Former NRL stars Luke Rooney and Sonny Bill Williams played strong roles to help lift former strugglers Toulon to the top of the French Top 14 rugby championship with one round to go.

Ex-Penrith winger Rooney scored twice in the first half as Toulon toppled reigning champions and previous leaders Perpignan 33-23 in Marseille on Saturday.

Williams, the former Canterbury Bulldogs spearhead, has been in the news this week with All Blacks coach Graham Henry looking to lure him back to New Zealand for the World Cup.

The centre showed why as he reacted to Pierre Mignoni's quickly taken penalty to send Rooney over for his first try after 17 minutes.

In front of 57,000 fans at the Stade Velodrome, manager Philippe Saint-Andre's men took charge of the match in the second half thanks in no small part to the boot of Jonny Wilkinson.

The England international fly-half scored 23 points include a 50-metre drop-goal at the death that killed off Perpignan's hopes of a comeback.

It was Toulon's eighth consecutive victory and it sent the southern club top of the standings for the first time since the fourth week of the season, putting them in pole position for the top-two finish they require to book a berth in the last four of the play-offs.

Toulon captain Joe Van Niekerk was the inspiration behind a dominant start and created Rooney's second try to ensure his team led 18-13 at halftime.

Racing-Metro secured the sixth and final play-off spot with a thrilling 29-22 comeback win over nearest rivals Biarritz.

The Parisian side trailed 3-14 at half-time and fell 6-19 down when AFL-bound former NRL Brisbane Broncos star Karmichael Hunt went over for a try in the 49th minute.

But a converted Johnny Leo'o try brought the hosts to within six points of their opponents and after Kiwi fly-half Andrew Mehrtens had levelled the scores at 22-22 with three successful penalties, replacement Bernard Le Roux completed a stirring turnaround with a 79th-minute try.

With one game of the regular season remaining, Racing lead Biarritz, seventh, and Brive, eighth, by six and seven points respectively and cannot be caught.

"We showed that this group and this team have lots of heart and solidarity and we managed to win despite being in trouble," said Racing's France international third-row forward Sebastien Chabal.

"Everything is open and we can start to dream."

Brive's hopes of overhauling Racing-Metro received an ultimately irreversible setback when they went down 33-25 to third-bottom Bayonne.

Montpellier preserved their top-flight status with a 19-6 win at second-bottom Montauban, who have already been relegated due to financial discrepancies, with France fly-half Francois Trinh-Duc making sure of victory with a drop-goal and a try in the second half.

Montauban were the only side in the bottom four to lose, after Bourgoin stunned Toulouse 15-13 and already-relegated Albi compounded Stade Francais's miserable season with a 38-24 home win.

Clermont beat Castres 25-19 in Friday night's game, both sides having already qualified for the play-offs.

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