Toulouse cruise at home
Toulouse and Clermont opened up a healthy gap at the top of the table thanks to respective wins over Toulon and Castres.
Last Updated: 03/12/11 7:55pm
Toulouse and Clermont opened up a healthy gap at the Top14 summit with victories over Toulon and Castres respectively on Saturday.
Toulouse - the defending champions secured a bonus point - as they ran out comfortable 32-12 winners over opponents who included Matt Giteau for the first time.
It was a similar story in Clermont-Ferrand were early-season leaders Castres were outclassed by the home team.
Meanwhile, Stade Francais were convincing winners in the Paris derby with Racing Metro in front of over 70 000 fans at the Stade to France.
Toulouse 33-12 Toulon
Toulouse's packed municipal stadium saw two star-studded teams face off as Matt Giteau made his first start for Toulon outside Jonny Wilkinson.
But it was the home side that earned the cheers as they ran in three unanswered tries in a dominant display, Luke McAlister, Louise Picamoles and Luke Burgess all standing out.
Toulouse were first to cross at the end of the first quarter when Florian Fritz broke through before finding Picamoles, who put Fijian wing Timoci Matanavou into the corner for his sixth try of the season.
McAlister added the extras and then traded penalties with Wilkinson to leave Toulouse 13-12 ahead at half-time.
A further pair of penalties from McAlister extended the lead and Toulouse continued to run the show, despite going a man down when Census Johnston was sent to the sin bin for a dangerous tackle.
Their second try came on the hour mark when Yannick Jauzion chipped over the top for Vincent Clerc to score in the corner and although tey finished the game with 14 men, Jean Bouilhou seeing yellow, they still crossed again.
Luke Burgess intercepted Giteau's pass out wide to ruin his fellow countryman's game by racing home to score.
Clermont Auvergne 33-16 Castres Olympique
Despite a convincing victory, Clermont were left with a bitter taste after Seremaia Bai grabbed an intercept try in the dying minutes for Castres to deny the hosts a bonus point.
Clermont dominated the first half and led at the break thanks to a try from Brock James, which he converted himself, and three Morgan Parra penalties.
Pierre Bernard landed three penalties of his own to keep Castres in touch, but the visitors were blown away in a one-sided second half.
Nathan Hines went over from short range and then Parra collected his own kick ahead for try number three.
However, his good work was somewhat undone when Bai latched onto replacement scrum-half Ludovic Radosavljevic's loose pass to score Castres' only try with two minutes to play.
Stade Francais 29-3 Racing-Metro 92
Stade Francais move level with Racing in fifth place in the standings after dominating the derby clash in Paris.
Stade Français totally dominated the first half and led 16-0 at the break thanks to a converted try from lock Pascale Pape, a drop from Felipe Contepomi and a pair of penalties from Julien Dupuy.
Racing were being outmuscled in contact, were making too many handling erros and offered little resistance as the hosts extended their lead in the second period.
Contepomi was in fine form with the boot and Jerome Fillol, who initially left Stade to join Racing, only to then return this season, adding a late try.
