Heavy rain in Brittany causes Vannes' eight-pointer to be called off, but Fed1 rivals fail to take advantage

Vannes vs Saint-Medard - postponed due to inclement weather: This is officially the easiest match report of the season so far, as Vannes' top-four clash with Saint-Medard was called off on Friday after heavy rain in the region led to town mayor David Robo banning all sports activities on the council's pitches, which includes les Vannetais' own Stade Jo Courtel. In the circumstances, a drop of only one place in Pool 3 wasn't too bad for our Federale 1 favourites. The match will be played at a later date.

Second string: Postponed.

Also in Pool 3: Hagetmau 20 Saint-Junien 19, Lavaur 23 Morlaas 17, Langon 28 Saint-Jean-de-Luz 22, Colomiers 29 Saint-Nazaire 7

Next up: Saint-Junien vs Vannes, Sunday December 18, Stade du Chalet, Saint-Junien.

Vannes take on another team in the drop zone in the shape of Saint-Junien this weekend, but such is the strength of Pool 3 that a bonus-point win for the hosts - currently bottom of the table - would see them leapfrog Vannes into the top half of the group.

Les rouge et noirs have only won two out of eight matches so far, but of their six defeats only once have they failed to pick up a losing bonus point, with everyone bar opening day conquerors Lavaur celebrating narrow wins over the Limousin club. Both their wins have come at home, a 24-22 week 2 victory over Langon and a far more comfortable 39-16 defeat of bottom-half (for now) rivals Morlaas.

Saint-Junien's mainly French squad is spiced up by a quartet of Georgians, with international flanker George Chkaidze (ex of Montpellier, Racing-Metro and Massy) and fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili (Pau, Massy, Figeac) hot-footing it from the world cup to help the club's Fed1 campaign. Kvirikashvili (a man for whom cut and paste was invented) has taken over kicking duties since his arrival but couldn't help les Saint-Juniauds win one of the season's stand-out matches so far, a 3-6 reverse at Saint-Medard.

Prop Giorgi Gabella and lock Giorgi Ozgebishvili complete the Caucasian quartet, with four others alone in flying the flags of their nations - South African lock Bokkie Swanepoel, Romanian winger Adrian Matei (scorer of six tries last term but scoreless this season), Namibian international prop Casper Viviers and fellow front-rower, Algerian Ali Guerraoui.

Of the home-grown players, 23-year-old scrum-half Ioan Debrach is the danger man with two tries to his credit so far since arriving from Niort in the summer, while another new face, 24-year-old winger Guibert Thibault, has also bagged a brace since moving from Pays du Medoc in the close season.

This is Saint-Junien's second season in Federale 1, finishing a creditable and comfortable 8th out of 12 last year. Their meetings with Vannes went to the home side last year, our boys winning 28-0 at Stade Courtel before Saint-Junien gained revenge with a 25-12 late-season win, Swanepoel scoring the only try of the match.

Although rugby has been played in the Haute-Vienne town since 1904, the current incarnation of the club - Association Sportive Saint Junien - dates back to 1940 following a merger of two local teams forced by the wartime Vichy government's clampdown on socialist institutions: Saint-Junien's Union Sportive Ouvrieres (the Workers' Sporting Union) being one such body. The new club's glory days came in the 1960s, when it spent seven years in the First Division, only once reaching the last 32, losing 9-3 to La Voulte at that stage in 1967.

The club slipped down the league, finishing runners up in Federale 3 in 1995 but returning to the top-non-professional tier in 2010 after two successive promotions.

It's a relatively rapid five-hour, 410km journey for our Fed1 favourites this week, but fans of religious seclusion among the Vannes playing staff and supporters will be rewarded by a pre-match visit to the Collegiate Church of the eponymous Junien who, forced to sleep outside by his master Saint Amand, miraculously survived a snowstorm and became a hermit. A monastery built in his honour was destroyed by the vikings in 866, but you can't have it all.

The news Fed-lines: Only Lavaur capitalised on the postponement at Vannes to leapfrog the Bretons into second place with their 23-17 win at home to Morlaas. Saint-Jean-de-Luz conceded two late penalties to Julien Lavie to lose 28-22 at Langon, while Vannes' local rivals Saint-Nazaire became Colomiers' eighth victims of the campaign, the Toulouse side winning 29-7 to open up a 12-point lead at the top. Hagetmau won the basement clash with Saint-Junien with the last kick of the game, full back Julien Langlade succeeding with an 80th minute penalty after his opposite number, Georgian international Merab Kvirikashvili, had seemed to have pinched a win with his own penalty three minutes earlier. Promoted Hagetmau climb out of the drop zone, for the moment at least.

The top two in Pool 4 both dropped points and places in winnable home ties. Leaders Lourdes fought back from a 10-point half-time deficit to draw 26-26 with Lannemezan - Mathieu Pouey saving a point with a 75th minute penalty - but it was Blagnac's win at Valence d'Agen that stands out as the Fed1 result of the week. The Toulouse club, who play in the shadow of the city's airport, flew into a 19-5 lead when centre Eric San Vincenté scored their only try shortly after half-time, and although l'Avenir narrowed the gap, the boot of Mathieu Gratton (who kicked 20 points in all) saw Blagnac seal a famous win. The results mean that pre-season pool favourites Tyrosse and Limoges climb into the top two courtesy of comfortable bonus-point wins.

The unbeaten record of Bourg-en-Bresse came to an end in Pool 2, La Seyne-sur-Mer racing into a 24-6 lead before les Bressans fought back in the final quarter only to fall short of victory at 24-20. La Seyne climb to a comfortable and surprising third, with Montauban taking the top spot after a 29-23 home win over Saint-Etienne. At the bottom Nice won 20-18 at Nimes in the 'Ni' derby, Portugese international fly-half Pedro Leal kicking the winning points deep into injury time.

Lille extended their lead at the top of Pool 1 with a 25-0 win at pointless Boulogne-Billancourt. It was the Parisians' second fanny in a week after their 48-0 reverse at Nevers, a boast that sounds a lot more impressive here than it does in their native France. Nevers moved into the play-off places with a convincing 29-3 win over lowly Orleans, while Massy consolidated second place thanks to a 25-6 win over Dijon; Montlucon's surprise 19-16 defeat at Strasbourg pegged them down in third place - a try for the easterners by flanker Damien Gateau proving to be the icing on the cake.

You can find all the latest Federale 1 results at ItsRugby.fr

Fédérale 1 Pool 3 table: