Sunday 22 February 2015 13:08, UK
Bordeaux-Bègles produced a stunning comeback as they overcame an 11-point deficit to beat Toulon 28-23 at the Stade Chaban Delmas.
After trailing 20-9 on Saturday, Bordeaux ran in three tries, including a double for Fiji international Metuisela Talebula, to turn it around and keep themselves in contention for a play-off place.
Although they let the victory slip away, Toulon secured a losing bonus point that took them temporarily top of the table.
Toulon had dominated the first half, scoring two tries through Josua Tuisova and Maxime Mermoz, but a mix-up between Delon Armitage and Sébastien Tillous-Borde allowed Hugh Chalmers to go over on the stroke of half-time to give Bordeaux hope.
And the home side took that momentum into the second half, with Talebula running in two tries as the match was turned on its head.
In the late game, knowing they would go top if they could avoid defeat, Clermont secured a 13-13 draw at Racing Metro to head the table.
The first half was dominated by handling errors as the defences took the upper hand.
But after the break, Marc Andreu's try gave Racing the lead before Noa Nakaitaci's late score, converted from the touchline by Brock James, earned the draw.
The most notable event of the opening 40 minutes was Jonathan Sexton becoming the first player to be timed out for a kick at goal as he exceeded his 90 seconds for an early penalty.
Stade Francais squandered the chance to exploit Toulon's loss and go top of the table when they lost 23-6 at Bayonne, who moved out of the bottom two.
Up against the joint leaders of the Top 14, Bayonne dominated from the off with their defence proving too strong. Early on, they pounced on a dropped ball in midfield with Marvin O'Connor fastest to chase a kick-through to score.
Joe Rokocoko scored Bayonne's second, and Jean Monribot's late try gave them all five points, Julien Dupuy scoring two penalties for Stade's only scores. The also had Rabah Slimani sin-binned 12 minutes from time.
That lopsided defeat kept Stade in third, a point behind Toulon who earned a defensive bonus point. Second-placed Clermont can overhaul Toulon depending on the outcome of their late game against Racing-Metro.
Toulouse held off a Lyon fightback to secure a narrow 23-20 win that keeps them in contention in the play-off race.
After leading 20-9 at the break, they saw the ProD2 champions fight back, earning a well-deserved losing bonus point in the process.
The games in Oyonnax and Grenoble were pushed back an hour because of the cold weather in the south east.
Grenoble edged a 20-18 thriller in the snow against Montpellier at the Stade des Alpes thanks to a late penalty from Jonathan Wisniewski.
Hendrik Roodt had opened the scoring for Grenoble with a try after two minutes, and a Wisniewski drop goal took them in at half-time with a 14-9 lead.
Both sides had two players sin-binned during the match but it was a late yellow card for Teddy Iribaren, who had just put Montpellier into the lead for the first time with two penalties, which allowed Wisniewski to slot the decisive penalty.
Oyonnax scored two tries either side of half-time to down Castres 23-13 in a huge relegation clash at Charles Mathon.
Castres scored two Julien Dumora penalties before Oyonnax broke through on the stroke of half-time for Régis Lespinas to touch down. The home side scored again through Olivier Missoup early in the second half, adding two penalties.
Thomas Combezou scored under the posts as Castres brought the game to within a single score before Lespinas knocked over another penalty to see out the game.
