Parisse inflicts more away day woe

Two tries from Stade Francais' Italian captain Sergio Parisse inspired them to a much-needed 28-24 victory over Top 14 champions Toulouse on Saturday at the Stade de France. Parisse's second seven minutes from time inflicted Toulouse's third away defeat of the season and leaves them in third spot behind Clermont - who edged Biarritz 19-12 on Friday - and Toulon, who host struggling Bayonne later on Saturday. Toulouse, who had last lost to Stade at the Stade de France in January last year, had lost five first choice players to injury and were even forced to draft in forwards coach and former France hooker William Servat to start. Stade had raced into a 11-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes with fullback Jerome Porical landing two penalties and Parisse scoring the first of his tries while a rattled Toulouse had veteran prop Jean-Baptiste Poux sin-binned. Sebastien Bezy got Toulouse off the mark in the 22nd minute with a penalty but Porical replied in kind shortly afterwards. However, Toulouse pulled themselves together and on the half hour mark they were right back in the game as France wing Vincent Clerc kicked ahead and regathered the ball to touch down - Bezy converted to leave them trailing 14-10. Toulouse's revival was complete four minutes before the break as Servat stormed up the pitch and passed to young Tongan flanker Edwin Maka, who sold a dummy to the Stade defence and strode through the gap to touch down. Bezy, who failed with the conversion, extended Toulouse's lead to four points on the half-time whistle with a penalty. The 20-year-old youngster made it a seven point gap between the two sides when he converted an excellent drop goal from 20 metres out shortly after the restart. Stade had looked to be wilting but just before the hour mark they sewed doubts in their opponents minds as scrum-half Jerome Fillol benefited from a mix-up between Yannick Nyanga and Clement Poitrenaud to touch down and former Perpignan stalwart Porical converted to make it all square at 21 apiece. Florian Fritz restored Toulouse's lead but they were dealt a hammerblow as seven minutes from time Parisse rounded off a superb counter-attack by the hosts that started at the other end of the pitch - Fillol converted to seal victory.