Top 14: Toulon back at the summit

Reigning European and French champions Toulon, with a batch of internationals away on Six Nations duty, regained the Top 14 summit on Saturday with a 22-14 win at strugglers Lyon.

Clermont had taken temporary control at the top of the table in France on the strength of a 31-23 win over Bordeaux-Begles 24 hours earlier.

First half tries from David Smith, Delon Armitage and Drew Mitchell, with Argentine flyhalf Nicolas Sanchez contributing two conversions and a penalty, proved Lyon's undoing.

This was the fourth straight win on the road for Bernard Laporte's team but it started badly when their hosts took an early lead through South Africa scrumhalf Ricky Januarie's six minute try, with Stephen Brett adding three second-half penalties.

Toulon's players wore black armbands and there was a minute's applause before kick-off in honour of French Olympic swimmer Camille Muffat, one of the 10 victims of this week's helicopter crash in Argentina who was born in Nice.

Earlier, an opportunistic brace of tries from veteran France wing Vincent Clerc helped Toulouse to an 18-13 victory over Montpellier.

With just six matches remaining to cement a place in the top six teams who advance to play-offs, every match has become a must-win in the highly competitive French league with but a few points separating five teams in mid-table.

The victory moved Toulouse up into fifth spot on 49 points, while Montpellier came away with a bonus defensive point.

It was the fourth time this season these two teams had met, having been drawn together in the same European Champions Cup pool, and Toulouse's win drew it level at 2-all.

Montpellier, with Francois Trinh-Duc making his return as a replacement after a five-month injury lay-off, took an early lead through Benoit Paillaugue and Ben Lucas penalties, Luke McAlister hitting back with two of his own just before half-time.

But it was Toulouse replacement Vincent Clerc who proved the difference.

First Montpellier wing Rene Ranger, who will return to the Blues in a bid to get back into the All Blacks squad, made a hash of clearing a kick, the ball bobbling away over the line and out of the Kiwi's reach but into Clerc's.

Ranger's nightmare continued just minutes later when he fumbled a McAlister up-and-under behind the tryline, Clerc again on hand to pounce on the loose ball, McAlister kicking the extras.

Ranger went some way to regaining his game-breaking kudos with a fine break and one-handed offload to Fijian full-back Timoci Nagusa for the try, converted by Lucas to make for a nerve-racking final 10 minutes.

Grenoble moved into the sixth spot with an emphatic 30-21 win away at third-placed Stade Francais as just nine points separated eight clubs from Toulouse in fifth to La Rochelle in 12th.

Oyonnax's hopes were hit with a 35-20 defeat by La Rochelle while Brive moved out of the relegation zone with a stunning 36-12 victory over fourth-placed Racing-Metro.

Bottom-placed Castres suffered a 19-21 defeat by Bayonne thanks to an injury-time 45-metre penalty by Argentine Martin Bustos Moyano.

Top 14 results:

Bayonne 21 Castres 19

Brive 36 Racing-Metro 12

La Rochelle 35 Oyonnax 20

Stade Francais 21 Grenoble 30

Toulouse 18 Montpellier 13

Lyon 14 Toulon 22

Clermont 31 Bordeaux-Begles 23

Top 14 table (played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, total points):

Toulon          20 13 0  7 550 375 9 61

Clermont        20 13 1  6 496 329 7 61

Stade Francais  20 12 0  8 457 443 7 55

Racing Metro    20 11 1  8 409 390 5 51

Toulouse        20 11 0  9 397 378 5 49

Grenoble        20 10 0 10 484 565 7 47

Bordeaux        20  9 0 11 537 446 9 45

Oyonnax         20 10 0 10 390 396 5 45

Montpellier     20  9 1 10 387 380 5 43

Bayonne         20  8 1 11 376 400 7 41

Brive           20  9 0 11 404 466 4 40

La Rochelle     20  8 2 10 401 511 4 40

Lyon            20  7 0 13 355 458 6 34

Castres         20  7 0 13 377 483 6 34

Agence France-Presse