Top 14 - Round 6 Review:  Stade win again, Toulouse make their move

The Top 14 table had a familiar look to it after the weekend games with Stade Francais (see report) clear at the top with defending champions Toulouse emerging from the chasing pack to jump into third sport after their 30-20 home win over Perpignan at the Ernest-Wallon Stadium.

Guy Noves' team showed signs of finding their feet during last week's resounding 41-10 win at Montauban but USAP were always likely to provide sterner opposition, and so it proved.

The Catalans, who arrived buoyed by an away victory at Montpellier, stunned the home crowd when they took an early lead thanks to Julien Candelon's 13th-minute try, but Top 14 Player of the Year Byron Kelleher crossed on the half-hour after good work by Fabien Pelous and Jean Bouilhou.

David Skrela's conversion took the champions into a 13-8 lead but number eight Henry Tuilagi leveled the scores at half-time after he was well set up by Nicolas Durand.
But that was as good as it got for USAP - who couldn't yet call on new signing Dan Carter as he was busy doing PR stuff in London - and the home side upped the ante after the break with Yannick Jauzion crossing in the 46th minute before Skrela added the conversion and a later drop-goal to stretch the lead.

Sebastien Chobet (USAP) and Pelous (Toulouse) both received yellow cards in the 65th minute before Cedric Heymans then put the game out of reach when he touched down for Toulouse with 10 minutes to go, after yet another Kelleher break from a five-metre scrum. Skrela added the extra two points, to take his personal tally to 15, before a late try for Gerrie Britz reduced the final deficit back down to 10 points.

The result lifted Toulouse into third position, just a point behind Bayonne who won 19-15 at home to Toulon.

Bayonne scrum-half Cedric Garcia scored the game's only try early in the second half as the Basque side maintained their excellent start to the season, with Ausssie Manny Edmonds adding four penalties and a conversion to ensure the win. Damien Vidal scored 12 of Toulon's points with two drop-goals and a brace of penalties, but the defeat saw them drop to eighth despite the defensive bonus point.

Clermont were another team on the move, rising to sixth after they outclassed Biarritz 32-6 thanks to a rampaging first-half that saw tries for Julien Malzieu, Marius Joubert, Anthony Floch and Fijian Napolioni Nalaga as they raced into a 26-3 lead by the interval. Australian Brock James added 12 points from the boot to complete the rout as Clermont finally rediscovered their free-scoring form of last season.

Just below Clermont are Montauban, who won the weekend's tightest game when Castres full-back Anthony Lagardere (who had been successful with five out of five kicks up that point) missed a final-minute conversion at the Stade Sapiac to hand the home side a 24-23 win.
Vilimoni Delasau and Shannon Paku scored Montauban's tries, with Leiataua Tomiki scoring in the dying seconds for Castres to set up their possible win. But it wasn't to be, leaving them with just a defensive point as they slipped to 13th.

Elsewhere, Brive lifted themselves off the foot of the table (to 12th) when they crushed Dax 41-9 to finally register their first win of the season.

Former Leicester fly-half Andy Goode slotted four penalties in the opening quarter to settle nerves (en route to a match haul of 19 points) and fellow England international Steve Thompson also got on the scoresheet with a late try. In between there were also tries for full-back Alexis Pallison and Argentineans Pablo Henn and Horacio Agulla.

That result left Mont-de-Marsan at the basement after they lost 16-22 at home to fourth-placed Montpellier. The visitors scored all their points in the first half thanks to tries from Johan Wasserman, Olivier Sarramea and Sylvain Mirande.

Baptiste Chedal scored for Les Montois but a 50m drop-goal by Francois Trinh-Duc confirmed Les Heraultais' superiority despite three second-half penalties from the boot of fly-half Benat Arrayet.