29 August 2009: A bit of light at the end of a difficult week for les Berjaillens, USAP put in a champions' performance, Stade avoid shock defeat by Montpellier and Fortassin drops Racing to historic win.

Bourgoin 22 Biarritz 17; Perpignan 17 Toulouse 15; Racing-Metro 18 Bayonne 9; Stade Francais 43 Montpellier 26; Albi 9 Toulon 15; Montauban-Castres postponed due to Swine Flu at Castres

Romantics all over the rugby world (apart from the Basque coast, perhaps, and the hardened accountants among you) will cheer Bourgoin's 22-17 victory over Biarritz. The troubled team, whose players agreed a pay cut yesterday in order to try and save the club, came out determined to live up to their promise to put everything on the line for the claret and blues, and David Janin gave the supporters something to cheer with a try after just six minutes. Full back Florien Denos was the hero, making a 60 yard break upfield before passing to centre Janin in the visitors' 22. He was tackled on the line but managed to ground the ball for an early 7-0 lead.

But Berjaillen nerves continued to shred, as prop Karena Wihongi was shown a yellow card on 25 minutes for preventing Biarritz's Damien Traille from taking a quick penalty, and from the resulting scrum, the visitors were awarded a penalty try. Julien Peyrelongue converted to level the scores, and it was still 7-all after the break when the Benjamin Boyet show came to town. The Bourgoin outside half kicked three penalties to give Bourgoin a 16-7 lead on the hour, only for Ayoola Erinle to break for Biarritz and feed Eduard Coetzee to score. Courrent converted and a minute later Traille ripped the hearts out of the home fans with a drop goal that gave the visitors a 17-16 lead. Up stepped Boyet again to regain the lead for Bourgoin after Tanguy Mocard had been yellow carded for a late tackle, and two minutes from time, the fly-half was at it again, kicking a 40-metre drop goal which sealed the win for Bourgoin and gave them some relief at the end of the most difficult week in the club's history. Now who's going to tell him he won't be getting a win bonus...

Perpignan put in a champions' performance to beat Toulouse 17-15 at Stade Aime-Giral. Maxime Mermoz scored the only try of the game on 66 minutes, Jeoffrey Michel capitalising on a mistake by Jean-Baptise Elissalde to feed to Julien Candelon who put centre Mermoz through to race over in the corner. Nicolas Laharrague kicked the first of his four penalties as early as the second minute to give USAP a lead they never lost, although two Elissalde penalties in the last 10 minutes earned the visitors a bonus pointand set up a grandstand finish that saw the hosts hanging on for the four points.

Stade Francais finally got their first win of the season with a 43-26 victory over Montpellier, but after 45 minutes it looked like a big shock was in store at Stade Jean-Bouin when Jacques Shutte scored the visitors' third try to give Montpellier a 23-13 lead. It wasn't to last long, as a Mirco Bergamasco try drew Paris back to within three points, Noel Oelschig levelled the scores on 54 mintues and Lionel Beauxis gave the hosts the lead with his second penalty two minutes later. Pascal Pape and Marc Gasnier (his second of the match) made the scoreline look a bit more like the one we'd expected with two late tries but though they blew their lead, Montpellier will take some heart from their first-half performance - Jacques Boussuge scored a try in each half for les Heraultais - while Paris will just be glad to add a win to their draw/loss start to their season.

A late hat-trick of drop goals from new boy Fabien Fortassin saw Racing-Metro victorious on their first home top-flight match for 13 years, beating Bayonne 18-9. The viisitors led 9-6 at half time thanks to three penalties from Benat Arrayet, but Andrew Mehrtens tied the scores after the interval with a 56th minute penalty, his third of the game. But the arrival of Fortassin on the hour turned the game, as the former Montauban player gave Racing the lead with his first drop on 62 minutes, extended the lead with his second on 68 and drove the nail into the Bayonne coffin with his third drop on 75 minutes.

It was another kicking contest at Albi, where the yellow-and-blacks earned a bonus point thanks to Frederic Manca's mammoth last-minute penalty. Jonny Wilkinson kicked all 15 of Toulon's points - 12 of them in the first half for a 12-3 interval lead - with Manca landing three penalties for Albi. His final kick was a 60-metre effort that had the legs to pick up Albi's second point of the season.

Castres' visit to Montauban was cancelled as the visitors reported an outbreak of Swine Flu to the LNR on Friday. Castres' visit to Albi on Tuesday will also be re-arranged at a later date. Seven Castres players and a coach are suffering from the illness, as well as a member of the Bourgoin team who played Castres last week (as if they need any more problems...). French League rules permit any gathering of Castres players and coaches until September 1, and the eight contaminated individuals have been isolated until the same date.