Cedric Garcia's late kick sees off the challenge of the champions and keeps Bayonne top of the Top 14, Brive's late show upsets stunned Stade, Toulon finally gain a home win and Racing-Metro pick up a bonus at the 32nd attempt

Bayonne 18 Clermont 16, Stade Francais 27 Brive 29, Toulon 41 Agen 10, Racing-Metro 43 La Rochelle 18, Montpellier 23 Castres 12, Perpignan 27 Bourgoin 20, Biarritz 25 Toulouse 20 - See the latest league table

Bayonne 18 Clermont 16

Bayonne confirmed that their position atop the Top 14 is no early-season fluke as they pulled off a narrow victory over champions Clermont at a passionate Stade Jean-Dauger.

The first half was as tight as any top-of-the-table clash, both sides keeping it tight and relying on their kickers to keep the scoreboard moving. Clermont's Gavin Williams gave the visitors a 6-0 lead with two penalties, before Bayonne fly-half Benjamin Boyet drew the hosts level and then put them into the lead a minute from half-time with a third penalty.

Boyet opened the second half with a successful drop goal to open a six-point lead, but that was the key for the champions to fight back. Their first period of forward pressure led to a penalty under the posts which Williams duly accepted.

From the kick off they raced straight back down into the Basques' 22, bundled what remained of the sky blue defence back to their own try line and waited patiently until Napolioni Nalaga, seemingly turning loose forward, picked up and barged over for the first try of the game.

Williams converted for a 16-12 lead, but Bayonne kept the ball in hand, went back upfield and Cedric Garcia slipped a drop goal over to make it a one-point game with 53 minutes gone.

Boyet attempted a far more audacious drop goal from some 40 metres on 57 minutes, but it fell short.

Yann Huget's arrival on 58 minutes ignited the sell-out Jean-Daguer crowd, but in such a tight game the ball rarely found its way out the wings, and even Antony Floch had to resort to attempting a 50-metre drop goal to gain a score's advantage.

With just seven minutes to go a Clermont player played the ball on the ground and Garcia had the chance of a penalty from even further inside his own half, and he couldn't have hit it better if he'd tried, as the ball dipped, hit the crossbar and bounced through the posts to give the hosts an 18-16 lead.

Boyet attempted to settle the match with another mammoth drop, but this one fell short. He needn't have worried - although Clermont set up camp on the Bayonne 22 from the restart, Bayonne turned the ball over and wasted no time kicking the ball out on the hooter for a famous win over the champions and a real statement of their continued intent this season.

Stade Francais 27 Brive 29

Brive pulled off the only away win of the weekend in dramatic fashion - stunning Stade Francais with a final-quarter comeback that inflicted the Parisians' first defeat at their temporary Stade Charlety home.

It was all looking so comfortable two minutes into the second half when Martin Rodriguez scored the hosts' third try, a superb solo effort that he converted to make it 24-12.

Stade's earlier tries had come from Ollie Phillips and Sergio Parisse, the centre and the No.8 both scoring their fourth tries of the campaign within the first 20 minutes. Mathieu Belié kicked four penalties for Brive, Lionel Beauxis adding seven points with the boot and managing to get himself yellow carded into the bargain.

Beauxis' second penalty on 52 minutes made it 27-12 to the hosts, before a slew of substitutions changed the game in Brive's favour. Gerard Vosloo wasted a simple overlap with Alix Popham to deny the welshman an easy score, but two minutes later a Parisian attack broke down inside Brive's own half and the visitors raced upfield to score, Antonie Claasen touching down in the corner and Belié converting.

Play became increasingly less fluid, Juan Manuel Leguizamon seeing yellow for a huge punch on Alexis Palisson, and Fabrice Estebanez joining the Paris flanker in the sinbin for retaliating.

Julien Caminati converted the resulting penalty to pull Brive back to within five points, and although Stade drove upfield to close the game out, they lost the ballon and another counter attack saw replacement scrum-half Luciano Orquera gather, race upfield and hand South African winger Ronnie Cooke the try-scoring opportunity.

That made it 27-all, Belié adding the conversion and delivering the ball into touch shortly after the restart to begin the celebrations of an unlikely victory for Brive in Paris.

Toulon 41 Agen 10

Stade Mayol finally had something to celebrate as Toulon ran in six tries against a poor Agen.

Toulon raced to a 22-point lead in as many minutes as Jonny Wilkinson, Dewald Senekal and Juan Martin Fernandez Lobbe scored early tries. Conrad Barnard did pull back a penalty for Agen but Wilkinson's second try made it 29-3 at the break.

After the restart, Florent Cazeaux's first try for his new club brought back memories of Agen's comeback against Perpignan last weekend, but the visitors soon found themselves down to 14 men when prop Gert Muller took a yellow card for the pack following repeated scrum infringments.

Surprisingly Toulon didn't capitalise on the extra man, but got the scoreboard moving again on the hour when kiwi winger Rudi Wulf scored his first try for his new club.

The afternoon's work was complete when the Agen pack, under pressure all game, gave away a penalty try at the death, finally giving the local supporters somthing to celebrate after two home defeats.

Racing-Metro 43 La Rochelle 18

A late flurry of tries gave Racing-Metro's victory over promoted La Rochelle a one-sided appearance, but the visitors from the Atlantic coast put up a brave fight in the capital, especially considering they played almost 50 minutes a man down following the dismissal of full back Benjamin Dambielle for a spear tackle on Racing scrum-half Jerome Fillol.

At that point Racing led 11-6 thanks to a Sireli Bobo try and two penalties for Juan Martin Hernandez to two Dambielle goals. Bobo's try combined the bizarre with the downright cheeky, Francois Steyn taking a quick kick-off as the visitors strolled back their own half following Dambielle's second penalty and the alert Fijian winger - who may have been a few centimetres offside at the restart - racing down the touchline to pick up and score.

Dambielle saw red on 32 minutes and the Parisians soon made the most of the advantage, Mirco Bergamasco scoring under the posts just before half-time.

Controversial referee Christophe Berdos levelled the playing field temporarily, handing Andrea Masi a yellow card for pulling Seru Rabeni's shirt, and La Rochelle capitalised by closing the gap to 18-13 with a try for Florian Ninard.

Jonathan Wisniewski, back at outside-half after Hernandez had limped off with an ankle injury, kicked two penalties to extend the lead to 24-13 on the hour, but Norman Ligairi threatened a grandstand finish when he got on the end of Rabeni's pass after the fijian had crashed through the home defence.

But Racing weren't planning to give up their home record, and as La Rochelle tired (and Ninard's yellow card made it 15 against 13), the Parisians closed out with tries for Argentine flanker Alvaro Galindo and two almost identical short-range drives for lock Francois van der Merwe, the second earning a bonus point (the club's first in 32 Top 14 matches) and moving Racing up to second place.

Montpellier 23 Castres 12

Montpellier complete the league's unlikely podium following a solid win over Castres.

Metronome Romain Teulet kicked the visitors into an early lead, his three penalties to one each for Martin Bustos Moyano and Fancois Trinh-Duc giving Castres a 9-6 lead before a big shove from the Montpellier pack saw Georgian flanker Mamuka Gorgodze awarded the game's first try.

Castres hooker Mathieu Bonello saw yellow before the interval for an accumulation of professional fouls on the part of his team, but the Pellier could make little headway, Bustos Moyano extending the lead with a penalty before Seremaia Bai, taking the tee from the injured Teulet, restored the four-point gap with a 51st minute penalty.

Geoffroy Doumayrou scored the match's decisive score with a try on the hour, the 20-year-old's first since his Week 2 hat-trick against Racing. It was an excellent backs move that ended with Trinh-Duc slipping the final pass to the young centre.

Perpignan 27 Bourgoin 20

Perpignan picked up another unimpressive win at Stade Aimé-Giral, veteran Farid Sid scoring two second half tries to save the Catalans after Bourgoin had led 10-9 at half-time following an Alexandre Dumoulin try just before the break.

Sid's second try appeared to have sealed the victory, but flanker Alex Tulou rattled some Catalan nerves when he scored the visitors' second try five minutes from time.

Jerome Porical ensured a seven-point margin with his fifth penalty of the afternoon, but bottom club Bourgoin left with a bonus point while USAP will be wondering when their frustrating season will come to life.

Biarritz 25 Toulouse 20

Toulouse outscored Biarritz by two tries to one but 20 points from the boot of Dimitri Yachvili earned another home win for the Basques.

Toulouse took an early lead through a David Skrela penalty but prop Eduard Coetzee struck back with his first try of the season, and Yachvili opened up a 10-point lead with the conversion and two penalties.

Toulouse's new-found try machine, hooker William Servat, scored his fourth try of the season on the half-hour, but although Skrela converted, Yachvili added a penalty before the break to make it 16-10 at the interval.

Another penalty tit-for-tat made it 19-13 before Toulouse took the lead through a try by Maxime Medard, the full back clearly keen to stay ahead of Servat in the club's try-scoring stakes. Skrela's conversion made it 20-19 to the visitors, but late infringements from the visitors handed two further penalty chances to Yachvili on an afternoon where he wasn't in the mood to miss.