25 September 2009: It's seventh heaven for Top 14's basement team as Albi hold on to beat Bayonne for their first win of the season

Albi 19 Bayonne 14; Brive 11 Castres 9  - Latest league table

Just as we were wondering whether they'd ever remove that big fat zero from their Win column, Perhaps-Not-So-Relegated Albi finally enjoyed their first victory of the season at the seventh attempt.

The ignominy of becoming the first team to lose to the Top 14's resident basement dwellers goes to Bayonne, who led 14-13 on the hour but whose fate was sealed by two late penalties from Albi outside-half Frederic Manca. The match was marked by several bagarres which saw Bayonne's Craig Gower and Albi prop Christophe Lafoy sent to the sinbin in the first half, and Lafoy red-carded in the dying seconds for a second offence.

Albi took a second-minute lead as Manca opened the scoring with a 45-metre penalty awarded for a high tackle, and he doubled the lead while both teams were down to 14 men midway through the half, but missed a 55-metre effort on 24 minutes when the increasingly indisciplined bayonnais were penalised again.

Bayonne finally looked dangerous when Thibault Lacroix broke into the Albi half only for Jean-Baptiste Peyras-Loustalet to be bundled into touch five metres from the line. No matter, as Albi captain Vincent Clement infringed at the line-out and Bayonne's replacement scrum-half Cedric Garcia kicked the 22-metre penalty to make it 6-3.

From the restart, Albi went straight on the offensive, and although they captain and Le Rugby unsung hero Clement picked up an elbow injury in the movement, from the next play, a 5-metre line-out, the hosts took clean ball, drove the maul forward and from a metre out, scrum-half Kevin Boulogne dashed over to score. Manca converted to give Albi a 13-3 half-time lead.

Manca missed a chance to make it 16-3 with a mis-hit 23-metre penalty after the break, and instead it was Garcia who scored, closing the gap to seven points. Winger Benjamin Fall narrowly missed a chance to tie the scores when he was narrowly beaten to a Lacroix chip-and-chase by opposite number (and until tonight, the most inappropriately named player in French Rugby) Dave Vainqueur, but a minute later, Bayonne were back in the Albi 22, Gower finding a gap in the defence and creating an overlap for Peyras to score his fourth try of the season.

Garcia missed the conversion and five minutes later fluffed a 23-metre penalty chance to take the lead. Entering the final quarter, Bayonne took control, establishing themselves five metres from the Albi tryline and forcing the hosts to concede a penalty. Albi prop Benjamin Sore (now the most appropriately named player in French rugby) joined the club's lengthy injury list, and to add insult, Garcia kicked the visitors into a 14-13 lead.

Far from giving up hope of a first victory, Albi rallied with Manca setting up a drop goal attempt only for the ball to be slowed down by the visitors. But the hosts' determined scrum was suddenly the stronger, and with 68 minutes gone Manca restored Albi's lead with a 22-metre penalty from in front of the posts. A minute from time, Manca made it 19-14, leaving Bayonne no option but to go for the try, and after winning a penalty opted to kick for touch.

From the resulting line-out the packs errupted into an all-in fight that saw Lafoy sent off, but despite swinging the ball wide from the resulting scrum, Bayonne couldn't take advantage of the extra man and Albi settled for conceding another penalty. Again Bayonne pressured, but Lacroix was pulled down five metres short, and from the following attack, a Basque knock-on meant Albi's long wait for a win was over and their relieved players set off on an emotional lap of honour.

The disappointed visitors shuffled off to face the wrath of coach Richard Dourthe, who couldn't understand how his team had been beaten by an outfit "that offered nothing up front and don't even have a good kicker. We weren't strong enough. We have work to do," he said. "We'll have to be happy with the point."

Brive withheld a late challenge by Castres to claim an 11-9 win at Stade Amédée-Domenech. Les brivistes had the better of the first half and scored the only try of the game three minutes after the restart when Andy Goode threw a long pass to full back Fabrice Estbanez, who flipped an inside pass to winger Viliame Waqaceduadua. Waqa opened a gap in the Castres defense, changed the direction of play and flanker Vincent Forgues went over in the corner.

Andy Goode failed to add the conversion to his first half penalty and drop goal, but with two missed penalties and two missed drop goal attempts to follow, he could have been kicking himself by the final whistle as Castres mounted a comeback. Roman Teulet had already kicked a 30-metre penalty at the end of the first half before making it 11-6 15 minutes into the second half with a monster effort from within his own half.

Five minutes later he made it 11-9 with an easier 30-metre effort, and in the last few minutes of the game, with Goode missing kicks for fun and Brive tiring, it looked like the visitors would steal the points with the last kick, but as everyone looked to Teulet for the drop goal attempt, outside half Romain Boscus had a go himself, only to see the ball fall short of the posts. Castres had to be happy with the bonus point, Brive will be relieved to have got away with a win.