Lyon rebounded from a disappointing European campaign to beat third-place Toulon 27-12 on Saturday to jump to first place in Top 14, at least for a day.

Lyon ended a limp Champions Cup pool stage with a home loss to Northampton.

"I was furious last week, after the loss to Northampton," said Pierre Mignoni the Lyon coach. "It was borderline shameful. We're lucky to have a nice crowd. Elsewhere, we'd have been whistled."

Against Toulon, Lyon put on a show, running in three tries and conceding none to collect a bonus point.

"I've got my team back," said Mignoni "I'm not talking about the victory or the bonus point. I had the feeling that we were lost, that we weren't there. Today we were there."

Anthony Belleau kicked four first-half penalties for visiting Toulon but they could not turn pressure into tries.

Lyon moved two points clear of Bordeaux-Begles, who visit Toulouse on Sunday, but more importantly opened a 13-point gap to Toulon as the season entered its second half.

Lyon carved Toulon open after seven minutes and Kiwi fullback Toby Arnold, who played a role in all three tries, finished the move by putting winger Xavier Mignot in the corner.

Fly-half Jonathan Wisniewski, who had an impressive afternoon orchestrating Lyon attacks, kicked the first of his three conversions. He also booted two penalties.

"Not everything was perfect, but it was a great afternoon" Wisniewski said. "We were tense in the first half...but we broke free in the second. We took risks."

Belleau kicked Toulon to a two-point lead by the break but Lyon hit back three minutes into the second half.

Arnold dummied and then jinked through the first line of Toulon defence before passing to Josua Tuisova who put winger Rudi Wulf in for a score.

Toulon made a series of careless errors. After 57 minutes, they made a mess of collecting a high kick. Arnold swept up the loose ball, again zigged through the defence and then accelerated to score himself and give the home team a 15-point cushion and a potential bonus point.

Toulon could have wrested that away in the dying seconds but Gabin Villiere took a few extra steps towards the posts in the in-goal area and was caught by Wulf who grabbed a foot and dragged it over the dead-ball line.

"We were missing something essential this afternoon: humility," said Toulon coach Patrice Collazo. "We wanted to get things done quickly."

"Without patience and humility you can't win."