Toulon and Clermont in pole position
Defending champions Toulon and arch-rivals Clermont are in pole position to secure a bye ahead of the Top 14 semifinals in the final round of regulation season matches on Saturday.
The duo both sit on 71 points and need only to match Stade Francais' result, the Parisians sitting in third spot on 70 points.
Clermont visit Montpellier in their final game, Stade Francais are at Brive, who are battling for their top flight survival, while Toulon host fifth-placed Oyonnax, who are in with a chance of a surprise quarterfinal place.
Fourth-placed Toulouse could also gatecrash the party but would need a bonus-point win at home to Bordeaux-Begles and for two of the three sides above them to lose without a bonus.
Bordeaux are currently sixth, level on 60 points with Racing-Metro in seventh, meaning one team will miss out on the top six that go on to battle it out for the Bouclier Brennus, the Top 14 winners' shield.
Clermont will by buoyed by their victory over Toulon last week when they travel to Montpellier, who have just announced that South African World Cup-winning coach Jake White will be staying on for a further two years.
"We must be rigorous, serious and stick at it," insisted Clermont centre Aurelien Rougerie.
"We'll be playing a struggling Montpellier team which will want to finish the season by proving their value."
Assistant coach Franck Azema added: "We don't want to be dependent on anyone and we'll go to Montpellier to win!
"We're aware how important this game is.
"We have the chance of qualifying directly for the semi-finals and we don't intend to deprive ourselves of that."
Stade Francais received a massive boost with news that inspirational captain and No.8 Sergio Parisse will be back for the away trip to Brive, the Italian having served his ban for a red card against capital rivals Racing.
"We go to Brive! Requalified! #normal #picoftheday #justice," tweeted Parisse alongside a photograph of his girlfriend Silvia Bragazzi wearing his rugby shirt.
For big-spending Racing, it is a question of salvaging what would be a wretched season should they not qualify for the play-offs.
"I hope we can put in a big match this weekend against Castres to qualify," said Racing's South Africa-born France flanker Bernard Le Roux.
"We always said to ourselves that everything could come down to the final day.
"Up against a fine Castres team in very good form, we know that they'll play everything and try to beat us. We all want to play the play-offs and qualify so we'll give it our all this weekend!"
At the other end of the table, Lyon are bottom and guaranteed to be relegated to the ProD2, while Bayonne are 13th on 47 points, one adrift of Brive.
Bayonne host La Rochelle, sat comfortably in ninth place, while Brive's task at Stade Francais was not lost on Arnaud Mignardi.
"The chance we have, if you can say it like that, is that we have players in the squad who have bottle," the twice-capped Brive centre said.
"Some players have gone through such situations before. We're more used to playing for survival than battling for the Brennus so we must use that experience."
Mignardi added: "There's now one day of rugby left, we have to take five points and that's it, there's no need to get the calculators out."
Fixtures (all 14.15 GMT): Bayonne v La Rochelle, Brive v Stade Francais, Lyon v Grenoble, Montpellier v Clermont, Racing-Metro v Castres, Toulon v Oyonnax, Toulouse v Bordeaux-Begles.
Top 14 table (played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, total points):
Toulon 25 15 0 10 694 508 11 71
Clermont 25 15 1 9 601 447 9 71
Stade Francais 25 15 1 9 591 549 8 70
Toulouse 25 15 0 10 550 482 6 66
Oyonnax 25 14 0 11 497 461 6 62
Bordeaux 25 12 0 13 679 555 12 60
Racing-Metro 25 12 3 10 498 487 6 60
Montpellier 25 11 2 12 520 487 7 55
La Rochelle 25 10 5 10 508 614 4 54
Castres 25 11 0 14 499 574 8 52
Grenoble 25 11 0 14 602 706 8 52
Brive 25 11 0 14 475 619 4 48
Bayonne 25 9 1 15 477 536 9 47
Lyon 25 7 1 17 440 606 7 37
Agence France-Presse
