France scrum-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde will return to action for Toulouse on Friday after being out for over a month and will be hoping it is a winning one against Dax in their Top 14 clash.
The 31-year-old, 35-times capped star has been out with a broken finger but will renew his much-vaunted half-back partnership with mercurial genius Frederic Michalak for the championship leaders against a Dax side that has several injury worries. However they may reverse positional roles with Elissalde moving to fly-half and Michalak to scrum-half.
Toulouse, who have a three-point lead over Stade Francais, will be seeking their 11th successive victory but will be without flanker Thierry Dussautoir, who suffered a broken nose in last weekend's 34-0 humbling of Montpellier.
They will also rest Yannick Jauzion so he will be fresh for the renewal of European Cup hostilities the following weekend.
Despite their superb run of form their legendary manager Guy Noves is too seasoned a warrior to be slapping the players on their backs at what they have done so far.
"We know very well we are not yet champions and the match at Dax will be very tough," he told rugby365.fr.
"There is no such thing as a walkover. The more one wins, the nearer one is to a defeat. We have to remain vigilant. There is still a long way to go and there will be difficult times when I will be angry.
"We are not climbing trees but we are happy with the way we are playing."
Dax, who are in ninth place, will be without backrow forward Jannie Bornman, who is out for up to six weeks with a back problem, while Antoine Vignau-Tuquet and Lucas Borges are rested and there are injury worries over Vincent Deniau, William Bonet and Julien Brugnaut.
Despite these concerns Dax coach Thomas Lievremont, brother of France head coach Marc, will be looking for a markedly improved display than the one put up by his team in the humilating 56-15 drubbing by Stade Francais last Saturday, a performance he described as being more like one from the junior team.
Stade for their part are away at bottom side Mont-de-Marsan though the hosts are just two points away from safety after a creditable 16-13 victory over Montauban last Saturday.
Stade will be without winger Jean Saubade, who suffered a knee injury against Dax and is likely to be out for up to a month but were delighted with the performance by French international fly-half Lionel Beauxis after two months out with a groin injury which was highlighted by a 50-metre drop goal.
"He has returned earlier than expected but will more than likely start against Mont-de-Marsan, which is not going to be an easy game," admitted Stade's assistant coach Fabrice Landreau.
Stade have been linked with a move for French international scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili, who like the rest of his Biarritz team-mates has had a torrid time this campaign and are in the unusual position of battling against the drop rather than fighting it out for a top four place, which would get them into the end of season play-offs.
Yachvili could have eased their worries last weekend but his missed penalty on the final whistle saw them lose 15-14 to fellow relegation battlers Bourgoin, so this Saturday's match away at third from bottom Castres is already a must win clash if they are not to be dragged further into the mire.
Biarritz's veteran French centre Damien Traille admitted that confidence was low but that they were working hard together as a unit to rectify matters.
"We must continue to play attacking rugby and it will pay off. It is for us to react and to work on it. We are working together and we are ignoring the critics."
While Yachvili is still in favour that is not the case of another scrum-half former All Black great Justin Marshall, who was dropped from Montpellier's 27-man squad for this weekend's match with Clermont after refusing to go on as a late replacement in the match against Toulouse.
"We will make a decision about his (Marshall's) future in the coming days," said general manager Denis Navizet ominously.
Fixtures
Friday
Dax v Toulouse (1935GMT)
Saturday (1330GMT unless stated):
Perpignan v Bourgoin, Castres v Biarritz, Mont-de-Marsan v Stade Francais, Montauban v Bayonne, Montpellier v Clermont (1530GMT), Brive v Toulon (1935GMT)
Copyright 2009  AFP Global Edition
