Toulouse see off battling Basques, Racing and Montpellier rack up the points, Wilkinson kicks Toulon to victory over Clermont and Perpignan's Porical puts the boot into Paris

Toulouse 29 Bayonne 20, Racing-Metro 50 Bourgoin 21, Agen 6 Montpellier 35, La Rochelle 23 Biarritz 29, Castres 28 Brive 6, Perpignan 22 Stade Francais 21, Toulon 28 Clermont 16 - See the latest league table

Toulouse 29 Bayonne 20

Despite putting up a strong fight in their second big game in seven days, Top 14 leaders Bayonne left Toulouse without so much as a bonus point after a Nicolas Bezy's late penalty and two missed try scoring opportunities left them nine points adrift of the European champions.

The Basque visitors took an early lead, responding to David Skrela's sixth-minute penalty with an immediate try. From the restart, Sam Gerber ripped the ball out of a maul and flanker Jean-Jo Marmouyet showed a scrum-half's touch to chip the ball into the corner. Toulouse full back Maxime Medard seemed to have it covered but Bayonne winger Joe Pietersen beat him for speed and dived in beneath Medard to score by the flag.

Julien Audy converted from the touchline before he and Skrela exchanged penalties to make it 10-6 to Bayonne.Touluse imposed their first spell of pressure deep in the Basque half but could find no way through or round the defence nor over it, each of Skrela's up and unders easily finding a light-blue shirt.

Eventually the hosts settled for an easy penalty that Skrela kicked to close the gap to a point, but Toulouse's spell of pressure was far from over, and from a messy line-out on the Bayonne 22, Thierry Dusautoir gathered loose ball and slipped a pass to Census Johnston. The Samoan prop crashed through an attempted double tackle and took a diagonal route through the Basque defence and over the line. With an easy conversion, Skrela made it 16-10.

Toulouse kept the pressure on and three minutes before half-time, Vincent Clerc broke into the Bayonne 22, setting up Kelleher to feed Skrela from the ruck. Skrela slipped a short pass to the advancing Yannick Jauzion,who released Clement Poitrenaud for the sort of easy run-in the Ernest-Wallon faithful see 20 times a season.

The conversion gave Toulouse a 23-10 half-time lead, but just as we were wondering if Bayonne's early-season bubble had burst, back they came after the break, inspired by a Pepito Elhorga break from deep. Taking the ball in his own 22, the veteran full back raced up the touchline and cut inside only to be pulled down some 10 metres from the try line. Fly-half Sebastian Fauqué followed up and put over a kick to Gerber on the opposite touchline, but the centre watched as the ball bounced out of his grasp and the try went begging.

Audy did close the gap to 10 points on 49 minutes, and four minutes later Bayonne were right back in it with their second try. A kick ahead by centre Craig Gower caused the Toulouse defence to panic, the Australian followed up with a hack ahead and winger Yohan Huget beat a lunging Cedric Heymans to score his fifth try of the season, Audy converting from in front of the posts to make it 23-20 to Toulouse.

Skrela kicked his fourth penalty when hooker David Romieu was yellow carded for preventing Byron Kelleher from playing the ball from an offside position, but despite being a man down, Bayonne piled on the pressure and had a gilt-edged chance to take the lead on 63 minutes. Huget made a weaving run to the edge of the Toulouse 22, but with two players in the clear outside him, his pass was too strong for either Gower or Pietersen to take and the chance went begging.

With 10 minutes a high tackle by Gower on Poitrenaud gave Nicolas Bezy the chance to extend the margin to nine points with his first penalty of the night, but with time ticking out, Bayonne almost closed the gap and earned a bonus point. Gerber put Pietersen through with a big pass that seemed to put the winger in for a try, but Maxime Medard chased the South African into touch metres short of the line and the bonus was looking increasingly unlikely.

A badly set scrum gave Bezy a long-range penalty attempt with a minute to go, and although he missed the ball was deep enough in the Bayonne half that even Elhorga couldn't escape his own 22 this time, and Toulouse held out for the win which was enough for them to leapfrog the Basques at the top of the table - temporarily at least.

Racing-Metro 50 Bourgoin 21

Pierre Berbizier's Racing-Metro took advantage of Bayonne's defeat to go top of the Top 14 with their second big win in seven days.

La Rochelle were the lambs to the Stade Colombes slaughter last week, and this time it was bottom club Bourgoin who were put to the sword, conceding six tries as the Parisians picked up a second consecutive bonus point for the first time in their Top 14 history.

Like last week, it took a second-half rout and some late tries to earn the bonus, but after 31 league matches without a winning bonus, Racing definitely seem to have found the keys to the floodgates.

After a tight first half, the hosts led just 17-13 at the interval, outside-half Jonathan Wisniewski scoring all his side's points with four penalties and a 29th minute try. Bourgoin only had two Alberto di Bernardo penalties to show for their first half efforts until, three minutes before the break, winger Nemani Nadolo evaded the tackles of Fall and fellow Fijian Sireli Bobo to score his first try for his new club.

Di Bernardo missed a 50-metre longshot to close the gap after the break, and Racing made the visitors pay as they ran in three tries in eight minutes. First hooker Benjamin Noirot claimed Racing's second try, kiwi flanker Johnny Leo'o bagged the third and as the game entered its final quarter, Bobo intercepted a wild Di Bernardo pass to race 45 metres and with the score at 36-13, put one hand on the bonus point.

Rudi Coetzee took that bonus away with Bourgoin's second try of the game on 66 minutes, a first-phase attack from a line seeing the South African centre bursting through the home defence for his first try of the season.

Francois Steyn kicked a 30-metre drop goal with eight minutes on the clock, but the bonus didn't evade the hosts, winger Henry Chavancy scoring Racing's fifth on 76 minutes and Fijian No.8 Jone Qovu rounding off the rout against Bourgoin's tiring defence in the final minute.

Agen 6 Montpellier 35

Montpellier picked up the only other try-bonus of the weekend and climbed to second with a big win at increasingly troubled Agen.

Les Heraultais wasted no time getting off the mark, captain Fulgence Ouedraogo belatedly opening his account for the season after just six minutes, full back Benjamin Thiery throwing a superb blind pass to Francois Trinh-Duc, and the international fly-half releasing best mate Ouedraogo from the tackle to score under the posts.

Martin Bustos Moyano converted and made it 10-0 with a penalty on 15 minutes. Valentin Courrent pulled three points back for the hosts, but Trinh-Duc responded at once with Montpellier's second try, Thiery again setting up the score with a break down the touchline and feeding centre Grant Rees. The South African was tackled five metres short but scrum-half Julien Tomas switched it to the blind side and Trinh-Duc raced in for his second try of the season.

Bustos Moyano converted, and although Courrent added a second penalty to make it 17-6, Montpellier had the bonus point in their pocket before half-time, Ouedraogo finishing off another long-range attack. Tomas broke on the halfway line, Trinh-Duc drew the last man and Ouedraogo was in under the posts for a second time.

Winger Timoci Nagusa claimed Montpellier's fourth - and pick of their scores - after the break, Agen full back Brice Dulin spilling the ball on halfway, Bustos Moyano gathering and feeding the Fijian, whose solo run through the Agen defence, along with Trinh-Duc's conversion, made it 32-6 to the visitors.

Agen pulled back a 20-point deficit in Week 5, but there was to be no comeback this time as Montpellier showed they could defend as well as they can attack, repelling the hosts' attacks and celebrating a huge win which cements their arrival as a true force under coach Fabien Galthié.

La Rochelle 23 Biarritz 29

Agen are firmly in a relegation battle, with their inevitable contenders being Bourgoin and La Rochelle.

It's a measure of Les Rochelais' successes so far that few would have been surprised by a home win against the mighty Biarritz, and first-half tries for Florian Ninard and Seru Rabeni, along with two penalties by Maxime le Bourhis, helped les Maritimes to a 18-13 half-time lead.

Julien Peyrelongue had kicked eight points for Biarritz in the first half with two penalties and the conversion of No.8 Raphael Lakafia's fifth-minute try.

But the arrival of Dimitri Yachvili at half-time changed the game, his greater control taking the Basques into the hosts' half from the restart and gaining instant rewards with his first penalty to bring Biarritz just two points behind.

Five minutes later Biarritz were in the lead thanks to Yachvili's quick thinking and accurate boot, as his big cross-field kick found Takudzwa Ngwenya unmarked and the US international cantered in for the try.

Biarritz flanker Magnus Lund had a try shout rejected by the video ref for a knock-on, but Yachvili extended the lead when La Rochelle flanker Romain Carmignani was yellow carded for a punch on prop Campbell Johnstone, and the scrum-half made it 29-18 with another penalty on 64 minutes.

To their credit, La Rochelle did go looking for the losing bonus point, and claimed their deserved extras a minute after the siren when Le Bourhis broke through the Biarritz defence and gave prop Stephane Clement the easiest of touchdowns. The point keeps them a full three points above the drop zone, while Biarritz climb to the edge of the play-offs.

Castres 28 Brive 6

Castres lie seventh after what for long periods was looking like a tryless battle with a Brive side who were looking at their third win in a row.

Brive may complain about some of the decisions of referee M. Matheu which gave Castres' Romain Teulet the opportunity to kick six penalties to add to his 2000-point tally (and the yellow handed to lock Thibault Dubarry as the match entered its crucial last quarter did seem rather harsh), but they failed to match the standards of their wins over Toulon and in Paris, spilling ball and lacking discipline, no doubt with half a mind on the visit of Toulouse to Stade Amedée-Domenech next Saturday.

Julien Caminati kicked a penalty in each half for the visitors, Cameron McIntyre making the only other impression on the scoreboard with a 30th-minute drop goal set up by an excellent break by winger Marc Andreu. But like their visitors, an error strewn performance from Castres prevented them from getting close to the Brive tryline.

It wasn't just Brive who saw yellow, Castres prop Carl Hoeft getting 10 minutes alongside visiting prop Pascal Idieder, and Seremaia Bai seeing Castres down to 13 men for a dangerous tackle shortly afterwards.

Castres eventually got the score that slightly flattered them when Andreu capitalised on a fumble by Brive centre Fabrice Estebanez to score the only try of the game on the 80 minute mark.

Perpignan 22 Stade Francais 21

USAP's faltering season continued with another how-did-they-win-that performance at home to Stade Francais. Jerome Porical, that's how...

The Parisians, stung by their late home defeat to Brive last week, led 18-12 at half-time courtesy of an early try by Julien Arias and a second score on 22 minutes from centre Quentin Valancon - his first for the club.

Porical had kicked three penalties in swift succession to give the hosts a narrow lead midway through the half, but two penalties and a conversion from Lionel Beauxis meant Paris were heading back into the changing rooms with a two-score lead until Porical made it 12-18 with his fourth penalty just before the break.

Porical made it a three-point game on 52 minutes with his fifth penalty, and although Beauxis restored the lead a minute later, Porical pulled off the coup de grace. Against the run of play and seamingly trapped on the touchline, the full back chipped the ball over the heads of the Paris defence, caught it in one hand and gallopped in for the try.

It was harsh on Stade, who had just seen Mathieu Bastareaud tackled without the ball as Lionel Beauxis handed him what was surely a try-scoring pass, only for the referee to give a penalty, not a penalty try.

What's more, David Marty had earlier blocked Arias as the scrum-half chased his kick through just five metres short of the line. The USAP centre saw yellow, but Stade frittered away the penalty chance by opting for a scrum which they subsequently lost.

The Parisians could have pulled off the win in the final quarter, but a succession of knock-ons saved USAP from another home defeat and incredibly lifted them from 11th up to sixth place in an increasingly tight Top 14.

Toulon 28 Clermont 16

If Porical saved USAP, then Jonny Wilkinson was the hero of Toulon's victory over Clermont at Marseille's Velodrome. The champions took an early lead when centre Wesley Fofana evaded the tackle of Rory Lamont to touch down after just 12 minutes, Morgan Parra converting and adding two more penalties before the half was out.

But Wilkinson was in punishing form, kicking two penalties when Clermont transgressed before adding a 35-metre drop goal. He did miss a penalty from halfway on the siren, leaving Toulon trailing 9-13 at the break.

Clermont's task was made harder when Benoit Baby was yellow carded for a late tackle on the returning Paul Sackey. Wilkinson put the hosts 18-13 ahead within four minutes of the full-back's dismissal with two straighforward penalties. and although Parra closed the gap two two points, Wilkinson's second drop - a 40-metre effort - restored the five-point lead.

But Toulon's crucial score was to come after Baby's return, Rudy Wulf releasing Lamont with a pass that might have been slightly forward, and the Scot cuttng inside to allow Joe van Niekerk to touch down. Wilkinson converted, and while Clermont tried to power themselves back into the match, but too many times they broke through the first tackles only to find support wanting, or overcomplicated attacks and see the ball go to ground.

Toulon held on for another comfortable win that suggest their early-season tightness has been shaken off. Next week's visit to Bourgoin should allow them to stretch those legs further.