Bordeaux v Toulon: Top 14 preview
Last Updated: 20/02/15 9:44pm
Toulon travel to the Stade Chaban Delmas in Bordeaux for the early game on Saturday to try to break arguably the strongest home record in the Top 14.
Bordeaux-Begles have been outstanding on home soil, with Clermont Ferrand, Castres and Brive all enduring heavy losses there.
Toulon themselves suffered their heaviest defeat in recent times when they lost 41-0 at Bordeaux two years ago. Toulouse are the only team to have come away from Chaban Delmas with any points, securing a surprise win there in November.
Raphaël Ibanez's Bordeaux side seemed to be in control in their last outing at Montpellier until Benoit Paillaugue was sent off for the hosts. Somehow, Bordeaux lost, which dropped them out of the top six.
They go into Saturday’s game with no fewer than seven players sidelined.
Toulon, who are tied at the top of the table alongside Stade Francais and Clermont Ferrand, will be without Romain Taofifenua and Guilhem Guirado but Bernard Laporte welcomes back Delon Armitage from suspension and Sébastien Tillous-Borde from injury.
They were also hit with the news that their South Africa winger Bryan Habana, who has scored four tries in six Top 14 games for them, will be out for a month following a meniscus operation this week.
He should, however, be back in time for Toulon's European Champions Cup quarter-final against Wasps at the start of April.
With Stade and Clermont also playing away from home, a win at Bordeaux could see Toulon top the table on their own. Clermont travel to fourth-placed Racing-Métro in the final game of the day.
Bordeaux: 15 Lionel Beauxis, 14 Sofiane Guitoune, 13 Metuisela Talebula Maijaina, 12 Thibault Lacroix, 11 Blair Connor, 10 Pierre Bernard, 9 Heini Adams, 1 Jefferson Poirot, 2 Ole Avei, 3 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 4 Jan Andre Marais, 5 Berend Botha, 6 Louis-Benoit Madaule, 7 Hugh Chalmers, 8 Peter Saili.
Toulon: 15 Delon Armitage, 14 Drew Mitchell, 13 Maxime Mermoz, 12 Juan Martin Hernandez, 11 Josua Tuisova, 10 Nicolas Sanchez, 9 Sebastien Tillous-Borde, 1 Xavier Chiocci, 2 Jean Charles Orioli, 3 Carl Hayman, 4 Bakkies Botha, 5 Ali Williams, 6 Juan Smith, 7 Steffon Armitage, 8 Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe.
Watch this Top 14 match live on Sky Sports 3 from 1.40pm on Saturday.