Wales skipper Gareth Thomas scored an early try as Toulouse brushed aside champions Biarritz 20-3 on Sunday to gain sweet revenge for the 40-13 humiliation they suffered in last season's French championship final.
Full-back Thomas, gently feeling his way back into the game after suffering a mini-stroke six months ago, struck after just three minutes before winger Cedric Heymans added a second just after the interval.
Biarritz, who have endured a poor start to the season which has included a shock loss to Narbonne two weeks ago, had just a 17th-minute penalty from scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili to show for their lacklustre efforts.
Frederic Michalak accounted for 16-time champions Toulouse's other points, converting both tries and kicking two penalties.
Although Thomas was on the scoresheet early, the try was the result of the dogged determination of teammate Jean-Frederic Dubois when the fly-half put Biarritz full-back Nicolas Brusque under pressure.
Dubois took the ball on for Thomas to score from close range.
The second try was far more pleasing on the eye when center Yannick Jauzion took out two Biarritz defenders to release Heymans for his 41st-minute score.
Toulouse stay second in the table with 17 points after four wins in four matches while Stade Frangais are top with 18 points.
Stade, the 12-time champions, needed two late tries from Australian Radike Samo and Argentinian Juan Hernandez to subdue a battling Narbonne 33-24.
Narbonne were indebted to fly-half Cedric Rosalen, who kicked all of his team's points with seven penalties and a drop goal.
Stade were constantly pinned back on Sunday and only managed to break the stranglehold with their two tries, which both came in the last 15 minutes.
Clermont recovered from their midweek 45-13 mauling by Stade to crush Montpellier 55-7, running in eight tries with New Zealand No. 8 Sam Broomhall and skipper Aurelien Rougerie grabbing two scores each.
Those four tries came in a devastating 10-minute spell after the break as Clermont racked up 33 unanswered points in the second half.
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