Former Wallaby Drew Mitchell was among the tryscorers as defending European and French rugby champions Toulon returned to the summit of the Top 14 with a 22-14 win over strugglers Lyon.
Clermont had taken temporary control at the top of the table on the strength of a 31-23 win over Bordeaux-Begles 24 hours earlier.
Missing a batch of players on Six Nations duty, Toulon scored three tries to one against Lyon on Saturday (Sunday AEDT).
Toulon scored all of their points in the first half with tries to David Smith, Delon Armitage and Mitchell, while Argentine fly-half Nicolas Sanchez contributed two conversions and a penalty.
This was the fourth straight win on the road for Bernard Laporte’s team but it started badly when their hosts took an early lead through former South Africa halfback Ricky Januarie’s fifth-minute try.
Lyon trailed 22-8 at halftime with five-eighth Stephen Brett scoring the only points of the second half with two penalty goals.
Toulon’s players wore black armbands and there was a minute’s applause before kickoff in honour of French Olympic swimmer Camille Muffat, one of the 10 victims of this week’s helicopter crash in Argentina who was born in Nice.
Earlier, an opportunistic brace of tries from veteran France winger Vincent Clerc helped Toulouse to an 18-13 victory over Montpellier.
With just six matches remaining to cement a place in the top six teams who advance to play-offs, every match has become a must-win in the highly competitive French league with but a few points separating five teams in mid-table.
The victory moved Toulouse up into fifth spot on 49 points, while Montpellier came away with a bonus defensive point.
Grenoble moved into the sixth spot with an emphatic 30-21 win away at third-placed Stade Francais as just nine points separated eight clubs from Toulouse in fifth to La Rochelle in 12th.
Oyonnax’s hopes were hit with a 35-20 defeat by La Rochelle while Brive moved out of the relegation zone with a stunning 36-12 victory over fourth-placed Racing-Metro.
Bottom-placed Castres suffered a 21-19 defeat by Bayonne thanks to an injury-time 45-metre penalty by Argentine Martin Bustos Moyano.
