Clermont battle back to defeat Toulon in French rugby

Clermont fought back from a half-time deficit to defeat Toulon 25-19 on Sunday and move into second place in the French Top 14, six points behind champions Toulouse. Victory also put daylight between the top two and the chasing pack with 2010 champions Clermont 10 points clear of third-placed Toulon and Castres in fourth. Toulon, who were 16-12 ahead at the interval and 19-17 in front with 14 minutes to play, picked up a defensive bonus point but would have expected more after dominating large parts of the game. Full-back Benjamin Lapeyre scored a 24th-minute try as Toulon looked to avenge their 17-0 defeat to Clermont in their first meeting earlier in the season. Jonny Wilkinson kicked Toulon's other 14 points. But Clermont winger Julien Malzieu celebrated his recent call to the French Six Nations squad by setting up a 66th-minute try for skipper Aurelien Rougerie to give his side a 22-19 lead with Morgan Parra, who finished with 20 points, kicking a late penalty to rubber-stamp the win. Stade Francais maintained their unbeaten home record this season in impressive style with a 38-21 victory over fellow play-off challengers Castres on Saturday. Stade, who have won seven and drawn one of their eight home games this term, ran in six tries while Castres played their part with three as the hosts also took a bonus offensive point to bounce back from their shock 39-6 humbling by Bordeaux-Begles last Saturday. Stade's Australian coach Michael Cheika was delighted with the manner in which his players had reacted to their blow-out. "Castres are a good team but it was imperative to set aside what happened last weekend," said Cheika, who came to Stade in 2010 after a successful spell at Leinster who he guided to the 2009 European Cup. "Today we were clinical in what was a good battle. Not everything was perfect, we were ill-disciplined at times and were penalised for that. "It is a good result but I know from experience that one can make many projections but the most important is how one is on the final day of the league season. "We are in a super-tight championship, and we have to remain hyper-focussed in our next few matches and avoid what happened at Bordeaux." Other matches saw champions Toulouse crush bottom side Lyon 51-10 and the team they beat in last season's final Montpellier claim a 23-9 win over Brive, who can contemplate a hard relegation battle as their winless run stretches back to October 22. In Saturday's late match struggling 2009 champions Perpignan got something of a boost in a 14-14 draw at home to Racing-Metro, though they have still only won once in their last 10 matches. Stade Francais enjoyed an explosive start, scoring 28 unanswered points in the opening 20 minutes. They ran in four tries including the first in a Stade shirt for former England and Toulon wing Paul Sackey, which like the other three were converted by Julien Dupuy. Italy captain Sergio Parisse, France lock Pascal Pape and once-capped wing Julien Arias were the other try-scorers.