Leaders Stade Toulousain bounced back from last weekend’s Heineken Cup defeat at Wasps with a resounding 29-9 home win against Montpellier on Thursday as they opened up a seven-point gap in Top 14.

Guy Noves’ outfit ran in four tries, with free-scoring Maxime Médard getting yet another double as he registered his 12^th and 13^th league tries of a prolific season. Former Saracens prop Census Johnston also grabbed a brace (after coming on as a second-half substitute), while fly-half David Skrela chipped in with nine points.

Top 14 League Table

The reigning Heineken Cup champions then rounded off the week by announcing several key contract extensions, with club captain Thierry Dusautoir, Argentine lock Patricio Albacete and France flanker Yannick Nyanga all agreeing new four-year deals, while Johnston signed on for three more years. The club say they expect Frédéric Michalak to follow suit next week, but two players who will definitely be leaving Toulouse in the summer are former All Blacks scrum-half Byron Kelleher, and fly-half Skrela. Kelleher, 34, has not had his contract renewed and is being tipped to sign with Bayonne, while former Stade Francais fly-half Skrela, 31, has confirmed that he has agreed a three-year deal with Clermont Auvergne.

Skrela will move on after failing to agree terms with Toulouse over a new deal – he claimed negotiations “dragged” - paving the way for Stade Francais’ Lionel Beauxis to be signed as his replacement. That in turn appears to clear the Stade Francais decks in preparation for Toulon’s Felipe Contepomi to rejoin former club coach Michael Cheika. And all this in the week when Perpignan also announced that yet another international fly-half, this time Wales’ James Hook, will be joining them for at least the next three seasons.

Wednesday 26 January 2011
Clermont Auvergne	31	Racing-Metro 92	15
Thursday 27 January 2011
Biarritz	23	Perpignan	21
Brive	18	Bayonne	26
Toulon	12	La Rochelle	9
Castres	34	Stade Francais	12
Stade Toulousain	29	Montpellier	9
SU Agen	26	Bourgoin	9

His arrival can’t come soon enough judging by the Catalans’ continuing league struggles, with Thursday’s 23-21 defeat at Biarritz their seventh in Top 14 this season. Their latest loss was all the more galling as Perpignan had been leading 21-0 after just 24 minutes thanks to a penalty try and two further scores from Maxime Mermoz and Joffrey Michel. All three tries were scored while Biarritz were temporarily down to 14 men following Sylvain Marconnet’s early yellow card, but the Basques gradually hauled themselves back into contention once Benoit Guyot went over in the 34^th minute.

Scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili kicked the conversion and a subsequent penalty to leave them 10-21 down at the break, with number eight Raphael Lakafia touching down on 57 minutes to set up a dramatic finale. Yachvili’s conversion narrowed the gap to four points, with the French international then kicking two further penalties in the closing stages to complete Biarritz’s remarkable comeback.

The win kept Biarritz fourth, but just one point now separates them from the two teams directly above them – Clermont Auvergne and Racing-Metro 92. The latter had gone into Round 17 five points ahead of Clermont, but the defending French champions beat them 31-15 on Wednesday night to maintain their upward momentum.

Morgan Parra kick-started their victory with two early penalties, before Italian centre Gonzalo Canale touched down on 27 minutes. Racing replied with penalties from Frans Steyn and Mirco Bergamasco, with Juan-Martin Hernandez adding a drop-goal just before the break to leave it 11-9 to Clermont at half time.

Hernandez then landed a second drop-goal shortly after the restart as Racing briefly claimed the lead, but Clermont bounced back with tries from replacement prop Vincent Debaty and France flanker Alexandre Lapandry to seal an impressive bonus-point win.

Toulon were also victorious, but only just as they came back from 0-9 down at half time at home to lowly La Rochelle. Contepomi was their starting fly-half in the absence of Jonny Wilkinson – away at England’s Portuguese training camp – but the Argentine was forced off after just 13 minutes with a back problem. Former England international Tom May replaced Contepomi, but Toulon also lost scrum-half Pierre Mignoni to injury, and then his replacement Matt Henjak too. All that combined to force Australian flanker George Smith into the role of emergency scrum-half, but the ex-Wallaby proved his versatility by helping set up two second-half tries for the hosts as Saimone Taumopeau and Fotu Auelua both crossed, with May kicking one of his two conversion attempts.

Leading try and point-scorers in Top 14

Stade Francais, meanwhile, continued with their erratic form as they followed up their recent home win against Stade Toulousain with a crushing 34-12 defeat at Castres. Beauxis kicked all of Stade’s points with four successful penalties, but the Toulouse-bound fly-half was also yellow-carded in the second period as Castres took control. Winger Marc Andreu touched down just before the hour mark, adding to Yannick Forrestier’s earlier effort, before full-back Romain Teulet crossed two minutes from time to seal the attacking bonus. Teulet also contributed 19 points with the boot, taking him past Wilkinson to be Top 14’s leading scorer with 214 so far this season.

Down at the other end of the table it was a bad week for Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finalists Brive as they slipped back into the relegation zone following their 26-18 home defeat by Bayonne – who have now confirmed that Remy Martin will be joining Montpellier next season.

The match was evenly poised 6-6 at half time but a 39^th-minute yellow card for Brive skipper Antonie Claassen proved disastrous for the hosts as they went on to concede three tries during his absence at the start of the second period.

France winger Yoann Huget was first over for Bayonne, with scrum-half Cedric Garcia and Moroccan Abdelatif Boutaty also crossing as Brive capitulated. Davit Khinchagishili and Julien Caminati both scored late on for Brive, but the damage had already been done by then as the Limousin club suffered their fourth home defeat of the season.

Their misery was then compounded by SU Agen’s 26-9 home win against hapless Bourgoin, a result which lifted Agen out of the relegation zone at Brive’s expense. Former Toulon fly-half Conrad Barnard was Agen’s star performer as he contributed 21 of their 26 points via a try, two conversions and four penalties. Argentine centre Miguel Avramovic grabbed Agen’s other try, while Bourgoin were restricted to a trio of Sylver Tian penalties as they slumped to their 15^th defeat in 17 games. They are now 21 points adrift of 13^th-placed Brive and have already conceded they will be playing in ProD2 next season.

The battle to see who will join them remains a three-way affair, with just two points now separating Brive (26 pts), La Rochelle (27) and SU Agen (28).

Top 14 now takes a two-week break with Round 18 scheduled for the 11/12 of February.