Toulouse lose and Metro beat Stade in Paris
Stade Francais's scrum-half Charlie Davies (L) is tackled by Racing Metro's scrum-half Jerome Fillol (2ndR) during a French Top 14 rugby union match at the Yves du Manoir stadium in Colombes, outside Paris. Racing Metro put the absence of the influential Sebastien Chabal to the back of their minds as they dominated the 'battle of Paris' with a 20-18 victory over Stade Francais.
PARIS (AFP) - – Racing Metro put the absence of the influential Sebastien Chabal to the back of their minds as they dominated the 'battle of Paris' with a 20-18 victory over Stade Francais on Saturday.
A day after bottom of the table Albi shocked champions and leaders Perpignan, Castres maintained their interest in the competition with a bonus point from a convincing 30-10 home win over Toulouse allowing to sit comfortably behind Perpignan in second, also on 41 points.
With a number of top players, including Chabal, absent due to France's autumn test date against Samoa at the Stade de France, it was time to capitalise.
Perpignan were thus missing four of their first team regulars on Friday as Albi pulled off the upset of the Top 14 season so far with a nail-biting 24-23 win.
Toulouse, also missing key players, conceded four tries against including a brace from New Zealander Chris Masoe.
It means Toulouse drop to fourth place in the table, with Clermont moving in the other direction despite their 13-16 home reverse to Biarritz. Both sides have 36 points.