French and European champions Toulon return to Top 14 duty on Saturday missing a host of international stars and bristling with resentment over a 12-week ban handed out to full-back Delon Armitage.
Adding to the champions' discomfort is the knowledge that fellow cash-rich giants Racing-Metro have already started their assault on future domination with their audacious capture of All Blacks superstar Dan Carter.
Toulon have a one-point lead over Clermont at the top of the table ahead of their game against relegation-threatened Lyon on Saturday.
But they go into the match without lock forward Bakkies Botha (nose injury), back rower Steffon Armitage (shoulder), scrum-half Sebastien Tillous-Borde (knee) and winger Bryan Habana (knee).
All were hurt in their bruising back-to-back European Cup confrontations against Leicester while 31-year-old full-back Delon Armitage has been banned for three months after being found guilty of using offensive language towards spectators at Leicester's Welford Road ground in the first match between the two sides.
"It's incomprehensible," Toulon president Mourad Boudjellal told La Provence in reaction to the suspension.
"This is not normal, it's based on allegations of two spectators. We have not ruled out taking legal action against the two English supporters."
Toulon are still also without long-term injury victims hooker Craig Burden and back row forward Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe as well as star fly-halves Matt Giteau and Frederic Michalak.
Racing Metro, who are four points off the lead, host La Rochelle still riding high after their capture of Carter for the 2015 campaign.
The 32-year-old New Zealand fly-half will move to France after the 2015 World Cup on a deal reported to be worth up to 1.6 million euros ($2 million) per season, which would make him the best-paid player in the world.
Of more immediate concern to Racing is the loss until the middle of February of Irish fly-half Jonathan Sexton, who has been forced to rest following a series of hits to the head while on international duty.
Racing are also without fly-half Johannes Goosen, winger Juan Imhoff, centres Jamie Roberts and Alexandre Dumoulin as well as scrum-half Mike Phillips.
Third-placed Stade Francais face Grenoble, in sixth, on Friday as the Top 14 weekend gets underway.
Stade's back row forward Antoine Burban will return after an absence of three months with a foot injury for a game in which a victory would take the Parisians to the top of the pile.
A win would also be a third on the road this season after a 25-22 victory at Castres and a 28-24 triumph at Toulon.
"We must remain humble and as usual go about our business with serenity and determination," said Stade coach Gonzalo Quesada.
On Saturday, 19-time champions Toulouse, the only side left in the European Champions Cup with a perfect record of four wins in four games, look to translate that form into their mediocre domestic season.
Toulouse are seventh in the table and meet eighth-placed Montpellier, whose European campaign has yielded four successive defeats.
Toulouse are without resting internationals Thierry Dusautoir, Yoann Maestri and Yoann Huget but welcome back English fly-half Toby Flood, who has missed two matches with a groin injury.
Fixtures
Friday
Grenoble v Stade Francais (1700 GMT)
Saturday:
Toulon v Lyon, Racing Metro v La Rochelle, Montpellier v Toulouse, Brive v Oyonnax, Bayonne v Bordeaux-Begles (all 1700GMT); Clermont v Castres (1945)
Source: AFP
