Paris – Pressure piled on Stade Francais’ South African head coach Heyneke Meyer on Saturday after a fifth defeat of the season, 46-16 to Castres, left them bottom of the French Top 14 table.

Meyer, who led the Springboks to the 2015 Rugby World Cup semi-final, has overseen a dour start to the campaign in his second year in charge of the club backed by German billionaire Hans-Peter Wild.

Local media, including newspaper Le Parisien, reported his position at Stade Jean-Bouin would be under threat with further defeats.

The Parisians’ flyhalf Morne Steyn and Castres counterpart Julien Dumora both slotted penalties within the first 15 minutes.

Steyn added a second before Thomas Comebezou crossed for the hosts’ first of four tries of proceedings.

The former South Africa international then slotted his third penalty before the floodgates at Stade Pierre-Fabre opened after half an hour.

Dumora added 10 points with a converted try and another three-pointer for a 20-9 lead at the break.

Two further touchdowns followed in the second-half with Geoffrey Palis and Kevin Gimeno crossing as Rory Kockott, Ludo Radosavljevic and Dumora all adding to Meyer’s worries from the boot.

Stade Francais’ Ruan Combrinck, signed by Meyer in the summer, claimed a late consolation try.