A busy week's rugby ended with Biarritz doing their bitter neighbours a favour, Agen and Perpignan battling out a remarkable draw, Toulon losing again and Toulouse handing out a lesson to La Rochelle

Bourgoin 23 Bayonne 28, Biarritz 19 Stade Francais 11, Brive 27 Toulon 9, Agen 23 Perpignan 23, Castres 31 Racing-Metro 25, Clermont 27 Montpellier 10, Toulouse 50 La Rochelle 3 - See the latest league table

Bourgoin 23 Bayonne 28

Bayonne went to the top of the table with a win at bottom club Bourgoin. The Basques outscored their hosts by three tries to two, and led for most of the first half before Bourgoin threatened a second consecutive win early in the second period.

But Bayonne - relegated last season but saved by Montauban's demotion - are a strong proposition this season, and flanker Abdi Boutaty levelled the scores when he slipped over from a maul on 54 minutes. The returning Benjamin Boyet converted for 23-23, and 10 minutes later Cedric Garcia threw a blindside pass to Yoann Huget for the winger to score his third try of the season.

Bourgoin threw everything at the visitors but desperate work from Bayonne kept them out and they held on to go top, at least until the evening's Biarritz-Stade Francais clash.

Earlier, full back Johan Christiaan Pietersen had given Bayonne an early lead with a fourth-minute try after Boyet had dropped a goal, But three Alberto di Bernardo penalties and a try for winger Jean-Francois Coux had levelled the scores at half-time before hooker Tone Kopelaini's pick-and-go try gave Bourgoin hope of a victory that they couldn't quite pull off.

Biarritz 19 Stade Francais 11

Bayonne's Basque neighbours did them a favour in the weekend's last game, holding out against previous table-toppers Stade Francais to pick up their first win since week 1 and ensuring that the sky blues sit atop the Top 14 until next weekend.

In a hard-fought but unspectacular game, early exchanges saw Julien Dupuy and Dimitri Yachvili share four successful penalties for a 6-6 half-time score.

Biarritz came out firing after the break, gaining forward dominance which allowed Argentine lock Manuel Carizza to follow up a sniping run from Yachvili to pick up the ball and place it all of six inches further forward and over the try line to make it 16-6.

Takudzwa Ngwenya narrowly missed out on touching down a crossfield kick by Yachvili and both Imanol Harinordoquy and Erik Lund went close to scoring later in the half but it was Stade Francais who scored the second try of the night, centre Martin Rodriguez being tackled five metres from the tryline and Mathieu Bastareaud picking up and evading three tacklers to ground the ball on the edge of the paint.

As if there was any doubt as to his Man-of-the-Match status, Yachvili responded with a tremendous drop goal, fully 48 metres out and only a few metres in from the left-hand touchline.

Stade fought hard to win back the losing bonus point but a combination of Basque defence and handling errors left them heading north without a point.

Brive 27 Toulon 9

Toulon's stuttering season suffered another setback as Brive earned a bonus-point win against the star-studded south-easterners.

To give Toulon some credit, they did have to play almost the whole game with just 14 men after centre Mafileo Kefu picked up the first red card of this Top 14 season just five minutes in for a brutal high tackle on full back Alexis Palisson.

Brive scrum-half Mathieu Belié punished Toulon at once with two penalties, but the yellow carding of hooker Guillaume Ribes evened up the sides and Jonny Wilkinson kicked two penalties for a half-time score of 6-6.

Seven minutes into the second half, Gerard Vosloo scored the first try of the afternoon, Palisson finding the gap in the Toulon defence and setting up an attack from which the South African flanker barged over in the corner.

Wilkinson's third penalty made it 13-9, and although winger Ron Cooke wasted an overlap on 63 minutes, Simon Azoulai scored Brive's second try two minutes later, Fabrice Estebanez cutting inside to set up the flanker to score.

Palisson scored and converted the bonus-point try 10 minutes from time to complete another miserable afternoon for Toulon.

Agen 23 Perpignan 23

It was two points apiece at Stade Armandie but Perpignan will wonder how they missed out on all four in a real game of two halves.

The Catalan visitors were 20-0 up at half time, outside-half Gilles Bosch (three injury-free games and counting) kicking his second drop goal of the campaign, Jerome Porical adding four penalties and Joffrey Michel scoring the opening try on 21 minutes when Maxime Mermoz cut the Agen defence open on halfway, drawing the defender and slipping the pass to centre partner Michel, who grounded the ball despite the attentions of Agen full back Brice Dulin.

It didn't take long for Agen, booed off at the interval, to get off the mark after the break, Romain Edmond-Samuel scoring his third try of the season on 45 minutes courtesy of a superb grubber from the outside of Valentin Courrent's boot.

Agen's second came from Sylvain Dupuy, darting over after a series of pick-and-goes had sucked the USAP defence in. Valentin Courrent missed both conversions but got off the mark on 54 minutes with a penalty before Junior Pelesasa levelled the scored on the hour, finding a gap in the Catalan cover to skip over for the third try.

Courrent did convert for 20-all, and took Agen into a once-unlikely lead on 65 minutes when Dupuy fed him deep in the pocket from in front of the posts and he slotted over a 35-metre drop goal.

Perpignan's prospects looked bleak when Romanian flanker Ovidiu Tonita was yellow carded, but they came back into the game, and pressure told when Agen were penalised for offside in front of the posts and Porical opted to take the easy three points.

Agen were denied a winning score eight minutes from time when an apparently legitimate try by Adri Badenhorst was ruled out after Dupuy was found guilty of bundling Kevin Boulogne out of the way in the kick and chase. The hosts battled on until the final whistle but the Catalans held firm to hold out for the first draw of this Top 14 season.

Castres 31 Racing-Metro 25

Castres maintained their home record with a good win over Racing-Metro, whose visit to Stade Pierre-Antoine was their fourth away game in five matches to date.

The first hour saw a kicking contest between Romain Teulet and Juan Martin Hernandez, the league's all-time record scorer notching seven penalties to three penalties and a drop goal by the Argentinian, starting for the first time for his new club.

Seremaia Bai scored his first try for his new club on 63 minutes, Cameron McIntyre picking up loose ball and chipping ahead for Bai to gather and race in for the try.

Castres' 28-12 lead didn't last long, Mirco Bergamasco following up a Hernandez up-and-under to slip a pass to hooker Benjamin Noirot, who scored. Hernandez converted and added a 40-metre penalty to make it 28-22, but Noirot's try-scoring feat was soon forgotten as the hooker conceded a penalty in front of his own posts. Teulet doesn't miss those, and didn't miss Julien Saubade on the stroke of full time, tackling the Racing winger as he was about to earn the visitors a bonus point.

But it wasn't quite over, and there was just enough time for Hernandez to slot a drop goal to claim the extras.

Clermont 27 Montpellier 10

Clermont brought Montpellier closer back to earth after their midweek win over Toulouse, but it wasn't the crushing victory that the Stade Michelin faithful have become used to.

Les Auvergnats did score three tries, Davit Zirakashvili barging over for the first before 19-year-old Montpellier full back Pierre Berard found the gap between Clermont stars Aurlien Rougerie and Marius Joubert and raced in for his second try for the club.

That made it 10-7 to the visitors, and although Brock James kicked two penalties, it looked like it would stay 13-10 at half-time. But as the hooter sounded, Clermont swung the ball out wide and Julien Malzieu took advantage of the overlap to score.

Poor handling and sound Montpellier defence ensured the score stayed 20-10 right until the end, when a long period of Clermont pressure ended with Elvis Vermeulen charging over past a tired visitors' defence.

Toulouse 50 La Rochelle 3

La Rochelle's decision to rest key players resulted in a rout at Stade Ernest-Wallon, Toulouse scoring seven tries in the season's biggest win to date. Maxime Medard opened the floodgates two minutes in, centre Remi Lamerat, scrum-half Nicolas Vergallo and flanker Sylvain Nicolas adding tries before half-time, hooker Virgile Lacombe adding a fifth and Nicolas Bezy and William Servat coming off the bench to complete the victory.

For Bezy, the score might not make up for Wednesday's missed last-minute conversion at Montpellier, while Servat is second in the team's try-scoring chart for the season, behind only full-back Medard.