Biarritz's bid for the Top 14 play-offs took a further dent after they lost 11-16 at home to league leaders Clermont.

Lying fifth in the French standings, Biarritz had enough chances to beat Clermont but may now have to content themselves with a place in next season's European Challenge Cup.

Clermont, meanwhile, picked up their eighth away win of the campaign and will be assured of their semi-final spot this weekend should Castres fail to win with a bonus point at home to Brive.

Even if Castres are victorious and score four tries in the process, Clermont are effectively guaranteed Heineken Cup football and a play-off berth as they will still hold a comfort zone of 16 points with five matches remaining.

Les Auvergnats were not at their best in the adverse weather conditions, which prevented them from playing their natural game and forced them to look to the boot of Brock James.

But the lack in confidence was apparent in a BO side who have now lost three in a row for the first time in three years, highlighted by Dimitri Yachvili's profligate kicking.

With the score set at 8-10, Yachvili missed two penalties, while his counterpart James overcame an initial miss to kick the winning penalty, which was added to by Julien Dupuis.

Clermont now have 81 points with six games remaining, while Biarritz are stuck on 54, seven points behind fourth-placed Perpignan, who travel to Montauban on Saturday.

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Weekend preview:

Toulouse can now only close the gap on Clermont to two points if they secure a good win at Montpellier on Sunday evening.

The French giants had trailed Clermont by just two points before Friday's match but they will still be full of confidence after securing four points on the road at Castres in midweek.

But they will be without their inspirational skipper and lock Fabien Pelous, while eight-placed Montpellier welcome back France loose forward Fulgence Ouedraogo as they look to snap a run of three consecutive losses.

Defending champions Stade Francais have bounced back from their mid-season dip in form and should secure their seventh win on the trot against struggling Albi.

Stade, 10 points adrift of Toulouse in third spot, have Lionel Beauxis back at fly-half, which sees Puma Juan-Martin Hernandez move to full-back.

Albi welcome back international lock Arnaud Mela as they look to build on last week's 21-18 victory over Brive and make it three wins from their last four outings.

Perpignan will expect to continue their impressive form when they travel to mid-table Montauban and will be choosing from a near full-strength squad.

The Catalan side have won nine of their last 10 games and drawn the other to move into fourth spot, just four points adrift of Stade and comfortably ahead of BO.

Montauban, on the other hand have won just two of their last six and are likely to struggle against Perpignan's uncompromising pack.

Bayonne will hope to make it two wins on the bounce when they travel to basement club Auch.

The remaining game of the weekend sees second-from-bottom Dax travel to Bourgoin.

Reda Maher / Terence O'Rorke / Eurosport