There was more agony for our Federale 1 favourites Grasse as they fought their way back into their first home game and pull victory from the jaws of defeat - only to put it straight back in again

Grasse 15 Valence d'Agen 16: Grasse came within 60 seconds of their first Federale 1 victory on Sunday, taking the lead on 80 minutes before seeing Avenir Valencien hero Anthony Tesquet respond a minute later with a match-winning penalty that left our Federale 1 favourites with no more than a point to show for their home debut.

In what was at times a brutal match that saw former Le Bugue flanker Azzouz Aib yellow carded in the first period, Bertrand Lombarteix had given Grasse the perfect start at Stade Perdigon with a first minute penalty. Jean-André Vernetti responded with a 15th minute kick but Grasse were back ahead on 24 minutes courtesy of a second penalty from French amateur international scrum-half Lombarteix.

But the lead didn't last long, as former Beziers and Montauban fly-half Tesquet dashed in for what turned out to be the only try of the game. Vernetti converted and exchanged penalties with Lombarteix to give the visitors a 13-9 half-time lead.

Grasse came out firing after the break, neutralising l'Avenir's forward power and having two good try shouts turned down by referee M. Chatrain. Although they were guilty of wasting chances to score at times, Lombarteix closed the gap to a single point as the game entered its final quarter. Eventually the hosts' pressure paid off when newly arrived Argentine scrum-half Carlos Fierro kicked them into a 15-13 lead as the match entered injury time, but Tesquet's late winner spoilt Grasse's third-division debut and condemned them to the bottom of Pool 2 at this early stage.

"I'm really disappointed for the boys because they deserved the victory," club president Éric Berdeu told Nice Matin.

"They did the right thing but a stupid mistake end of the game cost us the win. We must move forward from it. But we showed we were not far from this level and that's encouraging. Now we just have to win. We deserved better than just a defensive bonus point. The guys were super-brave, now they must maintain this state of mind."

Outside-half Arnaud Schneider agreed: "It was a tough game but there was room to win. We made some tactical mistakes when we should have taken the points. Matches rest on such details. We battled well but losing by a point hurts... We really wanted this win, everyone has worked for it."

Second string: Grasse B 8 Valence d'Agen B 9 - the match was abandoned after 60 minutes, although we're not sure why.

Also in Pool 2: Beziers 43 Romans 9, La Seyne 20 Nice 14, Aubenas 13 Montauban 20, Chateaurenard 24 Blagnac 18, Graulhet vs Lavaur postponed until October 10

Next up: Montauban vs Grasse, Stade Sapiac, Sunday 26 September. Munster, Sale and the giants of the Top 14 have all trodden the Stade Sapiac turf in recent years, but the club's financial woes mean that this year the likes of Grasse get to follow in their studmarks. After their Week 1 defeat at home to Blagnac, we would have said this was a good time to play les verts et noirs, but their comfortable win at Aubenas on Sunday suggests that Montauban have found their Fed1 feet.

The two-division drop means that Stade Sapiac needed a new revolving door after the summer, but despite the reduced €2.1m budget (still the third highest in this league) they managed to pick up a few experienced players including English leagues veterans Danny Gray and Mark Ireland, ex-Toulon and Samoa centre Kiri Mariner and the familiar faces of flanker Amedée Domenech and full back Charly Platek - familiar to those of you who followed our adventures with Le Bugue last season at least.

For travelling fans, Montauban is another big trip from the Cote d'Azur, and supporters can read our rather out-of-date travel guide to see if it's worth it. A woman fell off the town's Pont-Neuf this week, let's hope les Parfumiers aren't contemplating throwing themselves into the Garonne on Sunday night.

The news Fed-lines: Perigueux became the only club in the 49-team league with a 10-out-of-10 record thanks to their bonus-point 32-3 win at Riberac. Les perigordins left it late though, Georgian prop David Dadunashvili crashing over for the bonus point try in the third minute of stoppage time. Jean-Baptiste Lafite - who sounds like someone we should have heard of but isnt - and winger Samuel Galetti scored Perigueux's other tries early in the second half.

While Perigueux lead the way in the high-scoring Pool 3, Limoges and Vannes aren't far behind, the former winning 41-11 at Tours and claiming the first hat-trick of the Federale 1 season from the unlikely source of flanker Anthony Cros. Not to be outdone, Mohamadou Diarra did it for both the backs and the club's sizeable oversees contingent, the Senegalese ex-Pau winger adding two late tries on 81 and 84 minutes. Vannes scraped a 16-9 win at Pays du Medoc.

Tyrosse were the big winners in Pool 4, winning 30-3 at Figeac but still lying second behind Castanet, who won 18-12 at Tournefeuille but who have yet to inspire a dodgy pun out of us. Spare a thought for Lille, whose first match of the season saw them travel 1,033km to Mauleon and come away having outscored the hosts 3-2 on tries. Unfortunately the hosts outscored them 8-2 on penalties and they came away (quite literally, folks) 27-36 losers and without as much as a bonus point. We'll see if we give this up before they do, but at the moment the Lille-ometer stands at a pins-and-needling 2,066km.

Montlucon and Bourg-en-Bresse rightly steal the headlines in Pool 1 for their 33-30 epic. Les Bressans led 30-20 with 10 minutes to go, but two penalties from Belgian (yes, Belgian) international Alan Williams closed the gap and a dramatic 85th minute score by Fijian winger Aseri Latianara stunned the former Pro D2 outfit who had led since the fourth minute of the match.

It wasn't such a good day for the league's richest club Nevers though. Not only did the club cancel the supporters' bus when only 10 people signed up for the first away trip of the season to Dijon, but 10 points' worth of missed kicks from former Colomiers fly-half Frederic Pujo meant they had to be happy with a bonus point from their 19-12 defeat to les moutardiers - and even that wasn't secured until the final 10 minutes through English full-back Jack Smales' late try. They host unbeaten Parisians of Bobigny next week hoping to move up from a lowly ninth.

As expected Beziers are the team to fear in Grasse's Pool 2, scoring six tries as they saw off the challenge of Romans by 43-9. Grasse's Provencal rivals La Seyne and Nice also met on Sunday, and perhaps surprisingly it was La Seyne who came out 20-14 winners. The teams scored a try each, but drop goals from Frederic Arniaud and Guillaume Marque turned the game in La Seyne's favour. Former Montpellier and Leinster fly-half Mark McHugh kicked nine points for les Nicois.

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

Fédérale 1 Pool 2 table: