Top 14 Round 14: Preview

Top 14 pacesetters Toulouse will look to set the record straight when they entertain Bayonne at the Stade Ernest Wallon on Friday.

The defending champions suffered an opening-day defeat against Bayonne, with the "Rouge et Noir" failing to taking a number of chances.

However Bayonne have endure all sorts of problems since, having won just once on the road in 16 attempts and brought Jean-Pierre Elissalde in as boss.

Luke McAlister makes a rare start at inside centre for Toulouse as Lionel Beauxis remains at No.10 following his kicking masterclass against Montpellier last time out. Clément Poitrenaud is back in training but not ready to play yet.

Bayonne's expensively-assembled squad is slowly finding its feet and they welcome Neemia Tialata back into the starting XV. Former Toulouse full-back Cédric Heymans also returns to face his former club.

World Cup-winning lock Bakkies Botha is set to make his Toulon debut for the trip to Biarritz.

Botha has finally recovered from the Achilles injury that ended his RWC prematurely - and he is likely to be joined by fellow Springbok Joe van Niekerk in the line-up.

Biarritz's bid to turn their season around will not be helped by the loss of talisman Imanol Harinordoquy, Fabien Barcella and Erik Lund through injury - while Sylvain Marconnet and Raphael Lakafia could also miss the clash.

One-sided

Biarritz sit rooted to the bottom of the table, with just two wins and two draws from 13 matches this season.

It would be hard to bet against Clermont when they face struggling Lyon in what is, on paper, the most one-sided clash of the weekend.

Lyon should not be underestimated though, as shown by the narrow defeat (20-15) in Toulon last weekend. The absence of fly-half and principal goal-kicker, Romain Loursac is a big blow, though.

Clermont did not set the field alight by scraping to victory against a stubborn Brive side last week but they have several top players back including Wesley Fofana, Sitiveni Sivivatu, Gonzalo Canale, Benjamin Kayser and Jason White. Jamie Cudmore is doubtful with damaged ribs.

Montpellier know they can't afford to slip up against Racing Metro if they are to keep in touch with the race for the play-offs.

Last season's finalists were given a lesson by Toulouse last week and now trail sixth-placed Racing by seven points.

After a dip in form, Racing have put together four wins in the last five games in the Top 14 and looked confident in victory over Agen last week. They have a handful of key players filtering back in to the side after injury lay-offs, including Fabrice Estebanez.

Castres will look to bounce back from a disappointing month when they entertain Perpignan.

Having briefly topped the table this season, Castres have dropped off the pace of late and need a win to stay in touch with the leading trio.

Desperate

Perpignan will be without Samoa No.8 Henry Tuilagi for at least a month with a serious thigh-muscle tear, with full-back Jerome Porical, centre Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, hooker Charles Geli and lock Guillaume Vilaceca also on the sidelines.

Bordeaux-Bègles could face a tough time against the in-form Stade Francais at the Stade Jacques Chaban-Delmas.

Stade have won eight straight games in all competitions, including impressive wins over Clermont, Perpignan, Racing and Biarritz.

With that form in mind, the Parisian visitors would seem like clear favourites but Bordeaux have won their last three home games against Brive, Castres and Racing and will be desperate to pull clear of Lyon and the edge of the relegation zone.

Few would have expected Agen to be nine points ahead of Brive at the half-way mark of the season but were good enough early in the season to be guaranteed to start the New Year in the top half of the standings.

They have had a dip in fortunes recently, however, as injuries have contributed to consecutive losses.

Brive, meanwhile, are the masters of the bonus point, and were well worth their latest point against Clermont last week. But bonus points won't be enough to avoid the drop and they must end their run of four games without a win or face a difficult start to 2012.