PIA held onto second place after dominating the latter half of the Catalan derby to win 38-16.
But it was visitors St Estève-XIII Catalan who were ahead by 16-10 at the break with the help of two tries from Catalan Dragons winger Josh Simm, who, with Matty Russell on the other wing, had been given extra gametime.
The English winger’s second try came from a spectacular interception as he seized onto Eloi Pelissier’s reckless long pass to go half the length of the field.
St Estève maintained their lead until, just before the hour, Pelissier made amends by going over from close range.
After that, Pia never looked back. Centre Adrien Saliès crossed from Théo Fages’ short pass before David Pena hacked on a loose ball to touch down three minutes later.
Saliès put winger Kylian Benavent over before Ethan Natoli did the same, Hakim Miloudi landing his fifth conversion to add to his twelfth-minute try.
St Estève are set to take the last play-off berth.
Pia are favourites to keep their second spot, ahead of Limoux, who made light work of Villeneuve. The Grizzlies led 24-6 at half-time, winger Quentin Crunel crossing twice, before completing a 42-12 victory.
Carcassonne maintained their grip on the top spot after their 46-28 win at Avignon, who are in line to finish fifth, having played all their matches.
The Canaries brought in several younger players to ease the burden in the hectic end-of-season schedule.
After an hour’s play, they had established a 40-10 lead, winger Timoci Bola claiming a hat-trick, as Morgan Escaré would also do. Centre James Woodburn-Hall, recently with Halifax, scored two tries for Avignon.
In another high-scoring game, Lézignan and Toulouse fought out an entertaining 45-34 clash.
The FCL were already 30 points ahead early in the second period before Toulouse started to make an impression.
Winger Dorian Gouzy touched down twice and on the other flank Jordan Flovie three times, with fullback Bruno Castany adding two more.
Paul Marcon was Toulouse’s only try-scorer in the first half before they hit back in the final quarter with three tries through Hugo Garrigues, Arthur Gonzalez-Trique and Axel Palin.
In the clash between the bottom two, Villefranche gave coach David Collado a happy send-off in his last home match in charge as they triumphed 34-16 over St Gaudens.
Results
Avignon 28 Carcassonne 46
Lézignan 45 Toulouse 34
Limoux 42 Villeneuve 12
Pia 38 St Estève-XIII Catalan 16
Villefranche 34 St Gaudens 16
Bye: Albi
Fixtures
Thursday 30 April
Lézignan v Carcassonne
Friday 1 May
St Gaudens v Limoux
Villeneuve v Toulouse
Saturday 2 May
St Estève-XIII Catalan v Albi
Table
Carcassonne 49 pts
Pia 46 pts
Limoux 45 pts
Albi 38 pts
Avignon 38 pts
St Estève-XIII Catalan 30 pts
Toulouse 25 pts
Lézignan 25 pts
Villefranche 25 pts
Villeneuve 23 pts
St Gaudens 14 pts