An evening of tight games saw Racing-Metro confidently dispose of champions Clermont, there's last-minute agony for Toulouse at Montpellier and Castres in Paris, and Bourgoin finally get off the mark

Racing-Metro 28 Clermont 17, Montpellier 22 Toulouse 21, Stade Francais 40 Castres 34, Bayonne 19 Brive 18, Perpignan 17 Biarritz 12, Bourgoin 22 Agen 15, La Rochelle 13 Toulon 15 - See the latest league table

Some players may have complained about this week's fixtures pile-up, but for the fans round four of the Top 14 was a night of high drama in which all but one club picked up at least a bonus points for their efforts.

Racing-Metro 28 Clermont 17

The only team to come away with nothing from the night's action was champions Clermont, who took an early lead at a standing-room-only Stade Colombes only to see Jonathan Wisniewski punish their every indiscretion with another superb place-kicking performance.

Two penalties by Clermont's Samoan centre Gavin Williams put the visitors 6-0 within nine minutes, but although Racing were a full-back short following the yellow carding of Benjamin Fall for a high tackle on Gonzalo Canale, les Auvergnats failed to capitalise and the hosts gradually got into the game through their powerful pack, Wisniewski kicking a penalty on 18 minutes before a massive 45-metre drop goal tied the scores four minutes later.

Wis kicked Racing into a 9-6 lead on 29 minutes before Julien Saubade scored the try that would turn the game. Captain Lionel Nallet popped up from the back of the ruck to carve through the Clermont defence, slipped a pass to scrum-half Mathieu Lorée who put a high kick over towards the touchline. Advancing winger Saubade got two lucky bounces, caught the ball and rounded last man Anthony Floch to score. Wisiewski converted for a 16-6 lead, and exchanged penalties with Brock James in the final minutes to change round at Racing 19 Clermont 9.

Racing's dominant pack gave Wis a shot at two more penalties after the break, James kicking one in return for a 25-12 lead. Clermont finally got some decent posession and from a penalty-lineout a few metres out, lock Thibault Privat took the perfect catch and hooker Ti'i Paulo charged over to score.

The arrival of Morgan Parra gave Clermont some hope of closing the eight-point gap, but handling errors from both sides put paid to any further scores until Wisniewski closed proceedings with a last-minute penalty.

Montpellier 22 Toulouse 21

Montpellier continued their remarkable start under new coach Fabien Galthié with a slender win over Toulouse. But it was hearts-in-mouths stuff as Nicolas Bezy seemed to have stolen a win for Toulouse with a last-gasp try, only to miss the straightforward conversion that would have taken all four points.

Bezy had helped Toulouse to a 16-9 lead at the break, kicking 11 points with three penalties and the conversion of Vilimoni Delasau's 60-metre interception try. Martin Bustos Moyano's three penalties kept les Heraultais in touch, and he single-handedly hauled them into the lead seven minutes into the second period, kicking an early penalty before capitalising on a Fulgence Ouedraogo break to touch down under the posts.

Another penalty made it 22-16 with just 51 minutes gone, but despite a mass substitution by Toulouse, like Perpignan on Saturday they just couldn't break through Montpellier's defence and the game was well into injury time when Bezy, playing fly-half outside Byron Kelleher, showed all his scrum-half guile by making a diagonal break that caught the blue-shirted hosts by surprise.

He even managed to cut inside to give himself an easier conversion from slightly to the right of the posts but the kick drifted outside the right-hand upright, leaving the 21-year-old to be comforted by Kelleher as Montpellier's players celebrated their climb to the top in the table, albeit temporarily.

Stade Francais 40 Castres 34

Stade Francais ended the night in first place, but faced an agonising final few moments of their own as Castres came back from 40-17 down to come within a video ref's decision of pulling off an unlikely win at Stade Charlety. After a long period of sustained pressure in the Parisian's half, lock Yannick Caballero appeared to have grounded the ball, but after a endless set of re-runs that would have put the BBC to shame but that left us none the wiser as to whether the lock had knocked on or James Haskell had got his body under the ball, the referee signalled no try and Stade could start celebrating a very lucky escape.

The game had looked done and dusted when Ollie Phillips scored Stade Francais' fifth try - and his second - four minutes before the end of the first half. Dimitri Szarzewski had opened the floodgates with the first try just seven minutes in, scrum-half Julien Dupuy chipped ahead, Mathieu Bastareaud gathered and put the hooker through for the opening score.

Two penalties from Seremaia Bai kept Castres in touch but two tries in three minutes for the Parisians restored a healthy advantage. First Sergio Parisse weaved his way through the visitors' defence, then Phillips sprinted in for the bonus-point try.

Parisse bagged his second to make it 27-9 to Stade courtesy of a looping pass by Haskell, and although Castres No.8 Iosefa Tekori pulled one back for the visitors, Phillips' second made it 5-1 and 37-14 on the scoreboard.

It wasn't much different going into the last 20, but when flanker Ibrahim Diarra raced in from 22 metres and Yoan Audrin skipped along the touchline to make it 40-31 just three minutes later, alarm bells started ringing in the Parisian camp.

Pierre Bernard took over kicking duties from Bai to secure a losing bonus point with a penalty on 66 minutes, but they couldn't turn pressure into a fourth try, and although a terrific break by scrum-half Sebastien Tillous-Borde set up a frantic finale and the visitors edged ever closer to the try line, Caballero's effort was ruled out and the Parisians could breathe again.

Bayonne 19 Brive 18

Bayonne sit in second place this morning, but were taken to the wire by a Brive side who put in a vastly improved performance since their weekend defeat at Clermont.

The visitors were 12-0 up within 10 minutes, scrum-half Mathieu Belié converting his own try after just four minutes and centre Jamie Noon doubling the lead as he, in his own words, "barrelled over" from "two metres out".

Bayonne scrum-half Julien Audy scored all his team's points on the night, beginning with a 14th minute try that he converted, and adding two penalties before the break - Belié's first penalty of the evening kept Brive 15-13 ahead at the break.

Belié extended the lead after the interval, but Audy struck back and gave Bayonne the lead for the first time with his fifth successful kick of the match on 54 minutes. There on in it was a tight affair with little of the flair that Bayonne have been allowed to show in their three previous games, but the Basques will be relieved to come away with their third win from four, already a vast improvement on last season's disastrous campaign.

Perpignan 17 Biarritz 12

Two teams playing against type for all the wrong reasons met at Stade Aimé-Giral and played out a tight match that betrayed a nervousness after their respective week 3 defeats to Montpellier and Agen.

Dimitri Yachvili kicked the Basques into an early lead, punishing Catalan indiscipline with two penalties as USAP scrum-half Kevin Boulogne missed his own attempt at goal.

USAP's injury jinx struck again as David Marty collapsed with a leg injury on 31 minutes, but the arrival of the physio gave Kevin Boulogne a chance to tap a quick penalty and canter in to give USAP the lead for the first time. It only lasted a minute or two before Yachvili kicked his third penalty, and the teams changed round with the visitors holding a narrow 9-7 lead.

Biarritz were down to 14 men on 47 minutes, Jerome Thion seeing yellow for sparking a punch-up, and without one of their key line-out targets, the Basques lost a throw in their own 22, young outside-half Gilles Bosch threw it wide and after several phases hooker Guilhem Guirado was bundled over by his pack for USAP's second try.

A 40-metre penalty attempt by Yachvili just shaved the wrong side of the post, and Bosch - the 20-year-old called upon to cover Perpignan's cursed outside-half position - put the hosts further ahead with a simple drop goal within Biarritz's 22.

With 10 minutes to go Yachvili took advantage of a rare foray into USAP's half to kick a fourth penalty and reduce the deficit to five points, and local nerves were rattling when Biarritz won a line-out deep in the hosts' 22, only for Romain Terrain to choose that moment to throw straight to his own side of the line.

USAP, who had clearly opted to stick with their win rather than twisting for a bonus point, breathed a sigh of relief but with just one win from three, Biarritz won't be looking forward to the visit of Stade Francais to Stade Aguilera on Sunday.

Bourgoin 22 Agen 15

Bourgoin picked up their first win in their relgation eight-pointer with promoted Agen, taking a while to find their feet as Alberto di Bernardo outkicked Conrad Barnard by three penalties to two before flanker Yann Labrit scored the first - and only - try of the evening and di Bernardo added a fourth penalty to give the hosts a 19-6 lead at half-time.

Agen came into the game in the second half, Barnard, like Di Bernardo, extending his 100% record on the night with three penalties to haul the visitors to within four points with 10 minutes on the clock. But Bourgoin held firm and the Argentinian outside-half restored the seven-point margin with his sixth successful kick of the night to earn Bourgoin their first points of the season. They remain bottom of the table, immediately below Agen themselves.

La Rochelle 13 Toulon 15

Toulon were the only away winners on a thrilling evening, but La Rochelle almost pulled off a third win of the season with a thrilling second-half fightback from being 12-0 down at half-time.

Jonny Wilkinson kicked all Toulon's points with two penalties and two drop goals in the first period. Benjamin Dambielle finally got the hosts on the board five minutes into the second half and made it 6-12 with his second kick on the hour. Wilkinson's third drop restored a nine-point cushion and it remained 15-6 until the final five minutes, when Fijian winger Norman Ligairi raced over and Dambielle converted to make it a two-point game.

Toulon held on, but La Rochelle will be regretting not getting into the game earlier and again will take heart from another strong performance which leaves them comfortably mid-table at this early stage.