Toulouse and Clermont class above title rivals

Champions Toulouse and 2010 title winners Clermont eased away from the rest in the Top 14 standings on Saturday as they beat Toulon and Castres respectively. Both Toulon and Castres had hoped to close in on the top two but instead were given a reality check as to their title ambitions as Toulouse prevailed 33-12 at home to Toulon and Clermont won 33-16 at home to Castres. Toulouse top the table on 43 points with Clermont on 40 while Castres and Toulon are on 33 and 30 respectively, though, the latter have a game in hand. Racing-Metro failed to take advantage of their defeats as the win that would have seen them leapfrog both of them into third eluded them as they were later trounced 29-3 by Stade Francais in the Parisian derby at the Stade de France. It was Stade's third successive Top 14 win and an alarm call to the Racing hierarchy who had surprisingly sacked popular backs coach Simon Mannix a week ago after a convincing win over Biarritz - their backs were non existent in the Stade match. Toulouse ran in three tries - Timoci Matanavu, France wing Vincent Clerc and former Wallaby Luke Burgess touching down - while former All Black fly-half Luke McAlister contributed 16 points with his boot. All Toulon's points came from England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson in the first-half which ended with them only trailing 13-12 at the break but they had no response to the hosts' onslaught in the second-half. The only worries were a twisted ankle for mercurial talent Clement Poitrenaud and an elbow sprain for Samoan prop Census Johnston. While the Toulouse players and coaching staff were delighted to have beaten one of their major rivals so convincingly they still urged caution as to its long-term impact. "It is great to have taken maximum points (including the win bonus point) against a genuine rival for the title," said forwards coach Yannick Bru. "However, we have won nothing yet and there is a long way to go." France scrum-half Morgan Parra was the Clermont star as he scored 23 of their points -- including one of their three tries -- the other two being scored by fly-half Brock James and Scottish veteran Nathan Hines. In spite of the easier than expected victory Clermont coach Vern Cotter was disappointed as they had let slip the offensive bonus point two minutes from time in allowing their opponents to score a try. "We are not going to hide it, we are frustrated and even disappointed, because we had set up the bonus point win with three tries, but we didn't know how to preserve it," he said. "This is a match that will serve us well for the two European Cup matches coming up against Leicester." Stade dominated the first-half against their Parisian rivals as even with former All Black scrum-half Byron Kelleher sitting in the stands they raced into a 16-0 lead in the driving rain after French rock star Johnny Halliday had blown the opening whistle. France lock Pascal Pape burrowed over for the only try of the half while scrum-half Julien Dupuy kicked eight points and veteran Argentinian fly-half Felipe Contepomi landed a superb drop goal. Racing never threatened to come back from that and it was Stade who deservedly rounded-off an impressive performance with a seocnd try through Jerome Fillol five minutes from time - Contepomi landing an excellent conversion from the right hand touchline.