Top 14 challengers boosted by World Cup returns

French Top 14 heavyweights Clermont, Racing 92, Toulouse and Stade Francais will be boosted by the return of their World Cup stars this weekend.

Two weeks after France suffered a nightmare 62-13 rout at the hands of New Zealand in the World Cup quarter-finals, bruised bodies and egos are hopeful of relief back on familiar domestic ground.

Leaders Clermont tackle Castres looking to recover from their 24-19 defeat at second-placed Montpellier last weekend in what was their first loss of the season.

Back-row forward and skipper Damien Chouly may sit out the game but Morgan Parra, Vincent Debaty, Benjamin Kayser, Noa Nakaitaci, Wesley Fofana, Scott Spedding and Peceli Yato all returned to training this week.

However, Clermont will be without Davit Zirakashvili, Benson Stanley, John Ulugia and Jonathan Davies, who are all injured.

Castres, meanwhile, will be without their South African-born French international Rory Kockott who is sidelined with a thigh injury.

Defending champions Stade Francais, who are struggling this season and stand three places off the bottom, welcome back lock forward Pascal Pape and prop Rabah Slimani for the trip to Agen who are propping up the table.

"It's good to see them back and it's good for the squad as well," said Stade coach Gonzalo Quesada, whose team have just two wins in six games so far.

However, Stade will again be without Italian No8 and skipper Sergio Parisse who is still feeling the effects of the calf injury which limited his World Cup to just 65 minutes.

Third-place Racing 92, who defeated Stade on Friday to avenge three defeats at the hands of their Paris rivals last season, have six World Cup stars back in contention for the home game against Brive.

Two of them could make their debut in their new colours -- flanker Yannick Nyanga who moved from Toulouse in the summer and fly-half Remi Tales, signed from Castres.

Prop Eddy Ben Arous, who penned a new deal at Racing this week to keep him at the club until 2019, hooker and skipper Dimitri Szarzewski, full-back Brice Dulin and Welsh scrum-half Mike Phillips are also likely to start.

Montpellier, just a point behind leaders Clermont, host fourth-placed Toulouse with centre Gael Fickou set to play.

Toulouse have been hit by the absence of prop Census Johnston who underwent surgery on a fractured eye socket and could be sidelined for up to a month.

Johnston came out of international retirement to play for Samoa at the World Cup.

European champions Toulon, who ran in eight tries in a 61-3 rout of Oyonnax last weekend, go to Grenoble on Sunday.

Fixtures

Saturday

Agen v Stade Francais, Bordeaux-Begles v La Rochelle, Oyonnax v Pau, Racing 92 v Brive (all 1300GMT), Montpellier v Toulouse (1330GMT), Clermont v Castres (1945GMT)

Sunday

Grenoble v Toulon (1515GMT)
Source: AFP