Toulon knock Jake's Montpellier down
They snatched second spot in the table in a dramatic finish to the Top 14 regular season on Sunday.
A comprehensive bonus-point 44-3 win for Bernard Laporte's side against Bordeaux-Begles combined with a 25-40 loss for Montpellier - who had started the weekend in second spot - away to Racing 92 was enough for Toulon.
Their win, which featured six tries including two from Josua Tuisova and one each by Jonathan Pelissie, Steffon Armitage, Jean-Charles Orioli and James O'Connor, allowed Toulon to finish second behind table-toppers Clermont.
It was the perfect send-off for charismatic Toulon manager Laporte in what is expected to have been his last match in charge at their Stade Mayol.
Meanwhile, the defeat for Bordeaux, who had Metuisela Talebula red-carded after just 20 minutes, ended their play-off hopes.
Leaders Clermont thumped La Rochelle 57-8 and both they and Toulon now advance directly to the semifinals in Rennes in two weeks time.
European Challenge Cup winners Montpellier, meanwhile, finish third and will face Castres in the play-offs next Sunday, with the winner of that going on to a semifinal against Toulon.
Racing and Toulouse will also face one another in the play-offs for the right to take on Clermont in the last four.
Jake White's Montpellier were looking to avoid defeat away in Paris and secure a direct pass to the semifinals, but they will now have to go again next weekend after a brace of tries from Juan Imhoff and two further efforts from Joe Rokocoko and Bernard Le Roux made the difference for the home side.
Maxime Machenaud added three penalties and three conversions, while Johan Goosen kicked the remaining points, with Akapusi Qera, Pierre Spies and Nicolas Mas crossing for the visitors, ultimately in vain.
Toulouse finished the regular season with a convincing 53-14 victory at Grenoble, their sixth straight win, that included eight tries, two of them from Gillian Galan.
Castres secured the final play-off spot by beating outgoing champions Stade Francais 35-14 as Rory Kockott scored two tries while also impressing with the boot.
At Clermont, three of the home side's nine tries against La Rochelle came from David Strettle as they recorded a big victory on Australian fly-half Brock James' final appearance for the club at their Stade Marcel-Michelin.
James will leave the club in the summer after 10 years of his service, with La Rochelle to be his next destination.
In other games, Brive defeated Pau 46-10 and Agen beat Oyonnax 23-19 in a meeting of the two relegated sides.
Results:
Agen 23 Oyonnax 19
Brive 46 Pau 10
Castres 35 Stade Francais 14
Clermont 57 La Rochelle 8
Grenoble 14 Toulouse 53
Racing 40 Montpellier 25
Toulon 44 Bordeaux-Begles 3
Top 14 table (played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, total points):
Clermont 26 18 1 7 735 431 14 88 - qualified for play-offs
Toulon 26 16 0 10 764 446 18 82 - qualified for play-offs
Montpellier 26 18 0 8 723 569 9 81 - qualified for play-offs
Racing 92 26 18 1 7 614 522 7 81 - qualified for play-offs
Toulouse 26 16 2 8 680 393 11 79 - qualified for play-offs
Castres 26 15 0 11 650 496 11 71 - qualified for play-offs
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Bordeaux 26 14 2 10 552 503 7 67
Brive 26 13 1 12 540 545 8 62
La Rochelle 26 11 0 15 553 656 10 54
Grenoble 26 10 0 16 605 779 7 47
Pau 26 10 1 15 420 675 4 46
Stade Francais 26 9 0 17 543 631 5 41
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Agen 26 5 0 21 531 846 6 26 - relegated
Oyonnax 26 5 0 21 429 847 4 24 - relegated
Agence France-Presse