Toulon centre Sonny Bill Williams snipes at the Castres defence © Getty Images

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Tournaments/Tours: French Top 14

Teams: Albi | Bayonne | Biarritz | Bourgoin-Jallieu | Brive | Castres | Clermont Auvergne | France | Montauban | Montpellier | Perpignan | Racing Metro | Stade Français | Toulon | Toulouse

Toulon took a bite out of Top 14 leaders Castres' hopes of a top two finish with a convincing 19-6 victory at the Stade Mayol on Friday night.

Argentina fly-half Felipe Contepomi started an excellent game with two penalties inside the opening 15 minutes. Mafileo Kefu bagged the opening try to the delight of the home faithful, raucous as ever, and Toulon's dominance continued with Contepomi's third penalty.

Cameron McIntyre got Castres on the board with a penalty just before the end of the opening period but Toulon attacked after the restart with renewed vigour. Soft hands from Contepomi released the bullish Christian Loamanu on a run to the line and when the giant wing was stopped inches short his fly-half was on hand to pick up and swivel across for the killer blow.

There was similar bad news for Castres' main rivals Clermont Auvergne, who failed to recover from an early setback and slumped to a 22-13 away loss to relegation-threatened Bayonne a week after defeating reigning champions Perpignan.

Home wing Sam Gerber breached the Clermont defence with only a minute on the clock for the opening try, with Spanish international scrum-half Cedric Garcia clipping over the conversion as part of an immaculate 17-point haul, including a pair of drop-goals.

Anthony Floch, dropped to the bench behind the returning Benoit Baby at fullback, provided Les Jaunards' response with a 68th minute try, but it was too little too late as Garcia slotted a last-gasp penalty to make the points safe.

Perpignan crept ahead of Clermont into second spot thanks to a hard-fought 19-14 win over Biarritz at the Stade Aime Giral.

Jean-Philippe Grandclaude rounded off Perpignan's first try after 10 minutes, ramming home their advantage following a number of surges at the Biarritz line. The centre was on hand to scoot over after exploiting a blindside gap created by a deft offload.

Biarritz's response was swift and emphatic. Some fabulous handling in midfield by Damien Traille unlocked the Perpignan defence and former England wing Iain Balshaw crashed over for a try of rare pace and precision. The home side lost scrum-half Nicolas Durand to the sin-bin for the opening 10 minutes of the second-half but emerged from their time with 14 men unscathed, fly-half Nicolas Laharrague pushing their lead out to eight with two quick-fire penalties.

Biarritz refused to go away though, Valentin Courrent knocking over two penalties to make it a two-point game heading into the last 10 minutes. Perpignan's enviable power at the scrum proved the decisive factor, winning a penalty for Laharrague to seal the points.

Having been thumped by Toulouse last weekend at the Stade de France, Stade Francais continued their miserable league form by slipping to a 26-14 defeat against struggling Brive at the Stade Amedee Domenech.

Fly-half Fabrice Estebanez was Stade's chief tormentor, racking up 16 points with the boot to help Brive overhaul their visitors in the table. Former France fullback Nicolas Jeanjean scored the opening try after 15 minutes and Stade were only able to muster two Lionel Beauxis penalties in response before the interval. Brive pulled further ahead after being awarded a penalty try before Stade replacement Laurent Sempere's try briefly threatened a nervy conclusion.

In stark contrast, Toulouse moved level on points with Clermont after sweeping Montpellier aside 34-3 at the Stade Ernest Wallon.

The home side bounded into an exuberant 34-0 half-time lead to keep alive their momentum heading into the play-offs. David Skrela opened the scoring from the kicking tee after five minutes and was soon converting Yann David's early try.

Any hopes that the visitors had of clawing their way back into the game were blown away by a burst of four tries in 14 minutes. Hooker Virgile Lacombe and flanker Jean Bouilhou powered over before the wide men joined the party. French international Cedric Heymans added his named to the scoresheet and Vincent Clerc, just returned from injury, pounced just after the half hour mark. The only score of the second-half came from the boot of Montpellier's replacement fly-half Cesar Sempere, but in truth the home side were celebrating a job well done long before the final whistle.

Montauban secured a vital 45-31 victory over Racing Metro in their fight against relegation on Saturday.

Fly-half Cedric Rosalen was supreme and collected a 30-point haul from three penalties, two drop-goals and conversions to tries from centre Rida Jahouer, his midfield partner Jean-Philippe Viard and replacement scrum-half Julien Larroque.

Racing, who remain four points clear of Brive in the race for a top-six spot, mustered tries of their own through prolific wing Sireli Bobo, a penalty try and Julien Saubade. The visitors briefly threatened to overrun their hosts for a time following the sin-binning of lock Abdellatif Boutaty but were stung by Viard's score. Former All Black fly-half Andrew Mehrtens pocketed 16 points but was unable to exert control against the fired-up home side.

Bourgoin scored a vital 17-7 victory over basement side Albi at the Stade Municipal, a huge result given Bayonne's surprise victory.

Scrum-half John Senio settled the nerves for the away side with an early try but the game's pivotal moment arrived just before the break. Prop Pierre Correia saw yellow as the visitors piled on the pressure, the referee eventually awarding a penalty try to provide a comfortable 14-point cushion for Bourgoin.

Alberto di Bernardo extended the lead with a penalty shortly after the break but the home side hit back with a try from wing Pierre-Gilles Lakafia. Scrum-half Kevin Boulogne's conversion proved to be the final score, leaving Albi 17 points adrift at the bottom.