SCA Albi 21 (12) Castres Olympique 25 (13)

Castres Olympique maintained their superb early-season form with a 25-21 away at SCA Albi in the Tarn derby to climb up to third in Top 14.

The in-form visitors ran in three unanswered tries to claim the attacking bonus as they made light of their current hectic schedule - this was their fifth game in less than three weeks as they made up ground following two earlier postponements due to swine flu.

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The Castres coaching duo of Laurent Labit and Laurent Travers must now lift their team for Saturday's home match against Toulon, but while weariness may be a factor they certainly won't want for confidence after their fifth win in eight games.

They may have only managed a four point victory margin in Albi, but Castres were the superior side throughout and their 3-0 try count was a more accurate reflection of their dominance.

Albi battled throughout, as you would expect in a local derby, and Eric Béchu's side showed commendable hunger for the content, especially after registering their maiden Top 14 win of the season at the weekend (against Bayonne). But their scoring was restricted to penalties and drop-goals with the combined boots of Frédéric Manca, Kevin Boulogne and Benjamin Lapeyre accounting for all 21 of their points.

It proved enough to earn them a defensive bonus, but still left them adrift at the foot of the table, five points behind nearest rivals Montpellier.

Castres, by contrast, are now level on points with second-placed Clermont Auvergne as they savour their excellent start to the season.

Tuesday evening's game started with a flurry of penalties as both sides struggled to assert their dominance, and Albi were leading 9-6 with half-time beckoning when Castres fly-half Cameron McIntyre scored the match's opening try. The Australian showed superb individual skill to dummy and run in from the 22 to cap a flowing move from the visitors.

Kevin Boulogne's injury-time drop-goal narrowed the gap back down to a single point but Castres quickly reasserted their dominance when former Toulon winger Marc Andreu touched down for try number two just four minutes after the restart.

Albi's problems were then compounded when flanker Yohan Misse was yellow carded in the 49th minute, with Castres taking full advantage to score their third try through centre Yoan Audrin soon after. Romain Teulet missed the conversion but the visitors were still 25-15 to the good at that point, with 28 minutes left to play.

The home side's fortunes changed somewhat after that, however, with Castres' McIntyre seeing yellow for a tackle on Lucas Borges, paving the way for Albi to at least claw a defensive bonus out of the mire thanks to two late penalties.

They also had the satisfaction of seeing new recruit Romanian full-back Lulian Dumitras come on as a second-half replacement, but the defeat capped a disappointing few days for them in the aftermath of their home win against Bayonne on Friday.

That match was marred by some unsavoury off-the-pitch fisticuffs, with flanker Laurent Baluc-Rittener already suspended following accusations that he hit one of the Bayonne coaches at half-time. Baluc-Rittener wasn't even playing due to injury but is now the subject of an LNR disciplinary investigation which will culminate in a hearing on October 14th.

The LNR has already confirmed that the flanker will be suspended at least until the outcome of that hearing having been "identified as the perpetrator of a physical attack at half-time". What further punishment he receives, if any, remains to be seen, but with LNR president Pierre-Yves Revol this week speaking out against such incidents it seems Baluc-Rittener could be in for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.