Perpignan 21 (9)
Stade Toulousain 13 (13)
Stade de la Mosson, Montpellier

Defending champions Perpignan beat Stade Toulousain 21-13 in Montpellier on Friday night to end the Heineken Cup finalists' dream of a European and domestic double.

Jérôme Porical was the Catalans' hero, kicking seven of his eight penalty attempts as Perpignan used their forward domination to clinical effect.

They will now go on to defend their title - their first for 54 years - against the winners of Saturday's clash between Clermont Auvergne and Toulon.

It was a predictably tight affair, with Toulouse scoring the only try of the game, but the Catalans took increasing control of the match as it wore on, winning both the physical and psychological battles.

Earlier, Stade Toulousain had got off to the perfect start when 20-year-old scrum-half Nicolas Bezy - starting only his second game of the season in place of the rested Byron Kelleher - went over for an eighth-minute try.

The Toulousain youngster rounded off a sweeping counter-attack initiated by Finau Maka after Maxime Mermoz had lost the ball. Yannick Jauzion, Florian Fritz and David Skrela all played their part before Bezy went through to touch down under the posts, with Skrela adding the conversion to make it 7-0.

The frenetic pace of the match continued unabated, with both sides making unforced errors, but the Catalans gradually ground their way back into the match, primarily through power domination in the scrum.

Two Porical penalties brought it back to 6-7 after 18 minutes, before Skrela's reply a minute later left it 6-10 to Stade. Porical and Skrela then traded one more penalty apiece before the interval, with Toulouse going close to adding a second try when Jauzion was narrowly beaten to an awkward up and under by Perpignan scrum-half Nicolas Durand.

Toulouse coach brought on Lecouls and Poux at the interval in an attempt to bolster their scrum, with William Servat and Romain Millo-Chluski joining soon after. But Perpignan continued to enjoy dominance at the set piece despite the changes and Porical landed a trio of penalties in the 42nd, 52nd and 63rd minutes - two of them from more than 50m - as the defending champions played with tactical nous.

Noves threw on France captain Thierry Dusautoir and number eight Louis Picamoles in an effort to inject pace and power for the closing 20 minutes, but Perpignan had a virtual stranglehold on possession by now, and were even stealing lineouts against the 17-time champions.

Porical did eventually miss a kick when yet another 50m effort faded wide with eight minutes left, but by then Toulouse were coming up short of replies to the Catalans' increasing confidence.

The south-west giants threw everything they had at Perpignan in the dying stages but it was Porical, who else, who had the final say when he slotted his seventh success of the evening to make it 21-up for the full-back. The Catalans will now go on to the Stade de France in a fortnight's time to defend their title, while Toulouse will have to pick themselves up ahead of Saturday's Heineken Cup final against Biarritz.