Top 14: Week 20 Review
An action packed weekend of Top 14 action saw leaders Toulouse narrowly escape a shock defeat to Castres in a seven-try thriller at the Stade Ernest-Wallon. Biarritz moved clear of the relegation zone with a confidence-boosting win over Brive and Perpignan secured a draw against Toulon with the last kick of the game to move four points clear of the drop.
Friday
Racing Métro 22 “ 13 Bordeaux-Bègles
Racing again left it late as they made hard work of seeing off a battling Bordeaux in the capital on Friday night.
Bordeaux's struggles on the road continued, but they started more brightly and with just four minutes on the clock, former Northampton full-back Bruce Reihana went over for the first score of the game.
Reihana's converted effort was Bordeaux's only score of the half, but with Racing managing just a sole penalty through Gaeten Germain, the visitors went in at the break with a 7-3 lead.
Germain kicked three penalties to give Racing a five point lead on the hour, but two penalties from Bordeaux fly-half Camille Lopez meant that the hosts trailed with ten minutes remaining.
But Bordeaux couldn't hold on for a first win in four matches, as Germain added a fifth penalty with five minutes remaining, and with three minutes to go Karim Ghezal crossed to secure victory for Racing, and deny the visitors even a losing bonus-point.
Racing's win keeps them in the play-off places, while Bordeaux remain ninth, seven points from danger zone with six games to play.
Saturday
Toulouse 34 “ 27 Castres
Toulouse twice came from behind to see off a spirited Castres who with 20 minutes remaining were on the verge of the most spectacular upset.
The visitors were two tries to the good before Toulouse managed to get on the scoresheet. The first try of the game came from a failed penalty attempt from Romain Teulet, whose effort rebounded off the post, and a couple of phases later Castres opened the scoring through prop Karena Wihongi.
Castres extended their lead with a breakaway try from giant wing Romain Martial before Luke McAlister finally got the hosts on the scoreboard with a penalty.
The visitors held their 14-3 lead up to half-time, but not before skipper Chris Masoe saw yellow. Toulouse pressed home their man advantage after the break - two quick tries from top try scorer Yves Donguy and Census Johnston put Toulouse ahead for the first time in the game and the hosts looked in control.
However it was Castres who regained the lead with a third try on 49 minutes through Yannick Caballero. A pair of Pierre Bernard penalties gave Castres a 10 point lead with ten minutes remaining, but it proved to be too little to keep the champions at bay.
Another McAlister penalty and a Florien Fritz leveled the scores, before number eight Gillian Galan secured the winning try with three minutes remaining.
Toulouse ensure that they avoid back-to-back defeats for the first time in over two years, while for all their efforts Castres drop to fifth behind Montpellier.
Montpellier 37 - 26 Bayonne
Following last week's defeat to Toulon, Montpellier bounced back against Bayonne with a three tries to two victory to move up to fourth in the table.
The home side were seven to the good after just three minutes courtesy of Timoci Nagusa's converted try. Three penalties from Martin Bustos Moyano and a drop goal from Santiago Fernandez gave Montpellier a 19-9 lead, with Benjamin Boyet and Cedric Garcia chipping in with penalties for Bayonne.
Bustos Moyano and Garcia exchanged penalties before Rémy Martin put Montpellier 17 clear with 20 minutes remaining.
Bayonne - who have improved in recent weeks with little reward - again showed signs of quality, and hit back with two quick tries from Boyet and Yoan Huget to move within a score of Montpellier, but Nagusa's second of the game secured the result for Montpellier, and denied Bayonne a losing bonus-point in the process.
Stade Français 40 - 19 Lyon
Stade secured their first win in five games with a confidence boosting hammering of basement club Lyon running in four tries in the process.
Djibril Camara and former Wasp Paul Sackey both touched down in the first half, with Felipe Contepomi and Romain Loursac exchanging penalties.
A Rémy Grosso try and two Loursac penalties left Lyon within seven points of their hosts with just ten minutes remaining, but a second Camara try and a fourth from Argentine Rodrigo Roncero ensured that Lyon slipped closer to the drop, and Stade picked up a crucial try bonus-point in their play-off challenge.
Agen 20 - 29 Clermont Auvergne
Clermont made hard work of getting past eighth-placed Agen to keep up their pressure on leaders Toulouse.
The home side led at the break by 11-9 thanks to a Junior Pelesasa try and the ever-consistent Conrad Barnard's kicking, with Brock James scoring Clermont's points.
Clermont started the second half stronger, and after Barnard and James kicked a penalty apiece, the visitors scored through Brent Russell. Barnard closed the gap to five points, but a second try for Clermont killed the game as a contest as hooker Benjamin Kayser crossed the line.
A fifth Barnard penalty closed the gap back to nine points, but the hosts couldn't find the extra score needed to secure a losing bonus-point.
Biarritz 26 - 11 Brive
Biarritz secured back-to-back victories for just the second time this season as the Basque outfit took a significant step towards safety.
Dimitri Yachvili outscored Julien Caminati three penalties to two in the first half, and Australian full-back Dane Haylett-Petty scored Biarritz's only try two minutes into the second period and a penalty try on 65 minutes gave Biarritz a comfortable lead.
Brive hit back with a Scott Spedding try on 68 minutes, but it wasn't enough to prevent the CAB from falling to a 13th defeat of the season.
Perpignan 22 - 22 Toulon
David Mélé's last minute penalty consigned Toulon to a second draw in three matches as Perpignan edged away from the relegation zone.
Three Matt Giteau penalties and a try bang on half-time from scrum-half Sebastian Tillous-Borde gave Toulon a comfortable lead at the break, with Jerome Porical kicking two penalties for the hosts.
Porical closed the gap with a brace of penalties, and with 12 minutes remaining Rudi Coetzee crossed to narrow the gap to two points. Porical's conversion leveled the scores to leave the game in the balance.
Giteau looked to have won the game with his fifth penalty of the game with three minutes remaining, but Mélé's penalty sealed an important draw for the Catalan side. Toulon extend their unbeaten run to five games, but lose ground on Clermont in second place.
