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Stade Francais overwhelm colorless Bayonne

Stade Francais, sporting a new royal blue kit with pink crest, overwhelmed colorless Bayonne 48-29 to extend their perfect start to the season to five out of five.

The Paris giants, who also picked up a bonus point, emerged from Saturday's action as the only undefeated side after Toulouse suffered their first defeat of the campaign with a 30-17 loss at Perpignan.

Perpignan's reward was to inherit second place from their Pyrenean rivals, six points adrift of Stade Francais who were lifted to this latest triumph by Lionel Beauxis.

The new recruit from Pau was responsible for 23 of their points with four of their six tries coming in the first half an hour from Lucas Borges, then Julien Arias who was set up perfectly by Yohan Montes with the prop going on to cross the line himself with Geoffroy Messina bagging the bonus try.

Taking their foot off the pedal Stade Francais let past two Bayonne tries from Clemont Fromont and substitute hooker Grant Hill.

The Paris side ensured Bayonne left the capital still in search of their first points when finishing with a flourish with two further tries from Dimitri Szarzewski and man of the night Beauxis.

In an effort to stop the rot, Bayonne last week unveiled Japan national coach Jean-Pierre Elissalde as its new sporting manager, although the former international scrum-half doesn't take up his post until today.

Perpignan ran out deserved winners over Toulouse who were without a host of key players including Frederic Michalak, Gareth Thomas, Yannick Jauzion, Cedric Heymans and Vincent Clerc, with captain Fabien Pelous also absent with a rib injury.

Perpignan took command from the start.
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