Top 14, r13: Racing take Paris honours while Castres and Biarritz also pull off major wins

Surprise high-fliers Castres continued their remarkable season with a 30-10 home win against Stade Toulousain on Saturday, a result which left them level on 41 points with leaders Perpignan at the halfway stage of the Top 14 regular season.

Castres and Stade had started the afternoon level on points, but the hosts soon surged into 17-0 lead after just 16 minutes thanks to tries from Aussie fly-half Cameron McIntyre and former All Black Chris Masoe. McIntyre converted both scores and added a penalty for good measure as Stade – shorn of 11 internationals – lacked cohesion.

Stade’s misery was compounded by fly-half Jean-Baptiste Elissalde going off injured after 20 minutes, although his replacement Frédéric Michalak did at least get them on the board with a 28^th-minute penalty. Michalak raised further hope when he went over for a 42^nd-minute try, but Castres replied with second-half scores from Thomas Sanchou (45) and Masoe again (64) as they secured a notable bonus-point win against the 17-time champions.

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Their joy was then magnified by the weekend's other results as only two of top six teams (going in to round 13) managed wins, with Perpignan, Clermont Auvergne, Stade Toulousain and Stade Francais all losing. 

Of those defeats Clermont's 13-16 home reverse to Biarritz was perhaps the most surprising as 'Les Jaunards' lost a league match at the Stade Marcel Michelin for the first time since October 2008, when they were beaten 25-30 by Montauban.

All was seemingly going to plan for the hosts as they headed towards half-time with a 7-0 advantage after Benoit Baby's 27th-minute try and Brock James' conversion, but Anthony Floch's 37th-minute yellow card - for preventing a quick penalty - enabled Biarritz to cut the deficit thanks to three points from Dimitri Yachvili's boot.

Clermont quickly rallied and further penalties either side of the interval - by James and Baby - stretched their lead to 13-3 as a rudimentary home win looked on the cards. Yachvili's second penalty narrowed the gap back to seven points on 54 minutes, but it remained like that until a dramatic last 10 minutes saw Biarritz complete a remarkable comeback.

A 70th-minute Yachvili penalty brought the visitors to within striking distance at 13-9, and then tyro winger Paul Couet-Lannes went over for the match-wining try in the game's final minute after a superb break by Fijian wing Ilikena Bolakoro. Yachvili duly slotted the conversion with the final kick of the game, leaving Clermont to rue Floch's long-range penalty miss in the 74th minute.

The win was doubly good news for the Basques after they had earlier learned that international flanker Imanol Harinordoquy will be out for six weeks following the injury he picked up during France's win against South Africa. It was a also a fine start for former rugby league star Karmichael Hunt, who enjoyed a successful debut as he played the opening hour before being substituted.

Meanwhile, over in Paris, England sevens captain Ollie Phillips scored his third league try of the season for Stade Francais, but it still wasn’t enough to prevent his team going down 20-18 at Racing-Métro 92 in the capital's derby.

Phillips touched down after just three minutes to give the visitors the perfect start as they made light of 19 absences – through injury and international calls - but Racing fly-half Jonathan Wisniewski (pictured) replied with two penalties before a Sireli Bobo kick and chase put them ahead thanks to his 20^th-minute try.

Wisniewski missed the conversion and Stade then reclaimed the half-time lead in a see-saw encounter after Noel Oelschig slotted a brace of penalties.

Racing upped the tempo after the interval and surged into a 20-13 lead with 20 minutes left thanks to a pair of drop-goals from Wisniewski and a long-range penalty from IRB Player of the year nominee Francois Steyn. Stade’s cause wasn’t helped by Pierre Rabadan’s 56^th-minute yellow card, but they set up a frantic finale when French centre Mathieu Bastareaud capped a superb match as a makeshift number eight with a bulldozing try near the end. Oelschig couldn’t convert though, leaving Racing to sneak the win and take the Parisian bragging rights in the process as they recorded their fifth successive league victory.

Discarded England fly-half Andy Goode suffered a forgettable return to French club rugby as he missed three penalties in Brive’s 19-10 defeat at Toulon. Goode came on as an emergency full-back after Brive had lost Scott Spedding and Régis Bianco to first-half injuries, but the former Leicester player proved wayward with his goal-kicking as he failed with three of his four attempts.

But Brive were masters of their own demise as they had three players yellow carded, with Craig Short, Ronnie Cooke and Arnaud Méla all being sin-binned. The latter’s dismissal (for a punch) was perhaps the most galling as Brive were only 16-10 down at the time and had just been awarded a penalty, which was subsequently reversed.

Felipe Contepomi, making his debut as a second-half substitute after recovering from knee ligament damage, slotted the resultant penalty to conclude the scoring, and a most satisfactory afternoon for Philippe Saint-André's team.

An earlier try from number eight Fotu Auelua had helped put the home side 10-3 up by half-time, with Jonny Wilkinson’s stand-in Sebastien Fauqué adding five points with his boot. Fauqué went on to kick two more penalties in the second half after Brive’s Simon Azoulai had crossed in the 47^th minute to offer the visitors hope. Goode did at least manage the conversion - to make it 10-10 at the time - but it was his sole success of the afternoon as the Limousin club continued their season’s struggles.

A 77^th-minute penalty attempt from 35m would have earned them a defensive bonus, but it sailed wide as Brive slipped to their seventh defeat of the campaign, and their first under new head coach Ugo Mola. They remain perilously placed just a point off the drop-zone, and it looks like being an anxious second-half to the campaign for a team tipped for possible honours before the season began.

Elsewhere, Montpellier made it four league wins on the spin – their best ever run in Top 14 – after Eugene Van Staden’s 78^th-minute try sealed a 23-20 win at Bourgoin.

The visitors took an early lead courtesy of Federico Todeschini's fifth-minute penalty, but Bourgoin - who had only lost once at home all season - replied with a try from Wessel Jooste and five points from the boot of Sébastien Loloo as they forged 10-3 ahead after 23 minutes

Two more Todeschini penalties narrowed the gap back to a single point by half-time, and Montpellier regained the lead four minutes after the restart when winger Jean-Mathieu Alcalde touched down, with Todeschini adding the extras.

Loloo missed two penalties attempts in the intervening period, but was on target after forward pressure brought a 55th-minute penalty try for the home side. When he added a 55m drop-goal seven minutes from time it looked like Bourgoin were heading for their sixth league win of the season, but Montpellier weren't done yet and stole the victory when South African prop Van Staden scored under the posts in the penultimate minute.

Montpellier remain ninth despite their latest win, but they are now just three points behind sixth-placed Biarritz as the table becomes increasingly congested around the play-off berths. Bourgoin, meanwhile, slipped down into the relegation zone after their third defeat in four games, combined with Bayonne's bonus-point home win against Montauban.

Bayonne had lost their previous five games – including two at home – but claimed a massive important five points thanks to their 38-13 triumph, which featured tries from Jean-Jo Marmouyet, Thibault Lacroix (2) and Sam Gerber. Twenty-year-old fly-half Pierre Bernard chipped in with 13 points before going off with cramp as the Basques registered only their fourth win of the season.

It was the perfect start to Thierry Mentières stint as new head coach, and offers the Basques genuine hope of a playing revival in the second half of the season.

The weekend's other game saw basement club SCA Albi pull off a shock 24-23 home win against champions Perpignan on Friday night thanks to a 79^th-minute penalty from scrum-half Kevin Boulogne.

The result was all the more remarkable for it being only Albi’s second in 13 league outings this season, with the other being a 19-14 home win against fellow strugglers Bayonne.

But Eric Bechu’s team clearly benefited from their recent two-week break, leading the Catalans for most of the match once Jerome Porical’s early penalty had been negated. Boulogne replied with two of his own, before flanker Laurent Baluc-Rittener went over for the game’s opening try shortly before half-time.

Perpignan rallied after the interval, narrowing the gap to 11-10 thanks to Porical’s try and conversion, but centre Christophe Manas was then yellow-carded for an elbow in what turned out to be the game’s decisive moment.

Albi used their numerical superiority to rack up 10 crucial points through a Frederic Manca try, and a penalty and conversion from Boulogne as they surged 21-10 ahead with 20 minutes remaining.

But the defending champions fought back again, this time through a try from lock Robins Tchale-Watchou and five more points from the boot of Porical. The visitors’ full-back then kicked them ahead when Yogane Correa was yellow-carded seven minutes from time, but 14-man Albi had the last laugh when Boulogne’s late penalty sealed a memorable victory. Incredibly, it was their third consecutive home league victory over Perpignan, but the Catalans did at least get the defensive bonus to ensure they retained top spot at the halfway stage of the regular season - although they have been pushed all the way by Castres.