La Rochelle, Clermont tighten grip
Leaders La Rochelle moved to 71 points, eight ahead of Clermont as the pair stayed comfortably on course for the semi-finals. Four of La Rochelle's five tries came in the first 40 minutes through Vincent Rattez, Elliott Roudil, Jason Eaton and Benjamin Noble for a 28-10 lead at the interval.
Mathieu Tanguy added a fifth right at the death in the second period.
"We didn't expect the bonus point. Brive had a very good first 15 minutes when we couldn't lay a hand on the ball," said Rattez.
Clermont, now eight points ahead of third-placed Montpellier, bounced back from their first home defeat in over a year to see off Pau who remain fourth. The result saw Clermont, defeated 19-28 by Montpellier at their Stade Marcel-Michelin home last weekend, hand Pau a first league loss since December.
Pau came into the match having won seven and drawn one of their last eight Top 14 games but they were swept aside by a Clermont attacking masterclass. Tries by forwards Flip van der Merwe, Benjamin Kayser and Raphael Chaume put the home side in the driving seat within the first 30 minutes.
With Morgan Parra slotting over two penalties and two conversions, Clermont were 25-6 up by the interval.
English wing David Strettle scored a brace of tries in the 52nd and 64th minutes with Fritz Lee, Aaron Jarvis, Nick Abendanon and discarded French international fullback Scott Spedding turning the screw.
Pau scored just one try through flank Paddy Butler before the hour.
"We found our smile in the dressing room again. We knew that we didn't play our best last week so it was important to react and we did that well," Clermont fullback Abendanon said.
Bottom club Bayonne defeated Bordeaux 24-20, energised by the shock revelation this week that Paris giants Stade Francais and Racing 92 will merge into one super-club. If that goes ahead, the team finishing second bottom will likely retain their top-flight status instead of being relegated in order to keep 14 teams in the competition.
Bayonne remain bottom but are just a point behind Grenoble, who face three-time European champions Toulon on Sunday.
"The merger, well we don't know if it will be confirmed. But it was gratifying to win this way. It gives me great pleasure when the guys reproduce the work that we do in training," said Bayonne's forwards coach Dewald Senekal.
The controversy over the planned merger of Stade and Racing 92 took another dramatic twist Friday when their weekend matches were postponed.
Defending champions Racing were to play Montpellier while Stade's clash with Castres was postponed after Stade players continued strike action in protest at the plan to unify the two Paris clubs.
French Top 14 Saturday results:
Bayonne 24-20 Bordeaux
Clermont 65-13 Pau
La Rochelle 36-17 Brive
Castres v Stade Francais – postponed
Montpellier v Racing 92 – postponed
French Top 14 table:
(played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, total points)
La Rochelle 21 14 3 4 577 384 9 71
Clermont 21 12 3 6 643 445 9 63
Montpellier 20 12 0 8 492 431 7 55
Pau 21 11 1 9 499 534 6 52
Castres 20 11 1 8 505 398 5 51
Toulon 20 10 1 9 526 409 9 51
Bordeaux 21 9 1 11 489 487 7 45
Racing92 20 10 1 9 467 451 3 45
Brive 21 10 1 10 444 507 2 44
Toulouse 20 9 0 11 406 408 7 43
Lyon 20 8 2 10 408 466 5 41
Stade Français 20 8 1 11 480 512 6 40
Grenoble 20 5 0 15 447 632 7 27
Bayonne 21 5 3 13 366 685 0 26
Agence France-Presse
