Champions go top

Wins for Perpignan, Castres, Brive, Bayonne, Montauban and Biarritz

Last updated: 7th September 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Champions go top

Tuilagi: On the charge for Perpignan

Related links

Teams

Also see

Champions Perpignan claimed a hard fought 18-14 win at Racing Metro in the latest round of Top 14 action.

The Catalans came back from 11-0 down, with Andrew Mehrtens rolling back the years with a couple of penalties before Henri Chavancy scored the first try after 25 minutes.

But in the final 10 minutes of the first half Jerome Porical notched two penalties of his own before Nicolas Durand started and rounded off a scintillating handling move to equalise.

The second half was tighter, but once Maxime Mermoz had completed another move under the posts, the Catalans were not really looking back and controlled the game until the finish, although Fabien Fortassin's late penalty for the home side made it a little more frantic.

Less good news for the visitors was an injury to international centre David Marty, which could yet spell some time on the sidelines.

Castres 33-18 Montpellier

A bonus-point win for Castres, whose squad seems to have recovered rather well from the swine flu epidemic after an edgy first half finished 6-6.

Castres opened the game up with a magnificent length-of-the-field try, with Marc Andreu starting it with a trademark weaving run, and Joe Tekori on the end.

Romain Teulet scored the second on 50 minutes to give Castres a 23-6 lead - he converted both tries and added a third penalty - but Montpellier did superbly to bring it back to 23-18 through four penalties from promising fly-half Benoit Paillague.

The effort was too much though. Teulet slotted another penalty of his own to extend the lead to eight, before the Castres pack squeezed out a bonus-point clinching penalty try with two minutes to go.

Intriguingly, Castres are, a little by hook and by crook, the only team left in the top flight still with a 100 per cent record.

Montauban 21-18 Toulon

There was high drama in Montauban, where the hosts landed a 21-18 win with the final kick of the game after a Sebastian Fauqué-inspired Toulon nearly burgled a draw.

Marc Raynaud rounded off a fine five-man move after just seven minutes to give Montauban the lead and Johan Dalla Riva's drop goal ensured the hosts went in 10-9 up at the break.

Another penalty, and a huge forward support effort that drove Vilimoni Delasau over the line, had Montauban 18-9 ahead after 50 minutes, but Fauque, and then Conrad Barnard with six minutes to go, brought the scores back to parity.

But a terrific rolling maul, that had several of the green-shirted players on all fours and heaving with the effort, yielded a penalty, which Cedric Rosalen stepped up to convert superbly.

Brive 39-6 Albi

Bizarrely, Albi led 6-3 after 20 minutes at Brive, through two drop goals by Fred Manca, before going down 39-6 in the end.

Those Manca goals were as good as it got for the visitors, as Brive scored a try through Ronnie Cooke and never looked back.

Further tries from Horacio Agulla, Jamie Noon's first score for the club, and two from Antoine Claassen capped off a fine day for the Brivistes, who are developing quite a hot and cold habit.

Bayonne 53-6 Bourgoin

Last week all was light and happiness for Bourgoin after they were rescued from extinction by a generous local benefactor. There was no fairytale ending on Sunday, however.

Bayonne ran in seven tries in a hugely impressive 53-6 triumph, with Pepito Elhorga starting things off with the first of his two tries after just five minutes.

Jean-Baptiste Peyras-Loustalet also weighed in with two, as did Benjamin Fall with Ross Filippo scoring his first for the Avirons.

Six of the tries were converted and Benoit Arrayet added two penalties to complete the rout.

Biarritz 30-22 Stade Français

Stade Français extended their poor start to one win in five games, following a 30-22 loss at Biarritz.

All the Parisian points came from Falie Oelschig's boot, with precious little in the way of attack to be seen.

The defence had no answer to the heavy Biarritz runners, nor were they organised properly and, having taken the lead with a penalty, an Iain Balshaw bomb was not dealt with and Ilikena Bolokoro pounced on the loose ball and steamed home.

The teams then swapped penalties before Oelschig added another, but on the stroke of half-time Biarritz struck a decisive blow, when Samiu Vahafolau pounced on a loose ball at a Parisian scrum to score and it was 17-9 at the break.

Four more penalties were exchanged in a turgid second half, but with five minutes to go, Julien Dupuy took a quick penalty and promptly lost the ball. Valentin Courrent led the counter attack, which Takudzwa Ngwenya finished off between the sticks for what should have been Biarritz's cherished bonus point.

But Damien Traille threw it away in the final minute, with a deliberate knock-on which was deemed cynical enough to be awarded as a penalty try.