Team spirit the key for Top 14 leaders Lyon

PARIS: Surprise Top 14 leaders Lyon are banking on team spirit to keep their remarkable run going against La Rochelle on Saturday, according to scrum-half Baptiste Couilloud.

In the final round of matches before the autumn internationals begin, Lyon host the team whose stunning exploits from last season -- La Rochelle topped the regular season standings before losing to Toulon in the play-off semi-finals -- they are trying to emulate.

"What is magical this season is that there's no difference between the youngsters and the veterans: everyone's smiling when a teammate scores, which proves that everyone is working for the collective," said the 20-year-old half-back, who scored a brace of tries in last week's 52-18 thrashing of Oyonnax.

"That's what's been our strength at the beginning of this season," he added in an interview on rugbyrama.fr.

"We're not the strongest, we don't play the best rugby but we get on with each other really well and that allows us to overcome difficulties in matches."

Couilloud could come up against New Zealand international Rene Ranger, who joined up with La Rochelle on Sunday and looks set to play a part against Lyon.

The 31-year-old wing threequarter is back for a second spell in the Top 14 having played for Montpellier from 2013-15 and La Rochelle coach Patrice Collazo said he will make the trip to Lyon.

Unlike many of the Top 14 heavyweights, Lyon have been left relatively unscathed by international call-ups with only lock Felix Lambey -- who subsequently had to pull out injured -- named in France coach Guy Noves's original 32-man squad.

Not so the case of stuttering champions Clermont, currently down in 10th following four defeats in their opening eight matches, who had seven players named by Noves before an eighth, lock Paul Jedrasiak, was promoted to replace Lambey.

Already hamstrung by an injury crisis, particularly in the halfback positions, and with others such as Fiji flanker Peceli Yato and Georgian back-row pair Otar Giorgadze and Viktor Kolelishvili on international duty, it leaves them short of options ahead of a crunch trip to second-placed Montpellier.

Despite the return of Wesley Fofana, it leaves Clermont looking desperately short for the tough trip to the league's top scorers, particularly given the champions have lost all four Top 14 matches on their travels this season.

Montpellier could hand a debut to South African international centre and new signing Jan Serfontein, despite only arriving at the club on Tuesday.

Serfontein joins a big South African contingent at Montpellier that has swollen to nine players, including international front-row brothers Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis.

"Having so many South African friends at Montpellier is helping me adapt as quickly as possible," Serfontein said earlier in the week.

"I've had three weeks off since the end of the Four Nations and I'm ready to play."

Three-time European champions Toulon travel to struggling Agen on Saturday while record fourtime European titlists Toulouse entertain Bordeaux-Begles.

Oyonnax will look to bounce back from their Lyon mauling and gain only a second win of the season at home to Castres while on Sunday, Brive will try to move off the bottom of the table when they host inconsistent Stade Francais, the 2014 champions.

On Saturday, 2015 champions Racing 92 host Pau in a mid-table battle. - AFP