There may only be one match in Top 14 this weekend – due to the RBS Six Nations – but it is a game of huge significance as 13^th-placed Bourgoin play host to 12^th-placed Bayonne in what has effectively become a relegation showdown.

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The Stade Pierre Rajon will be sold out for the re-scheduled round 18 match – originally postponed on January 9^th due to snow – and with the two teams separated by a singular point it is a game neither side can afford to lose. There are just six league matches left after this encounter and a defeat could send either on their way to ProD2 come the summer.

Bourgoin (13th)

Bayonne (12th)

Visitors Bayonne arrive boosted by four wins in five games since Christian Gajan became their third head coach of the season, with last weekend’s 22-16 triumph at Montpellier enough to lift them (temporarily at least) above Bourgoin, and out of the dreaded drop zone. A second successive away win would hoist them further ahead (by at least five points), and Bayonne also have the knowledge that their next match is at home to basement boys SCA Albi.

So, confidence at the Basque club should be good after emerging successfully from a run of eight defeats in nine games, and the mood in the camp should be further bolstered by news that club captain Remy Martin is back after completing his 40-day suspension for raking Stade Toulousain’s Jean-Baptiste Elissalde.

Pepito Elhorga, 32, has been deputising as skipper while Martin was away and on Friday gave the club another fillip when he announced that he’d signed a two-year extension at the Basque club, where he now intends to end his professional career. Australian prop Rodney Blake is fit again and in the squad for Saturday’s evening clash, but Gajan will be without injured France winger Benjamin Fall as well as fellow internationals Craig Gower and Salvatore Perugini, who are both on Six Nations duty with Italy. Winger Jean-Baptiste Peyras is also out (with a thigh tear) along with second row Rob Linde (sprained knee).

Hosts Bourgoin go into the game against a continuing backdrop of financial insecurity and ruing their second-half collapse against Stade Francais last weekend as they let a 13-0 lead slip into a 16-22 defeat.

Another home loss here could have dire consequences for a club that is already set to loose the majority of its playing squad after an early-season pay-cut effectively nullified existing playing contracts.

Toulon have already snaffled hooker Jean-Philippe Genevois and prop Karena Wihongi for next season, and up to a dozen others are weighing up their options before re-signing with the Isere club. Club coaches Xavier Pemeja and Eric Catinot are also considering other offers – they have been courted by Montpellier – and all this cannot be good for focusing team morale.

Yet Bourgoin have defied the odds all season, right from the moment they were denied 12 player licences (on financial grounds) shortly before the opening game of the 2009/10 campaign. Since then they have battled their way through a possible merger, the threat of bankruptcy and widespread pessimism to emerge with an ACC quarter-final berth and the more cherished possibility of retaining their Top 14 status after such tumultuous off-field distractions.

The fact that the entire playing squad agreed a 17% pay cut to ensure the club’s future spoke volumes of Bourgoin’s defiant team spirit, but will alone – no matter how strong - can only take you so far. Like Bayonne they have a future date with bottom club Albi – although away from home – but with the likes of Toulon, Stade Toulousain and Brive also on their fixture list there is very little room left for manoeuvre.

Wihongi and lock Albin Louchard are both ruled out through injury, but Sylvain Nicolas (wanted by Stade Toulousain), Thomas Genevois and Tim Cowley are all available again. Fly-half Benjamin Boyet could also be pivotal to their prospects, with his booming boot likely to feature heavily in a match that could come down to the odd point.