Montpellier survived a second-half onslaught from Toulouse to earn a massive 17-15 home victory in the Top 14 on Sunday.

With the victory, Montpellier keep alive their slim chances of earning a spot in next season's Heineken Cup, but second-place Toulouse missed the chance to put pressure on leaders Clermont.

Heineken Cup finalists Toulouse were playing their third game in eight days, and weary legs were evident in the opening stages as they conceded two tries in the opening seven minutes.

Louis Picamoles and Fulgence Ouedraogo gave the hosts a 12-0 lead and early in the second-half they extended their advantage to 17-3 thanks to a third try from Manoel Dall'lgna.

Toulouse though fought bravely back, as a converted try from Yves Donguy made it 17-10, before six minutes from time Shaun Sowerby went over for yet another five points.

Jean-Baptiste Ellissalde then had a kick to level matters up but he missed the conversion, and despite some late pressure, Montpellier hung on to win the match.

In the day's other match, Castres leapfrogged Biarritz into fifth with a 41-10 victory over Brive.

Castres ran in five tries to secure a bonus point with Mathieu Bourret going over twice.

On Saturday, Stade Francais made sure they remained in the hunt for a Top 14 semi-final place after a 43-20 victory over Albi.

It was the defending champions seventh consecutive win and kept them in third spot in the Top 14 table.

The Paris giants scored four tries through Guillaume Boussès, Djibril Camara, Sergio Parisse and Juan-Martin Hernandez (pictured).

Full-back Hernandez was also on target with four conversions and five penalties for a personal haul of 28 points.

Albi battled gamely in the second half and crossed three times through Thibault Lacroix, Willem Meyer and Régis Bianco.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Perpignan sufferd their first defeat in 11 games when they went down 28-22 at Montauban.

Despite the loss, Perpignan remain in fourth place in the standings. Fabien Fortassin did most of the damage for the home side by slotting five penalties and two drop goals to go with prop Pablo Henn's try.

Henry Tuilagi touched down for Perpignan while Percy Montgomery kicked two penalites to go with three drop goals from Nicolas Laharrague.

Bourgoin thumped second-from-bottom Dax 50-14 to move into eighth place in the standings.

Basement club Auch battled hard but were unable to record their third win of the season as they went down 23-19 to Bayonne .

On Friday evening, Biarritz's bid for a play-off place took a further dent after they lost 11-16 at home to league leaders Clermont.

Biarritz had enough chances to beat Clermont but may now have to settle for a place in next season's European Challenge Cup.

Clermont, meanwhile, picked up their eighth away win of the campaign and are almost assured of a semi-final spot.

Sean Fay & Terence O'Rorke / Eurosport