Biarritz's Julien Peyrelongue is hauled down by the Montpellier defence © Getty Images

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Matches Dax 27 - 17 Bayonne | Bourgoin-Jallieu 23 - 30 Clermont Auvergne | Biarritz Olympique 46 - 3 Montpellier Hérault | Brive 53 - 11 Mont-de-Marsan | Perpignan 37 - 12 Toulon | Stade Français Paris 34 - 16 Montauban | Castres Olympique 10 - 28 Stade Toulousain

Tournaments/Tours French Top 14

Teams France | Stade Français Paris

Stade Francais strengthened their grip at the top of the French Top 14 division with a 34-16 victory over Montauban on Saturday.

Their seventh successive victory saw Djibril Camara, Mathieu Blin, Matthieu Bastareaud and Mauro Bergamasco all touch down while fly-half Lionel Beauxis weighed in with 11 points from a conversion, two penalties and a drop goal.

The Paris-based club are now eight points clear of Toulouse who moved into second place on Friday night following a 28-10 victory over Castres.

Maleli Kunavore grabbed a brace of tries for the European giants with Cedric Heymans also touching down. Fly-half David Skrela kicked two conversions, two penalties and a superb drop goal for a personal tally of 13 points.

Perpignan kept pace with the leaders thanks to a 37-12 victory over Toulon that saw second half tries from Jean-Philippe Grandclaude, Julien Candelon and Adrien Plante carry the hosts to victory.

Bayonne's hopes of sustaining their title challenge took a blow with a 27-17 defeat to Dax in the final game of the weekend. Despite taking an early lead with a try from Remy Martin, the visitors were soon found wanting as Dax racked up three first half tries through Lucas Borges, Mikael Bert and Gavin Williams.

All three scores were converted by Antoine Vignau-Tuquet who also notched two penalties in the opening period. Bayonne grabbed the only score of the second half through Arnaud Heguy but could not overhaul their rivals.

Clermont-Auvergne continued their resurgence with a 30-23 away victory at Bourgoin. Brock James proved the key for last season's beaten finalists with the fly-half notching a try, three conversions and two penalties.

Elsewhere, Biarritz bounced back to winning ways with a comprehensive 46-3 victory over Montpellier and racked up six tries in the process. Damien Traille scored two while Nicolas Brusque, Julien Peyrelongue, Philippe Bidabe and Takudzwa Ngwenya also touched down.

At the other end of the table there was more woe for Stade Montois as they went down 53-11 at Brive for whom Andy Goode kicked 18 points. Fijian Norman Ligari scored a hat-trick of tries while former England international Ben Cohen was also on the scoresheet.

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