Relegation candidates Colomiers and Carcassonne open their campaigns with away wins, Tarbes show promise at Narbonne and Lyon struggle to see off Aix

Bordeaux-Begles 15 Colomiers 20, Grenoble 9 Mont-de-Marsan 12, Aurillac 36 Dax 13, Lyon 22 Aix-en-Provence 9, Narbonne 34 Tarbes 29, Albi 45 Saint-Etienne 19, Auch 25 Carcassonne 26, Pau 20 Oyonnax 19 - See the latest league table

Bordeaux-Begles 15 Colomiers 20

Colomiers, written off by this very website only this morning, stunned promotion hopefuls Union Bordeaux-Begles by opening the Pro D2 season with a stunning away win on Friday night.

Winger and club stalwart Morgan Saout scored the only try of the match for the visitors on 17 minutes, Frederic Couzier keeping the Toulouse club eight points clear with four penalties after Yannick Lafforgue had given them an early lead with a first-minute goal.

Gerard Fraser, the former Bayonne fly-half back in France after three years in Italy, kept the hosts in touch with five penalties of his own, the last eight minutes from time earning l'Union a highly unsatisfactory bonus point.

Narbonne 34 Tarbes 29

Fabien Fortassin almost made a heroes return to the Tarbes team, scoring 24 of his side's 29 points as they came within a few minutes of an away win at promotion hopefuls Narbonne.

Fortassin, who scored almost 400 points in his last season at Stade Maurice-Treult in 2006/07, wasted no time in opening his 2010/11 account, racing over in the first minute and converting to give the visitors a shock 7-0 lead. It didn't last long as Narbonne full-back Leo Griffoul touched down on five minutes, Christophe Ruiz converting to level the scores.

Tarbes were back ahead within seven minutes, winger Sebastien Caujolle getting off the mark and no doubt hoping for a better season's return than the pair of tries he scored all last season. Fab Fort™'s conversion made it 14-7, and two further penalties (answered by one from Ruiz) made it 20-10 with half an hour gone. But two quick tries from Narbonne - hooker Joachim Algisi claiming the first and Griffoul the second on the stroke of half-time - hauled the hosts back into the game with a 22-20 half-time lead.

Ruiz and Fortassin exchanged drop goals early in the second half before the pair embarked on a tit-for-tat kicking contest, the lead changing hands four times in the last quarter before two late Ruiz penalties sealed the game for a relieved Narbonne.

The last 20 minutes also saw three yellow cards, Griffoul adding 10 minutes in the bin to his 10 points, Tarbes flanker Thomas Lasserre heading back to the touchline just three minutes after he'd joined the action and scrum-half Thierry Lacrampe spending the last four minutes in the bin (when we'd have preferred him to have seized up with undescribable muscle pains. Maybe next week).

For Narbonne it marks a winning start to their fourth year in the second tier. For Tarbes, it's a hint that the return of Fab Fort could be the Pro D2 signing of the season.

Auch 25 Carcassonne 26

If Tarbes' performance was promising, Carcassonne's was nothing short of phenomenal. We're used to seeing promoted teams struggling for points but the Cité club - aided by another Top 14 veteran in Cedric Rosalen - stated their intent with a one-point win at Auch.

Rosalen kicked 16 of the visitors' points, giving Carcassonne the lead for the first time on 33 minutes by converting a penalty try. Pierre-Alexandre Dut, making his Pro D2 debut for Auch after four years with Grenoble, appeared to have given Auch a half-time lead with a penalty on 40 minutes, but Carcassonne bounced back from the restart, centre Felix le Bourhis touching down and Rosalen converting to make it 17-12 at the break.

Christian Labit's men lost their composure a little after the break, Dut punishing centre Cédric Guironnet on 47 minutes with a penalty to add to his yellow card, and flanker Jerome Baradat's dismissal reduced the visitors to 13 men for 90 seconds of the half.

As soon as Baradat had returned, former Clermont flanker Emmanuel Etien followed them into bin. But Auch couldn't capitalise on the extra man and by the time Christophe Clarac sniped over for a consolation try two minutes from time, Rosalen had kicked Carcassonne into an unassailable position.

Albi 45 Saint-Etienne 19

Carcassonne's fellow Pro D2 newcomers Saint-Etienne had a less impressive debut, but showed enough fight against newly-arrived-from-the-other-direction Albi to suggest that they may not be merely onlookers in the relegation battle.

The hosts' six tries to one was enough to pick up a bonus point and lift them to top spot in the table. Former Stade Francais winger Dave Vainqueur scored a try in each half, No.8 Vincent Clement, flanker Laurent Baluc-Rittener and full-back Sofiane Guitoune scoring one each and fly-half Romain Sola celebrating the last-minute ratification of his transfer from Agen by adding a try, two conversions and three penalties.

Veteran full-back Alexandre Peclier, formerly of Lyon, Clermont and Bourgoin, kicked 14 of Saint-Etienne's points, young flanker Guenaël Henri coming off the bench to score CASE's first-ever Pro D2 try in the final minutes.

Lyon 22 Aix-en-Provence 9

Peclier's former club Lyon - favourites for promotion to the top flight - had some difficulty in seeing off last year's relegated-but-saved outfit Aix. The visitors led 9-6 at half time, Antoine Lescalmel's penalty and a brace of kicks from new arrival Danie de Beer outscoring Pierre-Yves Montagnat's two early penalties.

After the break it was all Lyon, Montagnat tying the scores before Xavier Sadourny dropped a goal and Montagnat converted his own try on 52 minutes. The full back brought his afternoon's tally to 19 points with his fourth penalty on 54 minutes, but despite the sin-binning of Aix flanker Olivier Gwendal on 62 minutes, the Lyon floodgates never opened and they had to be content with just the four points.

Grenoble 9 Mont-de-Marsan 12

With former Grenoble players Dut and De Beer on the scoresheets elsewhere, is it any wonder that the boys from the Alpes failed to reach double-figures on their home debut? Kiwi outside-half Blair Stewart's three penalties were seen and raised by Benat Arrayet, returning for Stade Montois after just a season at Bayonne and kicking four penalties to seal the win for the visitors.

"We undid a year's worth of work today," fumed Grenoble coach and former France hooker Fabrice Landreau.

"We played a team of old-timers and fell apart. No scrum, no win. We never got into this game. There is power and potential in this team, but we need solid basics, and we didn't have those today."

Aurillac 36 Dax 13

Aurillac's win over Dax was perhaps the result of the weekend given the latter's promotion credentials, but the biggest regret for new Dax boss Big Olivier Roumat is offloading Maxime Petitjean to Aurillac in the summer.

The former Stade Boyau stand-off kicked 23 points (six penalties, a conversion and a drop goal) as Aurillac bounced back from conceding an early try to Fijian winger Neumi Nanuku and a 12-13 half-time deficit to dominate the visitors up-front in the second half and score tries through Namibian flanker Jacques Nieuwenhuis and Fijian winger Ropate Ratu.

Dax's big summer half-back signings had varying degrees of success. Fly-half Richard Apanui kicked eight points on his arrival from Tarbes, while welsh scrum-half Liam Davies lasted just six minutes before receiving his first Pro D2 yellow card.

For Dax, it's a reality check after some good pre-season friendly results including a win over English Premiership side Northampton, while Aurillac have clearly begun their late-season promotion charge a little earlier than usual.

Pau 20 Oyonnax 19

Sunday's Week 1 finale was an early promotion eight pointer as last season's losing play-off semi-finalists met with automatic promotion already in mind.

Pau battled to a one-point victory, but they'll be wondering how they failed to take advantage of an Oyonnax team down to 13 men for five minutes at the end of the first half.

After the teams turned round with the visitors 6-3 up, la Section did see Samoan No.8 Marlon Solofuti score the first try on 44 minutes, scrum-half Clement Darbo's tap penalty catching the Oyonnax defence unawares.

Arnaud Pic responded in kind for the visitors on 66 minutes, the scrum-half playing a quick penalty and scoring to give Oyonnax a 16-14 lead, but Pau pressure handed Andre Hough two penalties in swift succession, and although Jonathan Bousquet's 73rd minute penalty set up a grandstand finish, Pau contained Oyonnax's final attacks and held on for a narrow win.