12 September 2009: Full marks for new coaches as Stade Francais thrash Castres, Montpellier late show stuns Toulon and Clermont battle past Racing to go top

Stade Francais 44 Castres 18; Montpellier 21 Toulon 20; Montauban 23 Brive 20; Biarritz 12 Bayonne 6; Clermont 30 Racing-Metro 22; Toulouse 19 Albi 13 - Latest league table

Stade Francais got their season back on track with a four-try, 44-18 victory over previously unbeaten Castres. It's been a difficult week for the Parisians, who changed their coaching team on Tuesday, and the relief was visible on the face of club owner Max Guazzini, who could be seen shedding a few tears at the final whistle.

He must have been fearing the worst early on as two Cameron McIntyre penalties gave the visitors a 6-0 lead, but from the restart, Paris won a turnover and when the ball reached prop Sylvain Marconnet, he drove over to score, and Noel Oelschig converted for a 7-6 lead.

Castres, who had won all three of their matches this season, briefly regained the lead with another McIntyre penalty, but two Oelschig penalties in two minutes made it 13-9. With neither side able to launch an attack without a forward pass or a knock-on, McIntyre took it upon himself to close the gap with a storming 50-metre drop goal on 33 minutes, and after a spell of Stade pressure gave Oelschig a penalty chance in front of the posts, McIntyre again closed the gap with a 40-metre drop on the siren.

With the Parisians only ahead 16-15 at the break, new coaches Jacques Delmas and Didier Faugeron had to start earning their crust, and must have said something right. From the restart, Castres knocked on but the referee played the advantage. Paris took full advantage, scrum-half Julien Dupuy changed the direction of play, Mathieu Bastareaud charged through a couple of attempted tackles and fed to winger Mirco Bergamasco to score in the corner.

A conversion and three more penalties from a faultless Oelschig took the hosts into a comfortable lead, and they sealed the bonus point 20 minutes from time when James Haskell beat Castres scrum-half Sebastien Tillous-Borde to ground Oelschig's chip downfield. Castres had their best spell of the half trying to steal the bonus point away from the Parisians, but the victory became a rout when flanker Juan Manuel Leguizamon counterattacked with a 30-metre break and fed to winger Julien Arias who scored in the corner.

Montpellier stunned Toulon with two late tries just as the visitors were dreaming of ending the day on top of the Top 14. Being 9-20 and a player down with 10 minutes on the clock, Montpellier appeared to have claimed a bonus point when winger Sebastien Kuzbik rounded his opposite number Tom May to score 10 minutes from time, but the Heraultais had no intention of coming away with anything but the full four points, and sent wave after wave of attacks at Toulon's defence, with charges by Fulgence Ouedraogo and the big Georgian Manuka Gorgodze forcing the visitors into conceding penalties.

But Montpellier weren't willing to settle for nothing but the winning try, and with the clock ticking towards 80 minutes, scrum-half Benoit Paillaugue tried one last kick for his backs to chase, and with replacement Benjamin Thiery closing in, Toulon's welsh centre Jamie Robinson fumbled the ball and Thiery pounced to steal the win for Montpellier.

It was a win that had looked unlikely when Jonny Wilkinson's second penalty of the afternoon had given Toulon a 13-0 lead after just 17 minutes, captain Ross Skeate scoring the opening try after scrum-half Matt Henjak had marshalled his driving pack towards the Montpellier line. Paillaugue and Francois Trinh-Duc closed the gap before the break with a penalty and drop goal respectively, and hope was high when Paillaugue made it 9-13 after the interval with another goal, before Toulon struck with their second try, Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe crossing after centre Mafileo Kefu had made the break.

Montpellier can't have seen any way back when full back Olivier Sarramea was yellow carded for a high tackle on Wilkinson after 62 minutes. But his replacement Thiery proved the hero of the hour.

Brive almost pulled off a similar late comeback at Montauban, but the green and blacks held on for a narrow 23-20 win. The visitors outscored their hosts by three tries to one, Luciano Orquera scoring the first try of the afternoon with Brive's first attack after 12 minutes. Cedric Rosalen's boot kept Montauban in front before kiwi winger Viliame Waqaseduadua ended a flowing Brive move by grounding in the corner.

Rosalen made it 15-13 with a penalty before the break, and Montauban appeared to have sealed a third successive win when, after another Rosalen success, Johan Dalla-Riva was put through by Julien Audy.

But Brive weren't finished, and although Orquera missed two 50-metre penalty attempts with 10 minutes to go, Waqaseduadua scored his second try of the afternoon four minutes from time, racing 50 metres to score after a piece of genius took him past three baffled opponents. A grandstand finish was in order, but Montauban hid the ball up their green shirts for the last few minutes and held on for another win over a tenacious Brive.

Bayonne must be wondering how they came away from San Sebastian's Basque derby with just a bonus point after playing 33 minutes of the second half with a man advantage after Biarritz's Samoan lock Pelu Taele was sent off for a neck-high tackle on Pepito Elhorga that saw the blues' winger stretchered off with - of all things - a torn leg muscle.

The 47th minute red card was indeed a turning point, as Bayonne, who were trailing 9-6 at the time despite having the better of a tight first half, suddenly went off the boil and barely put a move together in a last half-hour in which Biarritz scrum-half Valentin Courrent was even able to add a fourth penalty of the game. Courrent almost set up a try 10 minutes from time when his missed drop goal attempt was followed up by Takudzwa Ngwenya, only for the USA winger to touch the ball down over the dead ball line having beating Bayonne's dozing defenders in a race for the ball.

The red-shirted majority of the 29,000-strong crowd at Estadio Anoeta will have gone back across the border happy by the result but derby history aside, this was a match to forget.

You couldn't say the same for the thriller at Stade Marcel-Michelin, where Clermont didn't kill off Racing-Metro until the final 10 minutes and denied the visitors a bonus point with the last kick of the game, sending them into the drop zone in the process with a 30-22 win.

Clermont got off the mark early on with a try for Wesley Fofana, the centre following up Brock James' big crossfield kick to leap between two defenders and ground the ball for an early 7-0 lead. Andrew Mehrtens brought the visitors back to 7-6 with a drop and a penalty, but on 24 minutes Racing prop Clement Baiocco was shown a yellow card for transgressing at a ruck, and from the resulting scrum five, scrum-half Morgan Parra darted for the line and fed to prop Thomas Domingo, who broke a tackle and scored Clermont's second try.

A Fabien Fortassin drop goal - his fifth of the Top 14 season - made it 12-9 at the interval, and Racing took a shock lead four minutes into the second period when Julien Saubade raced over for a try that Merhtens converted to make it 16-12 to the visitors.

But if you want someone to kick you back into a game, they don't come much better than Brock James, whose first three penalties restored a 21-16 home lead, and when Racing responded with another penalty-drop combo from Mehrtens and Fortassin, took advantage of Clermont's concerted pressure to kick three more, the last of which robbed Racing of their bonus point right on the final whistle.

Clermont go top of the table after Toulouse surprisingly failed to chalk up a bonus point at home to bottom club Albi. The visitors led for much of the first half thanks to John Stewart's early penalty and after the only try of the half, winger Lucas Borges reacting sharpest when Stewart motioned to drop a goal and instead put in a long crossfield kick for Borges to catch and score.

Coming out 6-10 down, Toulouse wasted no time in imposing themselves after the break, bringing on Freddy Michalak and Patricio Albacete to strengthen the XV. It worked at once as forward pressure saw Albi lock Thomas Vervoort yellow carded at a ruck and Michalak close the gap with his first penalty of the match.

The home team were playing in their familiar style, and shortly after a 12-phase attack ended with a Florien Fritz touchdown being ruled out by the video ref, Jean-Baptiste Elissalde caught Albi's defence napping at a scrum five and darted over for a 16-10 lead. But anyone expecting the floodgates to open was to be disappointed. The video referee refused Toulouse a try on the hour, but with the 16-times champions distinctly off colour, Albi kept in touch and with a late exchange of penalties between Stewart and Michalak, picked up a bonus point that may be worth more in terms of confidence than in the final reckoning as they await their first win of the season.