Defending French Top 14 champions Stade Francais cruised past Castres 22-9 on Friday with Italian skipper Sergio Parisse burying his World Cup nightmare to play a starring role.
The victory, just Stade’s second of the season, also lifted the Paris giants out of the bottom two.
Parisse was expected to only start the game at the Jean Bouin stadium on the bench after a calf injury limited his World Cup action with Italy to just 65 minutes.
But on Friday, the 32-year-old forward played for 66 minutes before being replaced with his side already 19-9 ahead.
Parisse, whose Italian side failed to get out of the pool stage at the ongoing World Cup in England, played a role in the game’s only try after 19 minutes.
He and scrum-half Jules Plisson linked up to release fly-half Djibril Camara who then slipped the ball to supporting full-back Hugo Bonneval to score his first try of the season.
Plisson converted as he collected a personal haul of 17 points.
The defensive display was a major boost for a Stade side who conceded six tries in a 44-20 loss to Montpellier in their last Top 14 match before the five-week break for the World Cup.
“The objective now is to keep this going,” said Stade boss Gonzalo Quesada.
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Lock forward Sebastien Vahaamahina grabbed two of his side’s tries with former England winger David Strettle, Loic Jacquet and Camille Gerondeau also on the scoresheet.
Montpellier remain in second spot thanks to a 30-19 win at Grenoble with tries from Benoit Paillaugue, South African prop CJ van der Linde and Marvin O’Connor.
Four-time European champions Toulouse stay in third spot after a 39-22 roller-coaster triumph over La Rochelle.
Toulouse were only 10-8 ahead at the interval before stretching out to 29-8 by the 55th minute.
La Rochelle then trimmed the advantage to just 29-22 but Toulouse held their nerve for a fourth win in five games this season.
Former England fly-half Toby Flood scored Toulouse’s first try of five with Gregory Lamboley, Florian Fritz, Talalelei Gray and Vincent Clerc also crossing.
La Rochelle’s hopes of slashing the deficit in the closing moments were shattered by a 76th-minute red card for replacement prop Jordan Seneca who had only been on the pitch for 10 minutes.
Racing Metro were also winners thanks to a two-try, 18-9 victory at Oyonnax.
On Saturday, reigning European champions Toulon travel to Brive.
Toulon had got off to a disastrous start to the Top 14 season, losing their first two matches, but despite their many international absentees, recovered to win the next two.