Paris (AFP) - Reigning European and French champions Toulon, with a batch of internationals away on Six Nations duty, regained the Top 14 summit on Saturday with a 22-14 win at strugglers Lyon.
Clermont had taken temporary control at the top of the table in France on the strength of a 31-23 win over Bordeaux-Begles 24 hours earlier.
First half tries from David Smith, Delon Armitage and Drew Mitchell, with Argentine fly-half Nicolas Sanchez contributing two conversions and a penalty, proved Lyon's undoing.
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 scum-half Ricky Januarie's six minute try, with Stephen Brett adding three second-half penalties.
It also came at a price with six players leaving the pitch due to injury.
"We were missing ten players, and others were injured quickly," Laporte pointed out.
"After a cautious opening quarter of an hour we played well for 25 minutes. The second half when we didn't score was tougher.
"But I'd warned the players this wasn't going to be easy, There are no small teams in the championship."
Toulon's players wore black armbands and there was a minute's applause before kick-off in honour of French Olympic swimmer Camille Muffat, one of the ten 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.
It was the fourth time this season these two teams had met, having been drawn together in the same European Champions Cup pool, and Toulouse's win drew it level at 2-2.
Montpellier, with Francois Trinh-Duc making his return as a replacement after a five-month injury lay-off, took an early lead through Benoit Paillaugue and Ben Lucas penalties, Luke McAlister hitting back with two of his own just before half-time.
But it was Toulouse replacement Vincent Clerc who proved the difference.
First Montpellier winger Rene Ranger, who will return to the Auckland Blues in a bid to get back into the All Blacks squad, made a hash of clearing a kick, the ball bobbling away over the line and out of the Kiwi's reach but into Clerc's.
Ranger's nightmare continued just minutes later when he fumbled a McAlister up-and-under behind the tryline, Clerc again on hand to pounce on the loose ball, McAlister kicking the extras.
Ranger went some way to regaining his game-breaking kudos with a fine break and one-handed offload to Fijian full-back Timoci Nagusa for the try, converted by Lucas to make for a nerve-racking final 10 minutes.
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.
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