They left it late to claim the extra point, and in truth were fortunate to claim it all, but Julien Saubade's breakaway try in the 83rd minute sealed a superb afternoon for Pierre Berbizier's side.

All was seemingly going according to plan as Racing opened up a 31-12 lead lead shortly after the hour mark, with Benjamin Fall, Nicolas Durand and Jone Qovu all going over for tries. Fly-half Jonathan Wisniewski slotted all three conversions, as well as four penalties, but Bourgoin stayed in the hunt thanks to four of their own penalties from youngster Gaetan Germain.

The 'home' side had gone into this match on the back of 10 successive league defeats - and all but guaranteed relegation - but they displayed a spirit to bow out with heads held high as they fought back at the Stade des Alpes in Grenoble.

Full-back Mael Moinot grabbed a try back on 67 minutes, which Germain converted, and the Isere club then gave it all they had in search of another late score which might have earned them a losing bonus. Nicolas Viazzo and Jean-François Coux both went close before Saubade's opportunism saw them punished at the death.

Castres strengthened their play-off hopes with a 20-12 away win at Brive as they finally won on the road for the first time in 21 games and 18 months.

A first-half try from France winger Marc Andreu helped them to a 10-6 lead after 26 minutes, but Brive edged 12-10 in front by the interval thanks to four successful penalties from Mathieu Belie. The latter of those came just before the interval following a yellow card for Castres' former All Black Chris Masoe.

Andreu then joined him in the sin-bin as the visitors were temporarily reduced to 13 men at the start of the second half, but Brive failed to capitalize as Belie and Caminati missed a string of penalty attempts. Instead, it was Castres who scored next, with Yoann Audrin touching down on the hour mark to all but seal the win.

Full-back Romain Teulet added the conversion and a subsequent penalty to complete the rare away victory - which lifted Castres up to fourth - while another Caminati miss in the final minute denied Brive a potentially crucial losing bonus.

The Limousin club remain just above the drop zone in 12th position, but their gap over La Rochelle has now been cut to two points after 'the Maritimers' rallied remarkably to almost sneak an away win at Biarritz.

The Basques appeared in total control when Iain Balshaw touched down for their fourth try on 44 minutes to put them 32-11 up, but La Rochelle rallied thanks to a penalty try and two scores from Tomato Leopolu and Rémy Tales. Indeed, only Benjamin Dambielle's missed conversion of the latter score (on 74 minutes) prevented the relegation-threatened visitors from waltzing off with a share of the points.

Biarritz had earlier shot out of their blocks with American speedster Takudzwa Ngwenya going over for a third-minute try. France scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili converted and added two penalties before going over himself on 23 minutes to put them 20-6 ahead.

But La Rochelle never gave up and duly got their reward when Tales went over in the 35th minute for the first of his two tries. Kiwi lock Piula Faasalele was then sin-binned deep in first-half injury time before Marcelo Bosch took advantage to claim Biarritz's third try in the eighth minute of time added on.

When Balshaw then followed in four minutes after the restart it seemed like game over, but Leopolu's response on 52 minutes gave the visitors renewed hope. Dambielle converted, to follow his two first-half penalties, and La Rochelle closed the gap further when Magnus Lund's yellow card paved the way for them to win a 66th-minute penalty-try.

Veteran winger Norman Ligairi almost forced his way over on 69 minutes, but La Rochelle were not to be denied and Tales finally got their fourth try when he crossed with six minutes left. Dambielle, crucially, couldn't add the extras this time, allowing Biarritz to escape with the win and La Rochelle to curse a point that got away.

Fellow strugglers SU Agen also put in a heroic performance, only to lose by a solitary point away to high-flying Montpellier on Saturday night.

Agen outscored their hosts by three tries to one, including a last-minute effort from substitute hooker Brice Mach that enabled them to at least leave with a losing bonus.

Prior to that it had been the boot of Martin Bustos Moyano which had kept them in check, with the Argentine landing six penalties as Montpellier battled to preserve their unbeaten home record.

Bustos Moyano took a while to find his range, missing two early efforts before eventually hitting the target on 24 minutes to give his side the lead. But their advantage lasted all of three minutes before Agen's Fijian winger Saimone Vaka touched down for the game's opening try - and his fourth of the season. 

Conrad Barnard banged over the touchline conversion to put Agen 7-3 ahead, and the score remained like that until half time.

Bustos Moyano then slotted three quick-fire penalties after the break as Montpellier regained the initiative, only for 20-year-old Agen scrum-half Alexis Bales to escape from the foot of a scrum and claim the visitors' second try on 55 minutes. Barnard converted again as Agen snuck 14-12 up, but Montpellier replied with another brace of Bustos Moyano penalties before their own scrum-half Julien Tomas replicated Bales' effort and touched down for the hosts just three minutes from time.

The conversion put Montpellier 25-17 up and appeared to deny Agen a deserved losing bonus, only for Mach to justify his introduction two minutes previously by scoring their crucial 80th-minute try.