Toulouse ace Florian Fritz makes a rare break during his side's defeat by Racing Metro © Getty Images

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News: Boudjellal left fuming by Toulon display

Tournaments/Tours: Top 14 Orange

Teams: Agen | Bayonne | Biarritz | Brive | Castres | Clermont Auvergne | France | La Rochelle | Perpignan | Racing Metro | Toulon | Toulouse

Racing Metro thrashed leaders Toulouse 43-21 at the Stade de France to tighten the race to just one point at the summit of the Top 14 table. Fly-half Jonathan Wisniewski kicked 28 points for the hosts, including two drop goals, two conversions and six penalties, as Racing Metro bounced back from their narrow defeat to Biarritz two weeks ago.

Racing had opened up a 19-3 lead, thanks to Wisniewski's prolific boot and flanker Johnny Leo'o's try, by the time fullback Dan Scarborough was went to the sin bin. But despite the return of internationals Vincent Clerc, Yannick Jauzion and Thierry Dusautoir among others, Toulouse failed to break down the 14 men of Racing.

Federic Michalak did add two penalties to his earlier three-pointer during Scarborough's absence, and one before the break, but another penalty from Wisniewski meant Racing went in to half time in command. Winger Julien Saubade crossed after the restart for Racing Metro to extend the hosts' lead with Wisniewski converting and the fly-half slotted his second drop goal of the game in the 52nd minute.

Michalak kicked three second-half penalties as Toulouse attempted to chip away at Racing's lead but Sebastian Chabal, who was widely ridiculed for his below-par performances in the Six Nations, barged over to maintain Racing's healthy advantage before Wisniewski kicked his final penalty.

Perpignan boosted their play-off hopes with a commanding 34-16 victory over La Rochelle at the Stade Marcel Deflandre on Saturday afternoon. The game was arguably over by the end of the first quarter, with Perpignan stunning their hosts with a brace of tries from centre Rudi Coetzee and one from winger Julien Candelon. The boot of Benjamin Dambielle kept La Rochelle in touch but they still trailed by 20 points at the break on the back of a fourth first-half try from the visitors, this time from hooker Guilhem Guirado, on 34 minutes.

The Catalans, somewhat unsurprisingly, eased off after the re-start but they still managed a fifth try through Adrien Plante before No.8 Thomas Soucaze crossed for a consolation score for La Rochelle in the dying minutes.

Perpignan are now level on points with the team which defeated them in last year's play-off decider, Clermont Auvergne, who slumped to a 26-17 defeat at Agen. Clermont had hit the ground running at the Stade Armandie, with France scrum-half Morgan Parra scampering away to score with less than two minutes on the clock. However, Agen's response was both swift and impressive, with blindside flanker Jean Monribot and No.8 Opeti Fonua both crossing before the end of the first quarter. Fly-half Conrad Barnard converted both and also kicked a couple of penalties as Agen reached the interval 20-10 to the good, with Parra also having nailed a three-pointer for the visitors.

Barnard then extended Agen's lead with a brace of penalties in the third quarter and although centre George Pisi dived over on 64 minutes to lift Clermont, the visitors never looked remotely capable of turning the game around in the time remaining.

Biarritz moved into fourth, ahead of Clermont, after thrashing Bayonne 40-10 at the Stade d'Anoeta. Bolsted by the return of French internationals Dimitri Yachvili, Imanol Harinordoquy and Damien Traille, Biarritz raced into 20-3 lead after just 17 minutes. Centre Marcelo Bosch opened the scoring with a try in the first minute, which was converted by Yachvili, before fly-half Julien Peyrelongue crossed and Yachvili again converted. Traille landed a drop-goal while Benjamin Boyet got Bayonne on the scoreboard with a penalty.

Ross Filipo's converted try reduced the deficit for the visitors but tries from Harinordoquy and winger Taku Ngwenya meant Biarritz went into the break 34-10 to the good. Despite the sin-binning of Bayonne replacement Dwayne Haare, Biarritz did not breach the visitors' defences in an uneventful second half. Though Yachvili did land a further two penalites.

Castres kept the pressure on the Top 14 leaders with an 18-12 victory over Toulon at the Stade Pierre Antoine on Friday night. Six penalties from the boot of fullback Romain Teulet propelled the hosts to their fourth victory in a row that lifts them above Racing Metro and into second place in the table. Four penalties in the opening quarter of an hour put Castres on course for victory and Toulon's hopes were dealt a further blow midway through the half with lock Kris Chesney shown a yellow card before Teulet extended his side's advantage.

England international Jonny Wilkinson kept the visitors in the contest with two penalties of his own before the break but they were chasing the game once again following Teulet's sixth penalty early in the second half. Wilkinson's third penalty offered Toulon hope but they were unable to conjure a late turnaround with a further penalty only enough for a losing bonus point.

Elsewhere, Brive heaped further woe on beleagured Bourgoin by routing the league's basement boys 50-6 at the Stade Amedee-Domenech. Bourgoin actually opened the scoring courtesy of a fourth-minute penalty from winger Gaetan Germain. However, Brive quickly asserted their supremacy, engineering tries for centre Fabrice Estebanez and Julien Caminati inside the half hour. Scrum-half Mathieu Belie added the extras on both occasions and also slotted over a penalty on 34 minutes as Brive coasted into a 17-3 advantage.

Three points from the boot of Germain in the early stages of the second half doubled Bourgoin's tally but Brive then ran riot, with Guillaume Namy, Retief Uys, Caminati again, Agustin Figuerola and Alexis Palisson all crossing during an unrelenting assault on the visitors' try-line.

In the weekend's final game, Montpellier maintained their push for the play-offs with a 29-23 victory over Stade Francais at the Stade Yves du Manoir. A try from flanker James Haskell helped Stade into a 14-9 lead at the break but a penalty try and another score from prop Giorgi Jgenti saw the game swing in the hosts' favour. Montpellier winger Martin Bustos Moyana finished the game with 16 points to propel his side up to fifth in the table.