Perpignan went back to the top of the Top 14 with a 44-23 victory over an increasingly hapless Stade Francais. The Parisians took an early lead through two Lionel Beauxis kicks and saw Marc Gasnier come close to scoring in the 10th minute, but the Catalans responded with four first-half tries, Jerome Porical running in the first on 17 minutes and Gerie Britz benefiting from USAP's forward dominance to add the second five minutes later.
With five minutes to go before the interval, Britz and Farid Sid completed a neat touchline one-two to send the veteran winger over, and a minute before the break Marty scored a superb solo try, skipping through the weak Stade defence to score his third try of the season from 30 metres.
Two minutes into the second half Porical bagged his second try, Maxime Mermoz splitting the defence with a flat pass to the full back. He added another penalty to make it 34-9 on 54 minutes, before a brief Paris comeback saw Mirco Bergamasco nip in from the back of a scrum with a clever training-ground move.
It was USAP's day though, and Romanian booker Marius Tincu scored Perpignan's sixth, setting up an attack with a bullocking drive before popping up on the wing to take Nicolas Durand's long pass to score.
Replacement scrum-half Durand closed the Catalan account, diving over from a metre to claim the seventh try nine minutes from time, and although James Haskell rounded off a Gasnier break with a neat chip-and-catch of his own in the final minutes (watch the video below), Stade's hopes of a play-off place effectively evaporated at Aimé-Giral. USAP, meanwhile, can still dream of back-to-back titles.
Biarritz remain in the hunt for sixth place after a 26-10 victory over Toulouse. It really was a game of two halves at San Sebastian's Estadio Anoeta, the teams turning round at 12-10 to the hosts before Biarritz ran out winners in a one-side second-half.
Dimitri Yachvili kicked two early penalties to one from David Skrela, but Toulouse scored the first try of the afternoon, Maxime Medard racing round the touchline after a typically Toulousain backs move instigated by Byron Kelleher. Skrela converted, but Basque pressure forced Vincent Clerc and then Cedric Heymans to give away penalties in the dying seconds of the first half. Yachvili converted both to give the hosts that half-time lead.
Yachvili added a fifth penalty after the break to make it 15-10, and although Biarritz couldn't capitalise on the extra man when Louis Picamoles was sin-binned for handling the ball in a ruck - Yachvili missed three penalty attempts in his absence - the scrum-half made it 18-10 with a 40-metre kick on the hour.
Traille added three points with a 35-metre drop goal, and the centre had the last word, Biarritz topping off the victory with a last-minute try. As Toulouse attempted to run the ball out of their own 22, centre Yann Fior intercepted a pass, fed Takudzwa Ngwenya who passed to Philippe Bidabé, leaving Traille to take the try-scoring pass and round off a successful trip over the border.
Toulouse, meanwhile, are in for a battle to avoid the 3-6 place play-offs, and will have to do it without Yves Donguy, who suffered a cruciate ligament injury in the last minute of the game.
Biarritz's visit to Stade Colombes on April 17 looks likely to decide who gets that sixth place. Racing-Metro won't expect to get much change from their trip to Toulouse on Friday, so they'll be delighted to have picked up four points from their 25-18 victory over Brive.
It was another tight first half, Francois Steyn kicking two early penalties before Brive's Fabrice Estebanez pulled three points back. Steyn stole a drop goal on 30 minutes, but Brive lock Retief Uys closed the gap to a point, charging through the Racing defence from a five-metre penalty to score the opening try of the match.
Andrew Mehrtens kicked a penalty before the break for a 12-8 lead, and the hosts wasted no time aftger the break, Sebastien Chabal pouncing quickest when Alexis Palisson spent too long over a clearance kick and was charged down by Santiago Dellape.
Another Mehrtens penalty made it 20-8, before Sireli Bobo appeared to put the nail in the Briviste coffin with a superb team try try on the hour. Chabal took the ball on and it went through almost ever pair of Parisian hands before Bobo touched down.
Palisson made some amends for his earlier error by setting up Jamie Noon for a consolation try which the full-back converted, and was on hand to claim a bonus point three minutes from time with a late penalty.
Toulon's 13-9 win at Bourgoin on Friday night lifted them briefly to the top of the table. Felipe Contepomi, who appears to have bumped Jonny Wilkinson out of the starting line-up after some inspired performances during the English star's absence, turned the course of the match with his 22nd minute try.
Benjamin Boyet had put the hosts 6-0 up with two penalties, but a charge by fellow Argentine Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe carried the ball into the Bourgoin 22, scrum-half Fabien Cibre spun it wide and lock Jose Suta slipped a pass to the outside-half, who shook off two tackles to score under the posts.
Boyet pulled Bourgoin back into the lead with a third penalty, but two Contepomi penalties earned a valuable four points for Toulon, who remain the form team of 2010 having won their last six games and picked up 25 of a possible 35 points since the New Year.
Albi are already relegated, but still have some say in who goes down with them as they face Montauban and Montpellier in successive weeks. This weekend it was Montauban's turn to visit Stade Municipal, and they came away 26-12 winners to climb to 11th.
After romping to a 26-0 lead shortly after half-time, the Sapiac crew will be disappointed not to come away with a bonus point. Brice Mach was gifted the first try after 10 minutes, Albi fly-half Frederic Manca kicking a drop out straight into the hooker's arms and Mach evading two tackles to score under the posts.
They were unlucky not to extend their lead when full back Johan Dalla Riva dropped the ball ask he crossed the try line, but winger Adrien Figueiredo eventually scored the second five mintues into the second half, intercepting a fumble from opposite number Pierre-Gilles Lakafia to race 60 metres to score and make it 26-0.
This was Albi's first match for 11 years without coach Eric Bechu, but interim boss Jean-Christophe Bacca obviously earned his crust after half time as first flanker Vincent Clement barged over from a scrum five and then Lakafia made amends, chasing up a long clearance kick from scrum-half Sebastien Pages only to see Dalla Riva fail to gather the ball and slip it into the winger's hands for an easy run-in.
The lost bonus point may haunt Montauban, whose main concerns will now be off the pitch as the league's financial watchdogs the DNACG are closing in on the club's €1.7m budget deficit.
They sit two points above Bayonne, who lost 26-10 to Friday morning leaders Castres. The teams turned round 10-all after a tight first half that saw Cedric Garcia open the scoring for the visitors before hooker Mathieu Bonello gave Castres the lead with a burst from the back of a ruck.
Cameron McIntyre extended the lead with a 30-metre drop goal, but lock Nicolas Laffite tied the scores when his pack shoved him over five minutes before half time.
Romain Teulet restored Castres' lead after the break with a penalty, but Samoan flanker Iosefa Tekori made the break just a minutes after coming on, Marc Andreu bursting through the Bayonne defence and Tekori popping up on the inside to take the try-scoring pass.
Teulet kicked two more penalties to seal a comfortable win as Castres secured their place in the top six and next year's Heineken Cup.
The other Top vs Bottom tie was at Clermont, where les Jaunards handed Montpellier a second stuffing in two weeks. Clermont came away 41-3 winners, scoring six tries to retain third place in the table.
Centre Marius Joubert opened the scoring after 10 minutes, reaching to touchdown despite the best intentions of a Montpellier defender with a leg fetish. Brock James converted and Olivier Sarramea struck back for the visitors before Brock kicked a penalty to make it just 10-3 at half time.
The second half was all circulation sens-unique. First full back Anthony Floch raced over in the corner on 44 minutes, then on the hour prop Davit Zirakashvili barged over from a metre out.
The last 10 minutes turned a comfortable win into a rout. First James bagged a try of his own on after Seremaia Bai broke through the weak Montpellier line, then No.8 Elvis Vermeulen simply stepped over the tryline from the back of a ruck for Clermont's fourth.
In the last minute, replacement hooker Benoit Cabello stretched over on the touchline to complete the rout: it looked like he'd dropped the ball on the line, but it didn't effect the result as Clermont secured a play-off place and look a good bet to reach their fourth successive final.
27 March 2010: Toulon briefly go top but Castres, Clermont and Perpignan overhaul them to claim a top six place and Heineken Cup rugby next season