Castres and Clermont look to keep heat on Perpignan

Castres and Clermont come together on Thursday as they battle to maintain pressure on French champions and present leaders Perpignan in the latest round of matches.

Castres will be looking to get back on the winning track after losing top spot to Perpignan last Friday in a tightly-fought match and this one should also be nip and tuck affair and give Castres joint coaches Laurent Travers and Laurent Labit more idea of how realistic their title hopes are.

Perpignan, who lead Castres by a point with Clermont another point behind, face a tricky home match against Toulon while Toulouse will attempt to bounce back after a stunning loss to Racing-Metro last weekend.

Castres will be without the services of two of their main pillars in captain and French international scrum-half Sebastien Tillous-Borde, who underwent on Tuesday an arthroscopic examination of a painful shoulder which will see him miss the next four to eight weeks.

Also out is highly-rated prop Luc Ducalcon, who had been called up to the French squad for the three autumn tests but had to pull out with a knee injury that will see him miss the next three weeks.

Alexandre Albouy is likely to replace Tillous-Borde while if South African prop Michael Coetzee is unable to play then Carl Hoeft should step in to replace Ducalcon.

Travers appreciates the lessons taken from the Perpignan defeat - Castres led them 12-3 at one point before losing 17-15 - and hopes the team will take those lessons learnt into the following matches against Clermont and then Toulouse.

"We have to be aware of the difference that exists between us and the big teams," said Travers, who along with Labit became joint coaches in the summer after both had impressed with their tenure at Montauban.

"We have to be able to kill off matches when we are leading them. Perpignan showed how to do it for once they took the lead over us they didn't let it go. When one is at 90 percent one loses."

Clermont, forever the bridesmaid and never the bride when it comes to landing the French championship - indeed losing out to Perpignan last season - forged out a nailbiting 19-19 draw with Stade Francais at the weekend.

Clermont could hand their most recent recruit New Zealander Tasesa Lavea his debut either at fly-half or centre while there are injury doubts over veteran Argentinian Mario Ledesma, who has a right arm injury, and Gonzalo Canale, who has a shoulder problem.

Despite being held at home by Stade, Clermont coach Vern Cotter believes that the result is a turning point for their season.

"It was disappointing to concede a try late in the match (three minutes from the end) after leading them throughout the game but we showed our mettle in forcing a draw," he said.

"I really think that this result and the performance is the turning point in our season. We have to obviously put in a similar one against Castres."

Perpignan will welcome back a quartet of players including fly-half Nicolas Laharrague, who was rested for last week's match against Castres against a Toulon side that is just five points behind them and unrecognisable from the expensively-assembled misfiring misfits from last season when they flirted with relegation.

Toulon's former Australian international Matt Henjak will want to bow out on a winning note, as the fiery scrum-half has given up one of the two non-European Union playing licences to Argentinian Felipe Contepomi.

Elsewhere, Stade Francais will not want to concede any more ground to the leaders - they trail Perpignan by eight points - but with a home match against tailenders Albi they should not have too many problems.

Fixtures (kick-offs 1830GMT unless stated):

Castres v Clermont, Toulouse v Bourgoin, Montpellier v Montauban, Brive v Bayonne, Stade Francais v Albi, Biarritz v Racing, (2000) Perpignan v Toulon