Brive prevented Stade Francais from recording their eighth straight Top 14 victory with a surprise 11-3 win at the Stade Amédée-Domenech.

Full-back Alexis Palisson's 21st-minute try gave the home side the lead, before Lionel Beauxis's penalty for the visitors with just over 20 minutes to play reduced the deficit to two points.

But Fabrice Estebanez's drop-goal three minutes later restored Brive's five-point cushion, and Maxime Petitjean made sure of the points with a penalty at the death.

The tie of the weekend sees leaders Clermont host fourth-placed Perpignan, who will be determined to make amends for a 28-22 defeat at Montauban last week that snapped an eight-game winning run.

Perpignan will be without their Samoan powerhouse number eight Henry Tuilagi, who has an adductor muscle injury, while Clermont are missing their France scrum-half Pierre Mignoni, who is out for three weeks with a torn thigh muscle.

Clermont head the table by five points from Toulouse thanks to a tight 16-11 victory at Biarritz last week.

Toulouse face a Montauban side boosted by their win over Perpignan and will be determined to make up for their surprise defeat at Montpellier.

All 18,000 seats are sold out at the Stade Ernest Wallon and a victory for Montauban would give them their third major scalp in the space after their win over Biarritz in late April.

Fifth-placed Castres are staging a late bid for the play-offs with three wins from their last four games and will hope to put pressure on Perpignan with a win at Bayonne.

But they will be without their loose forward Alexandra Bias, who is out for the rest of the season with a foot fracture, while Bayonne welcome back centre Vincent Inigo.

Biarritz's play-off challenge has faltered in the last month with three defeats on the trot and a win at second-from-bottom Dax is vital to their chances of getting their campaign back up and running.

The other games sees bottom club Auch travel to Albi and Montpellier host Bourgoin in a mid-table clash.

Terence O'Rorke / Eurosport