hour mark, Toulouse were right back in the game as France wing Vincent Clerc kicked ahead and re-gathered to touch down. Bezy converted to cut the deficit to 14-10.
Toulouse's revival was complete four minutes before the break as Servat stormed up the pitch and passed to young Tongan flanker Edwin Maka, who sold a dummy to the Stade defence and strode through the gap to touch down.
Excellent
Bezy, who failed with the conversion, extended Toulouse's lead to four points on the half-time whistle with a penalty.
The 20-year-old youngster made it a seven-point gap between the two sides when he converted an excellent drop goal from 20 metres out shortly after the restart.
Stade had looked to be wilting but just before the hour mark scrum-half Fillol benefited from a mix-up between Yannick Nyanga and Clement Poitrenaud to touch down and former Perpignan stalwart Porical converted to make it all square at 21 apiece.
Florian Fritz restored Toulouse's lead but they were dealt a hammerblow seven minutes from time when Parisse rounded off a superb counter-attack by the hosts and Fillol converted to seal victory.
Toulon extended their lead at the top with an eight-try, bonus-point 59-0 rout of hapless Bayonne on Saturday night. Steffon Armitage scored twice for Toulon with brother Delon also on the scoresheet.
South African lock Bakkies Botha, winger Vincent Martin, hooker Jean-Charles Orioli, Joe Van Niekerk and David Smith completed the victory, Toulon's eighth in nine games this season.
Jonny Wilkinson converted seven of the tries and kicked a penalty for a 17-point haul with Australian star Matt Giteau, who put pen to paper on a new two-year deal on Thursday, converting Smith's last-minute try.
At the other end of the table Mont-de-Marsan, have yet to win a game in nine starts after losing 22-14 to Bordeaux-Bègles.
Elsewhere, Castres won 22-14 on the road in Agen,while Montpellier were easy 23-6 victors at home to Grenoble.
In the late game, James Hook kicked Perpignan to a narrow 17-13 win over Racing Metro.
