It's the Tom and Terry show as tries from Marks and Fanolua carry Le Bugue to their first win of the season over Lourdes

Le Bugue 18 Lourdes 7: Enfin une victoire! At the seventh time of asking, Le Bugue finally kick started their Federale 1 campaign, and while the play-offs and Jean Prat Trophy are still a distant possibility, the nature of their victory over Lourdes bodes well for the second half of the regular season.

It was a dominant show from Le Bugue, who barely allowed the visitors into their half in a first period in which welsh outside-half Tom Marks kicked two penalties to give the boys from the Dordogne a 6-0 interval lead.

Le Bugue should have taken the lead six minutes in when, from a scrum set up by a Terry Fanolua break into the Lourdes 22, scrum-half Francois Bourgeois put Aloisio Butonidualevu over only for the fijian winger to knock on in-goal.

Our garcons, who picked up only three bonus points from their first six winless matches, scored the try their efforts deserved on 57 minutes, captain Bourgeois again breaking from the base of the scrum and passing to Fanolua who scored in the corner. Marks converted, but Lourdes hit back on 64 minutes. From a rare foray into the Le Bugue 22, Emmanual Darbo release his backs and winger Fabrice Bassaber cut the deficit to 13-7.

But Marks had the last word four minutes later, as player-coach Fanolua put up a high ball from the halfway line, which the former Llanelli player followed up to ground in goal and close out the win.

Co-president Thierry Thébault never doubted that his team would gain their first win of the season.

"To tell you the truth, I was never in doubt about the result of the match," he told Sud Ouest, "and from the first few minutes of the game I realised that we could not lose.

"The boys really went for it, and dominated the most important aspects of the game. We have our win at last!"

A mighty foetus
Before the game, Le Bugue hooker Anthony Tarrit told Sud Ouest that morale was still high among the squad, and that having arrived from Agen over the summer and making the No.2 shirt his own, he at least was happy with the season so far.

"I'm very pleased with myself, it's true," he said. "I've started every game and I'm getting to play. [The results] are a shame, but happily, morale is still high and so is the will to win."

Nicknamed "the Foetus" by teammates at Agen, where he was the youngest hooker in Pro D2 and the youngest player in the squad, 22-year-old Tarrit admitted that the squad was shaken up by the retirement due to ill-health of coach Jean-Francois Thiot and the departure of forwards coach Didier Casadei to Brive, but was still hopeful that Le Bugue would make the Federale 1 play-offs.

"It'll be difficult, but you never know. In any case, we must save the club and avoid the drop."

It's possibly the kind of challenge Tarrit left Agen for after six years at Stade Armandie. "Honestly, I'm very happy. As a family club, Le Bugue is everything I expected. I needed a new challenge. I wanted to become a professional player and I tasted Pro D2 and watched the Top 14, but Federale 1, it's still a very good level and a great learning experience."

Second string: The match between Le Bugue B and Lourdes B was forfeited by Lourdes. What a week!

Also in Pool 6: Graulhet 14 Oloron 16; Perigueux 25 Langon 16; Tyrosse 42 Vallée du Girou 3

Next up: Le Bugue vs Langon, Stade Renaud-Cruveiller, Sunday, November 22. It's the perfect opportunity for Le Bugue to build on their first win of the season as Langon visit Stade Cruveiller on the back of successive defeats to Tyrosse and Perigueux.

Still, it'll be a big feat for our boys to turn their Week 1 27-12 defeat into a second victory - Langon's 14 tries are the most in the pool, although the good news is that all but two have come at their own Stade Comberlin. And it's the forwards that lead the way, back row pair Bertrand Fourton and Julien Hubert scoring seven of the 14 between them and prop Hubert Pruvot bagging two in the 51-10 thrashing of Vallée du Girou.

Langon's weak point could be their penalty count. They've conceded 72 points to penalties this season, up there with the highest in the league, so Tom Marks and Francois Bourgeois had better get some practice in before Sunday. Saying that, Le Bugue shouldn't expect a man advantage any time during the 80 minutes - Langon's players have only seen one yellow card all season, Kevin Barthelmy having a 10-minute rest in the defeat to Lourdes.

Les Garonnais - 105 years old this summmer and based on the Bordeaux-to-Agen road - are already in a mood to celebrate on the weekend as one of their old boys, Bayonne winger Benjamin Fall, is celebrating his call-up to the French team.

The news Fed-lines: Beziers' week 6 blip became a two-week slump as the former runaway leaders of Pool 3 fell 9-27 at mid-table Chateaurenard. The Perkins boys did the damage, flanker Reggie scoring a sixth minute try after a barnstorming charge by flanker Octave Trebalage, and fly-half Jeff adding 17 points with the boot. Jean-Baptiste Dambielle kicked three penalties for les Bitterois but the hosts had the last word with a 78th minute try for centre Nicolas Rey.

The result makes Beziers the weakest of the six pool leaders, with Saint-Nazaire, Chalon-sur-Saone and Valence d'Agen (who fell to a surprise 6-3 defeat at Cahors for their first reverse) boasting 6:1 records and Carcassonne and Tyrosse making it a perfect first-half of the season with their seventh wins from seven. Carcassonne held on to a bonus point against Aubenas, the visitors scoring two late tries after winger Benoit Lazzarotto completed a hat-trick and Yannick Ngog and Guillaume Bienvenue had made it a five-for. Tyrosse beat hapless Vallée du Girou 42-3 with five tries of their own; Vallée have managed only one try all season, you have to wonder how they aren't glued to the bottom of Pool 6. Oh, hang on...

Orleans confirmed their position as the Fed1 team not to watch with their second 3-3 draw in seven days. This time Vannes were their partners in crime, neither side really looking like scoring a try, and Orleans full-back Guillaume Franke missing vital chances to seal all four points. At least Mauleon's 18-all tie with St-Jean-de-Luz was a bit more exciting, Benjamin Duhalt kicking an 83rd minute penalty to rescue two points after five second-half penalties from Olympique's Andoni Jimenez had put the visitors in a winning position.

Still, all four picked up as many points on Sunday as Epernay have won all season. Fed1's last winless side showed how far away they are from the rest of Pool 2 win a 29-10 defeat at seventh-placed Tours.

But our result of the week is near the top of Pool 3, which is shaping up to be less of a cakewalk back to Pro D2 than Beziers thought. Third placed Nice visited second-placed Saint-Etienne and won 44-23, scoring five tries to one to leapfrog les Stephanois into second place and move a point behind Beziers. All three already look good for the play-offs, and the second half of the season will determine their seedings for their second-round opponents.

You can find all the latest Federale 1 results at ItsRugby.fr

Fédérale 1 Pool 6 table: