Castres beat weakened Toulon
Castres climbed off the bottom of the French Top 14 with a 22-14 win over champions Toulon, who were missing a host of first-choice stars away on November international duty.
The European and French champions had to include seven youth team players in their travelling party to the home of the 2013 title winners to accommodate for the loss of 12 internationals.
They trailed 0-22 until the 68th minute before David Smith scored two converted tries to add a little gloss to the scoreline.
Unlike Toulon, Castres were only missing Rory Kockott and Remi Tales away on French duty and they made their advantage count with Capo Ortega, Romain Cabannes and former All Black Sitiveni Sivivatu all scoring tries.
It was a special moment for wing Sivivatu who scored his first try for Castres after being sidelined for three months with a shoulder injury.
"No points but it's not that dramatic," said Toulon backs coach Pierre Mignoni.
"Our young players showed solidarity and courage but Castres are a big team and kept the knife to our throats."
Clermont went back to the summit with a 51-9 rout of title rivals Stade Francais, running in seven tries courtesy of wing Napolioni Nalaga (43rd and 59th minutes), No 8 Fritz Lee (17th and 75th), young Fijian flank Piceli Yato (33rd and 78th) and wing Seru Nakaitaci.
Racing Metro beat Bayonne 27-10 despite missing nine players away on international duty and with coach Laurent Labit serving a 15-week ban.
Toulouse continued their resurgence with a 21-20 win at Bordeaux which gave them a sixth successive win.
Bordeaux had a chance to preserve their unbeaten home record at the death when flank Louis-Benoit Madaule scored his team's only try to pull within a point of Toulouse.
But replacement flyhalf Pierre Bernard went wide with a routine conversion.
Toulouse scored two tries in the first half through fullback Clement Poitrenaud and centre Florian Fritz while Luke McAlister finished with 11 points including a late monster penalty and a nerveless drop-goal.
On Friday, Brive claimed their first French Top 14 away victory since February 2012 when they defeated Montpellier 25-10.
Montpellier could have gone into the top four with a win but their fourth successive loss in all competitions was greeted by a chorus of boos from their disgruntled fans.
"We lost and we have nothing to complain about. We were weak," said Montpellier coach Fabien Galthie.
"We were poor from start to finish. But since the beginning of the season it has been like this. Even when we have won, we have snatched victories without being convincing."
Top 14 results:
Bordeaux-Begles 20 Toulouse 21
Castres 22 Toulon 14
Clermont 51 Stade Francais 9
Grenoble 34 Lyon 30
Oyonnax 37 La Rochelle 9
Racing-Metro 27 Bayonne 10
Montpellier 10 Brive 25
Top 14 table (played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, total points):
Clermont 11 8 0 3 293 182 4 36
Toulon 11 7 0 4 340 211 5 33
Stade Francais 11 7 0 4 243 275 3 31
Racing Metro 11 6 0 5 252 228 5 29
Bordeaux 11 6 0 5 316 254 4 28
Grenoble 11 6 0 5 286 332 4 28
Toulouse 11 6 0 5 248 220 3 27
Montpellier 11 6 0 5 226 201 2 26
Brive 11 5 0 6 231 276 2 22
Oyonnax 11 4 0 7 238 235 5 21
Bayonne 11 4 0 7 224 233 5 21
Castres 11 4 0 7 224 300 3 19
La Rochelle 11 4 0 7 229 332 3 19
Lyon 11 4 0 7 211 282 2 18
Source: AFP
