Top 14 wrap: Round 18
Bye-bye Vincent: Toulouse lost both their game to Clermont and the services of Vincent Clerc
Clermont and Brive were the big winners of Round 18 as Perpignan and Biarritz each scored bonus point victories to intensify the race for the semi-finals.
Clermont are now the clear Championship leaders after beating Toulouse, to whom they had to play second fiddle for so long.
Brive leapfrogged Bourgoin and Bayonne to move into ninth spot and well clear of the relegation zone.
The big losers of the weekend are Dax and Montpellier who respectively did their hopes of avoiding relegation and making the Heineken Cup no good.
Results:
Bourgoin 12 - 14 Castres
Toulouse 11 - 23 Clermont
Perpignan 38 - 13 Bayonne
Brive 30 - 0 Dax
Albi 25 - 12 Montpellier
Biarritz 26 - 3 Auch
Stade Français 25-18 Montauban
Table after Round 18
1 Clermont 71
2 Toulouse 66
3 Stade Français 57
4 Perpignan 53
5 Biarritz 52
6 Castres 46
7 Montauban 41
8 Montpellier 38
9 Brive 36
10 Bourgoin 36
11 Bayonne 33
12 Albi 31
13 Dax 22
14 Auch 14
Castres fought back from 12-0 down at half-time to beat Bourgoin in a huge result for the visiting side.
The win away from home keeps Castres in touch with Biarritz and Perpignan but more significantly it puts Montauban and Montpellier well behind them in the race for a Heineken Cup spot.
The opposite is true of Bourgoin who desperately needed some points if they want to repeat last season's performance of winning a berth in Europe's biggest competition.
The results becomes even more significant when one considers that Bourgoin's home form has seen them beat both Toulouse and Biarritz at Pierre-Rajon this season.
The result on the scoreboard was always going to be academic since the game's participants are so far ahead of everyone else.
The only interest was to see who would lead the Championship into the final straight and Toulouse hoped the game would serve as a dress rehearsal for next Saturday's Heineken Cup semi-final against London Irish.
As it turns out, it could not have been a worse day for Toulouse. They didn't play badly, but a knee injury to Vincent Clerc ruined the day for Toulouse's fans and players alike.
One of France's best players, Clerc is expected to sidelined for nine months.
Perpignan 38 - 13 Bayonne
Perpignan couldn't have asked for more. A bonus point and a healthy win to maintain fourth spot and keep Biarritz at bay is just what the Catalan fans wanted to see.
Perpignan have now gone eight games undefeated.
In an impressive performance Perpignan were dominant in every domain and were rewarded by outscoring their Basque visitors six tries to two.
A try each for Nicolas Durand, David Marty and Ovidiu Tonita within the half an hour mark put the home side comfortably out in front.
Outmuscled and outclassed Bayonne were victims of their indiscipline and missed far too many tackles to have had any hope of being competitive. Their run a bad results continues unabated.
Brive 30 - 0 Dax
By hammering Dax, Brive have almost certainly assured themselves of a place in the Top 14 next season. They also did Albi a favour in the relegation battle as Dax will now struggle to avoid going down.
The result had less to do with Brive playing well than with Dax simply committing more errors than their hosts.
It was a festival of knock-ons and Brive would have been happy to have sharp shooting Maxime Petitjean on their side.
The Brive scrum-half produced a faultless place-kicking display to put his side up 15-0 at half-time.
The teams swapped sides but the Dax errors kept coming and Petitjean kept slotting his kicks. Two tries for the Brive forwards in the closing stages rubbed salt in the wounds of a demoralised Dax side.
Albi 25 - 12 Montpellier
Montpellier's roller coaster was obviously at the top of a loop-d-loop the last time we checked-in because it came crashing down against Albi.
François Trinh-Duc was back at fly-half for the visitors but despite some good passages of play, Montpellier were unable to convert their numerous attacks into killer blows.
Supported by a very vocal home crowd, Albi courageously soaked up the pressure from Montpellier and struck back with two tries in the first-half from Daniel Farani and Régis Bianco to which the visitors could only reply with penalties from Trinh-Duc's increasingly consistent boot.
20-12 down at half-time, Montpellier were unable to crack the excellent and highly motived Albi defence despite numerous changes in tactics and the wind at their backs.
This is a fantastic result for Albi who travel to Dax next week for a fixture that could secure their place in France's top flight next season.
Biarritz 26 - 3 Auch
After being unable to score an offensive bonus point in sixteen rounds, Biarritz scored their second in two weeks.
As usual it took BO a while to get going and only scored their first try after 38 minutes. But it's the result that counts and anything less and five points against Auch would have been unacceptable.
Biarritz thus maintain the pressure on Perpignan who are just one point ahead of them in that ever precious fourth place.
In two weeks the Basques travel to the Catalan coast for a direct face off with their rivals.
Stade Français 25-18 Montauban
Say "Merci!" Lionel Beauxis if you're a Stade Français fan. An unimaginative Parisian side had to rely on their young fly-half as Beauxis scored all 25 of their points (three penalties, three drop-goals, a try and it's conversion).
Stade kicked-off the game in the knowledge that Perpignan and Biarritz had both walked away from their matches five richer and that a similar result was a nonnegotiable.
As a result the Parisians came charging out like a pack of hungry wolves.
Taken aback by their hosts attacking fervour, Montauban accumulated errors and Beauxis made them pay.
In the absence of both David Skrela and Juan Martin Hernandez, the French international showed what he can do if only allowed to wear the number 10 jersey.
South African born centre Brian Liebenberg made a welcome return the Stade starting line-up after a long absence due to various injuries.
Montauban fought to the bitter end and their second try at the death from centre Yohann Audrin earned them a well deserved bonus point.