27 November 2009: Christian Loamanu saves the day for Toulon, Castres rout the Ritz to go top and Racing beat Albi in tryless trial

Stade Francais 18 Toulon 22; Castres 34 Biarritz 6; Racing-Metro 9 Albi 6 Latest league table

Toulon confirmed their status as potential title contenders to move to third in the Top 14 with a dramatic 22-18 victory over Stade Francais.

The drama continued right up to the final whistle, referee M. Matheu's video-viewing assistant judging that Stade winger Julien Arias had dropped the ball over the tryline with the last move of the game.

From a five-metre scrum, the ball came out to Arias, who raced for the corner only to be tackled by opposite number Christian Loamanu as he crossed the line. Arias reached out to ground the ball, but after much deliberation the try was disallowed, and the visitors began their celebrations.

The hosts had been celebrating early on when Ollie Phillips opened the scoring after two minutes. Noel Oelschig chipped the ball over the Toulon defence, Jamie Robinson came in from the wing to gather but he fumbled and Phillips raced in from 20 metres to score.

Wilkinson pulled back three points with a seventh-minute penalty, but on the 20-minute mark, Oelschig restored the five-point lead with a simple drop goal. He added a penalty five minutes before half time to make it 11-3, but in two mad minutes before the break, Toulon turned the deficit into a 13-11 lead.

First Loamanu scored a try, scrum-half Pierre Mignoni breaking from the base of a scrum 22 metres out and feeding the Japan international who scored in the corner. Wilkinson kicked a touchline conversion, and on the stroke of half time, Toulon flanker Olivier Missoup intercepted a Stade pass and set up a ruck in the 22, from which Wilkinson kicked a drop goal that gave Toulon the lead at the interval.

The English outside-half was flattened by a Mathieu Bastaread charge five minutes into the second period, but recovered to kick a 50th minute penalty for 16-11. But Bastareaud was back at the heart of the action within two minutes, taking a tap penalty from five metres out and barging over for a try that Oelschig converted to give the hosts an 18-16 lead.

Wilkinson had an immediate opportunity to regain the lead with a 50-metre penalty, but incredibly his kick came back off the posts and Stade almost extended their lead when Bastareaud intercepted, only for the big centre to knock-on with the tryline at the Parisians' mercy.

They paid for the wasted chance on 58 minutes when Wilkinson kicked a 35-metre penalty to make it 19-18, and missed further opportunities to score when Luke Rooney beat Stade centre Guillaume Bousses to a loose ball on 62 minutes, and then No.8 Pierre Rabadan crossed the tryline only to see Mathieu Blin's quick line-out adjudged not straight.

As it was, Wilkinson added a fourth penalty four minutes from time to make it 22-18 to the visitors, leaving Paris to push for the match-winning score than so nearly came from Arias's despairing dive.

Castres go top of the table for the week courtesy of their bonus-point 34-6 win over Biarritz and the bout of Swine Flu at Stade Aimé-Giral that caused Perpignan's clash with Bayonne to be called off on Friday afternoon.

Biarritz had come to Stade Pierre-Antoine seeking revenge for their 12-6 home defeat in August, but for the second week running, Castres proved their worth with a convincing win over one of France's traditional powerhouses.

A tight first half saw Romain Teulet kick four penalties to two for Dimitri Yachvili, and with the teams clearly thinking of their half-time pastis, Biarritz No.8 Florian Faure fumbled the ball behind his own tryline, conceding a scrum five to the hosts. Castres' powerful pack shoved their way to a penalty, scrum-half Alexandre Albouy took it quickly and winger Mathieu Nicolas was on hand to claim his first try of the season.

It was 24-6 eight minutes into the second half, Yohann Audrin chipping the ball through the Biarritz defence and winning the scramble to touch the ball down, although replays suggests that race leader Iain Balshaw was ankle-tapped by the centre on his way to the try line.

A frustrated Yachvili received a yellow card for playing hopscotch on a ruck, and as the Basques continued to suffer, Castres claimed their bonus point courtesy of flanker Ibrahim Diarra. Faure lost the ball in midfield, Teulet counter-attacked and slipped a pass to Chris Masoe. The New Zealander fed Diarra who raced 25 metres to score.

At 31-6, the game was all but over, and despite a couple of Biarritz forays into the Castres 22, the hosts defended stoically and even added a penalty through Thomas Bouquié in the dying seconds.

The rout completes what was expected to be a difficult spell for Castres, but having picked up 13 points from their meetings with Perpignan, Clermont, Toulouse and now Biarritz, few would rule them out of the championship reckoning.

Racing-Metro's championship ambitions can wait for another year or two, but the Parisians laboured to their sixth win on the bounce, beating resurgent Albi 9-6 at Stade Colombes.

We were never expecting much of this clash between the Top 14's lowest try scorers, and our fears were confirmed when the teams turned round with Albi leading 3-0 courtesy of a Blair Stewart penalty. Andrew Mehrtens, returning to the first team after losing his place to Jonathan Wisniewski, kicked three penalties in a slightly more exciting second half, the third a massive 60-metre effort to establish a 9-6 lead after Stewart had levelled the scores and after Albi's Frederic Manca had missed an easy kick of his own from 35 metres.

Mehrtens missed a 35-metre kick of his own as time ticked away, and although Albi head back south with a bonus point, this contest sees them fall back to earth following their win over champions Perpignan last Friday. Racing won't complain about the nature of their sixth successive win - they move ahead of Biarritz and local rivals Stade Francais into sixth place.