Preview: Toulon bid to bounce back
Racing, fielding a largely second XV, suffered a 7-60 hammering by Montpellier last weekend, and will be keen to get things back in order at Lille's Stade Pierre-Mauroy, with an almost capacity crowd expected.
"It's up to us to bounce back. Our performance last week wasn't worthy of our level. But real champions know how to bounce back. In a season as long as this one, you have to know how to digest losses, forget them and move on to something else," former All Black No.8 Chris Masoe said.
Racing will be boosted by the return of a number of players from international duty including Maxime Machenaud, Camille Chat, Bernard Le Roux, Wenceslas Lauret, Martin Castrogiovanni and Luke Charteris.
Toulon, however, have opted to rest their French internationals Guilhem Guirado, Maxime Mermoz and Xavier Chiocci along with a host of other regulars, although Bryan Habana and Quade Cooper return after stints on the World Sevens Series circuit.
One to benefit from Bernard Laporte's rotation policy will be young scrumhalf Anthony Meric.
"After the reverse last week against Montpellier, Toulon will be doing everything to get back on the right footing before the European Cup quarterfinal," Meric said.
With leaders Clermont playing fifth-placed Bordeaux-Begles, Montpellier stand the best chance of advancing further up the table, with an away match against rock-bottom Agen – now looking consigned to relegation back to the ProD2.
Montpellier president Mohed Altrad has spoken out against claims his club are the least liked in France, saying his rivals were "perhaps jealous, or scared".
"We've been stigmatised, it's true , and I don't know why. I don't understand the basis of this criticism," Altrad said.
Altrad, a self-made billionaire businessman, also baulked at critics of Montpellier's style of play under South African coach Jake White, who led the Springboks to 2007 World Cup glory.
"The club comes under attack for its game plan, but firstly for the number of South African players in the team. This concentration of players is tied to the origin of the coach and the links he has created in his country.
"We could consider 13 South Africans to be a lot, but the history of each one of them is different," he added.
Montpellier, who have racked up 51 tries this season at an average of nearly three per game – second only to Toulon's 66 – were once hailed as a model for the players it churned out of its youth system, but fears have been expressed that the South African domination of the squad could offset that.
The club is currently the sole team in the Top 14 not to have respected league rules on the number of home-grown players to be listed on a team sheet, set at 12.
Top 14 fixtures:
Saturday, March 26
Racing 92 v Toulon
Agen v Montpellier
Brive v Castres
Grenoble v La Rochelle
Pau v Oyonnax
Sunday, March 27
Bordeaux-Begles v Clermont
Toulouse v Stade Francais
French Top 14 table:
(played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, penalties, total points):
Clermont 18 12 1 5 514 308 12 62
Racing 92 18 13 1 4 397 362 5 59
Toulon 18 11 0 7 556 327 13 57
Montpellier 18 12 0 6 492 402 7 55
Bordeaux 18 11 2 5 390 320 4 52
Toulouse 18 9 2 7 457 301 8 48
Castres 18 9 0 9 409 359 8 44
La Rochelle 18 8 0 10 393 403 8 40
Brive 18 8 1 9 333 359 5 39
Grenoble 18 8 0 10 437 505 5 37
Pau 18 7 1 10 285 464 2 32
Stade Francais 18 7 0 11 356 408 3 31
Oyonnax 18 4 0 14 309 606 2 18
Agen 18 3 0 15 356 560 4 16
Agence France-Presse
