Five points, the equivalent of a victory with the offensive bonus, separate CO, eleventh (40 pts), and Usap, thirteenth (35 pts). Between the two is the Paloise Section (12th, 37 pts), which carried out the very good operation of the weekend dedicated to the derbies by winning outside against the promoted Bayonnais (30-20).
Thanks to this success, the Palois left the red zone, which they briefly occupied, and returned their sesame to Perpignan. The Catalans could have kept their position if they had not cracked in the last moments of their meeting against Montpellier (22-23), during which they raced in the lead for more than 70 minutes.
Earlier in the day on Saturday, Castres, the highest ranked competitor in this three-way fight, took advantage of the absence of many French internationals in the Toulouse ranks to win their derby (27-17). Despite two trips to direct competitors (Pau and Brive), the Tarnais seem the best positioned, taking advantage of a more favorable schedule (trip to Montpellier, receptions from Toulon and Perpignan).
direct confrontations
If we remove Castres from the equation, the Paloise Section has two advantages over Usap: it has three games left to play at home (Clermont, Castres and Montpellier) and it will travel to Brive, in great difficulty on this end of season. For Perpignan, which will chain a trip to Toulon, the reception of Racing, a trip to Lyon, the arrival of Toulouse, before finishing in Castres, in a match which could still be decisive, the task looks much more difficult.
