Biarritz missed the chance to go third in the Top 14 as they were beaten 26-19 at Castres.

The Atlantic coast club have won on the road four times already this season but Romain Teulet booted 16 points at the Stade Pierre-Antoine to deny them victory.

Steve Kefu scored an early try for the hosts which was quickly cancelled out by Takudzwa Ngwenya.

Laloaoa Milford then crossed eight minutes before the break to give Castres a 20-10 lead at the interval.

Teulet booted two second-half penalties and although Marcelo Bosch replied with three of his own for the visitors, Castres held on to move into fifth place.

League leaders Toulouse will hope to bounce back from their loss at Bourgoin last week - only their second of the season - when they travel to Bayonne on Saturday.

The south west giants rarely lose two on the bounce and, with only three players on international duty, should be too strong for sixth-placed Bayonne, who wracked by injury.

Yannick Jauzion, Vincent Clerc and Jean-Baptiste Poux are missing for Toulouse, while skipper and second-row Fabien Pelous is an injury doubt.

Second-placed Clermont will expect to keep the pressure on Toulouse with a victory at Dax, struggling at 13th in the league table and with only two wins this campaign.

Clermont will be without their main attacking weapons Aurelien Rougerie, Julien Malzieu and Anthony Floch, all three of whom are in the France starting XV.

Thomas Lievremont, brother of France coach Marc, returns for Dax, who need to take something from the game to maintain their seven-point advantage on basement club Auch.

Montpellier, after a strong start to the season, have missed their internationals recently and have slipped down to ninth spot.

They will again be without Louis Picamoles, Fulgence Ouedraogo, Francois Trinh-Duc and Julien Tomas for the visit of Auch, but should still prove too strong for their struggling rivals, who have won just once this season.

Stade Francais will hope to reclaim second spot from Clermont when they host Perpignan, but will be short of back-row power since Sergio Parisse and Simon Taylor are on Six Nations duty and Mauro Bergamasco is banned.

In the other matches of the weekend, Montauban could leap three places into fifth the table if they beat win at 12th-placed Albi and other results go their way, while Brive will hope to move away from the bottom with a home win over Bourgoin .

Terence O'Rorke / Eurosport