Toulon fall to their second home defeat of the season, Montpellier stun Perpignan and Bezy inspires Toulouse comeback against plucky Parisians

Toulon 31 Racing-Metro 36, Agen 28 Biarritz 23, Castres 25 Bayonne 16, La Rochelle 20 Bourgoin 12, Clermont 33 Brive 9, Perpignan 6 Montpellier 16, Toulouse 34 Stade Francais 16 - See the latest league table

Toulon 31 Racing-Metro 36

Racing-Metro picked up their second away win of the season, and handed Toulon their second home defeat, in a thrilling Week 3 opener at Stade Mayol on Friday night.

The Parisians outscored their hosts by three tries to one, and even had a hand on a bonus point until Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe brought the game within Toulon's reach with a try in the final 10 minutes.

Philippe Saint-André's team could even have stolen it at the death, but infringed at their own line-out deep in Racing's half and looked on as the visitors started their celebrations.

Despite the Hernandez-heavy build-up, it was Jonathan Wisniewski who started at 10 for Racing, and he opened the scoring in style from 46 metres after three minutes, before opposite number Jonny Wilkinson kicked his first of eight penalties to tie the scores.

Wisniewski was off target with a 50-metre attempt on nine minutes, but two minutes later Antoine Battut scored the opening try of the night, centre Albert Vulivuli breaking through on the halfway line and feeding Battut on the inside. The flanker broke a high tackle from Joe van Niekerk - later punished with a yellow card - and scored for Wisniewski to convert.

Wilkinson and Wisniewski traded penalties, with the Racing fly-half adding a drop goal from 40 metres, but even the dismissal of visiting centre Andrea Masi couldn't help Toulon break through the Parisian defence and the teams turned round at 16-12 to Racing.

Masi returned for the restart and was on the scoresheet within two minutes. Wilkinson chipped the ball ahead but Racing winger Benjamin Fall gathered, broke through the Toulon defence and fed Wisniewski on his shoulder, who put Masi over and converted for a 23-12 lead.

Racing indiscipline allowed Wilkinson to pull it back to 26-21 going into the final quarter, but the game was decided in two minutes. First England's record points scorer missed a 40-metre penalty from in front of the posts, and then Racing winger Sireli Bobo intercepted a pass in his own half and raced 50 metres to score under the posts. Wis converted with his last touch of the game, and Hernandez made it 36-21 with his first points for his new club three minutes later.

Fernandez Lobbe denied Racing's bonus point on 73 minutes when he barged over from close range, and Wilkinson gave the Stade Mayol faithful hope when he slotted a huge 57-metre kick three minutes from time, but despite a second unsuccessful penalty attempt from Hernandez, the late botched line-out left Toulon with no more than two bonus points to show for their first two outings at 'Fortress Mayol'.

They should pick up a few points when they visit La Rochelle in midweek, while Racing finally get to play a game on their own patch on the same Wednesday evening. The bad news for them is that champions Clermont are in town.

Perpignan 6 Montpellier 16

Montpellier proved their win over Racing-Metro was far from a one-off with a stunning 16-6 win at the home of 2009 champions Perpignan.

International outside-half Francois Trinh-Duc scored the only try of the match five minutes from time, capitalising on the visitors' dominance to go over after a charge by No.8 Marc Giraud. Winger Martin Bustos Moyano converted.

Coach Fabien Galthié obviously had the coming week's fixture pile-up in mind when he started with first-teamers Trinh-Duc, Mamuka Gorgodze and captain Fulgence Ouedraogo on the bench, but when his team were holding the Catalans to 6-6 at the interval, obviously thought that a win was in reach and called for the big guns.

In a tight first-half which saw Montpellier play a tight game and succed in disrupting the Catalans' rhythm, Kevin Boulogne had given USAP  the lead with two penalties, but a Bustos Moyano penalty and a drop goal by Benjamin Thierry had tied the scores just before the break.

Perpignan did have the best chance of the half, full back Joffrey Michel's effort being disallowed by the video ref late in the first period.

After the arrival of the cavalry, Bustos Moyano gave Montpellier the lead for the first time on 53 minutes, punishing a David Marty transgression with a penalty, and Trinh-Duc sealed his club's first even win at Stade Aimé-Giral.

La Rochelle 20 Bourgoin 12

La Rochelle won the season's first relegation eight-pointer against Bourgoin, even denying their visitors a bonus point and leaving them bottom of the table with no wins from three matches.

Scrum-half Benjamin Ferrou scored the only try of the match on 28 minutes, going on a blindside run from the back of les Maritimes' well established forwards camp deep in the visitors half and resisting several tackles to score in the corner.

Until that point the game had been an expectedly nervous affair, Alberto di Bernardo and Sebastien Bouboul kicking two penalties for Bourgoin and La Rochelle respectively.

But after the try, three more penalties from Bouboul gave les Maritimes a cushion that Bourgoin, despite two more Di Bernardo kicks, couldn't overcome, even to claim their first point of what's going to be a desperately long season.

Toulouse 34 Stade Francais 16

Toulouse produced a performance of two halves to see off a spirited Stade Francais at the Stadium de Toulouse on Saturday night.

Injuries to key players including Yann David and Freddie Michalak had forced coach Guy Noves into shuffling his three-quarters, with centre Yannick Jauzion at fly-half and winger Vilimoni Delasau coming into the centre.

And although the hosts took an early 8-0 lead with a penalty by Nicolas Vergallo and try for William Servat, the Parisians' Argentinian centre Martin Rodriguez pegged the indisciplined hosts back with two successful penalties and, on the stroke of half-time, gave his side a shock lead, taking a pass from centre partner Guillaume Bousses and bursting through the Toulouse cover to score and convert for a 16-11 lead.

Delasau, caught flat-footed for the try, was replaced by Nicolas Bezy a few minutes into the second half, and with the scrum-half replacing Jauzion at stand-off Toulouse came to life. First Bezy reduced the deficit with a simple penalty, then Florien Fritz won turnover ball from a Parisian attack and linked with Jauzion, flanker Jean Bouilhou and Nicolas Vergallo to put Maxime Medard into space - the winger's speed did the rest.

Fritz's conversion and another Bezy penalty made it 24-16, before Vincent Clerc scored Toulouse's third try, Yoann Maestri ripping the ball of the of a ruck, Sylvain Nicolas taking it on and feeding Bezy, who drew his man on the halfway line and threw a perfectly timed pass for Clerc to pin his ears back and race 50 metres to score.

Clement Poitrenaud appeared to have completed a back-three clean sweep and picked up a bonus point 10 minutes from time as he chased up an up-and-under from Bezy to score under the posts, but the referee adjudged several Toulouse players to have been offside at the time of Bezy's kick.

Despite the arrival of Mathieu Bastareaud, Julien Dupuy and Rodrigo Roncero midway through the half, there was no way back into the game for the Parisians and Toulouse could celebrate a win that lifted them to the top of the table and could possibly have lifted 21-year-old Bezy into the starting line-up for the European champions' upcoming clashed with Montpellier, La Rochelle and Biarritz.

Agen 28 Biarritz 23

Agen's first home game of the season also saw their first win, although visitors Biarritz, under new captain Imanol Harinordoquy, ran them close with a second-half comeback.

Valentin Courrent did the damage for the newly promoted hosts, notching up a 100 per cent day with the boot against his former club with six first-half penalties and a late seventh to seal the match for Agen.

The Basques, however, had just three points to show for their first half efforts courtesy of a penalty from full back Marcelo Bosch.

Forwards coach Jean-Michel Gonzalez obviously earned his midweek vote of confidence at half time as the Biarritz pack came out firing after the break, putting their Armandie opposites under such pressure that after refusing one appeal for a pushover try, the referee awarded a penalty try that Bosch coverted to haul the visitors back to within eight points.

Ian Balshaw almost scored on 53 minutes, knocking on in goal as he went to ground Ngwenya's grubber, but it was a five-point game a minute later as Bosch added another penalty.

As the game entered its final quarter, it looked as though Basque pressure would finally tell, but a fumbled ball in Agen's 22 cost the visitors dear the hosts launched a counter attack from which American winger Kevin Swiryn scored 85 metres downfield.

Courrent's conversion made it 25-13, but the visitors were the stronger side and with 10 minutes to go, a series of pick and goes on the Agen line ended with a Biarritz scrum-five, from which Harinordoquy picked up and slipped a pass for replacement scrum-half Adrien Ayestaran to score his first try for the club.

Jean-Pascal Barraque converted, but Courrent's seven penalty took Agen two scores clear, and although Barraque picked up a bonus point with another penalty three minutes from time, good work from Agen flanker Jean Monribot in the dying seconds foiled Biarritz's last attack and the Stade Armandie faithful could celebrate their first Top 14 victory for three-and-a-half years.

Clermont 33 Brive 9

Clermont moved into their familiar top-two position with a comfortable win over Brive.

A tight first-half saw Mathieu Belie and Morgan Parra trade penalties before Julien Malzieu scored the first try of the afternoon at the end of a superb team movement. Belie struck back at once with a 30-metre penalty before Parra had the last word of the half with a superb 48-metre effort for a 13-6 interval lead.

Parra has taken over kicking duties from jaunard metronome Broke James this season, but James posted a reminder of his presence with a drop goal two minutes into the second half.

Although Benoit Baby narrow missed scoring from a kick-and-chase to himself and the video referee denied another effort, Clermont's domination soon paid off, Elvis Vermeulen charging over from a textbook line-out move.

With 10 minutes to go, Clermont's rampaging forwards created a bonus-point try for Vincent Debaty, and despite some belated pressure from the visitors against 14-man Clermont (prop Zirakashvili-Davit seeing yellow), it stayed 33-9 to the champions.

Castres 25 Bayonne 16

Bayonne's 100% record fell at Castres, although for a quarter of the match it looked like the Basques would spring another surprise.

Bayonne Flanker Jean-Jo Marmouyet opened the scoring just nine minutes in, Week 1 Stade Mayol hero Yohan Huget bursting through the hosts' defence, drawing Castres full-back Romain Teulet and delivering a perfect pass for Marmouyet to score in the corner.

Cedric Garcia converted an added a penalty on 14 minutes to give Bayonne a 10-0 lead, but Teulet is never far from the scoreboard and his first penalty attempt drew Castres back to within seven points and marked the full-back's 2001st top-flight point.

His 2004th wasn't far away as Teulet and Garcia embarked on a kicking contest that reached half time with the visitors 16-9 up.

It remained 16-9 going into the last quarter, but having resisted Bayonne pressure, Castres tied the scores. From a scrum in their own half, centre Seremaia Bai saw Marc Andreu on his wing and sent a long kick downfield. Andreu got the lucky bounce, tapped the ball infield, picked up and scored under posts for Teulet to convert.

With the momentum with the hosts, Bayonne lost their composure and gave away a succession of penalties to send Teulet towards his 3000th point. Nine were enough to seal the match and deny Bayonne a bonus point.