Top 14, round 17 review: Castres climb clear as Toulon slip into the bottom two

Saturday's focus turned on the relegation battle as four of the bottom five clubs came face-to-face, and it was under-pressure Castres who were the big winners following their 32-16 bonus-point victory at Dax.

Lionel Nallet led his merry men on a first-half demolition job, with the visitors running in three tries during a high tempo opening salvo. Centre Lionel Mazars grabbed the first two, with 20-year-old winger Paul Bonneford getting the third.

Samoan international prop Kasiano Lealamanua managed to pull a try back for Dax on the hour, but Castres number eight Josef Tekori sealed the club's first attacking bonus point of the season when he touched down with nine minutes to go.

Fly-half Romain Teulet added two conversions and a pair of penalties as Castres hauled themselves four points clear of the drop zone. They have now won one and drawn two of their last four matches, giving credence to the belief that they will successfully extricate themselves from a mess of their own making

Dax, by contrast, are just a single point off the relegation zone and find themselves in a serious downward spiral after five successive league defeats.

Toulon, who lost 22-12 at Stade Francais on Friday, are the side immediately below them in 13th position, but long-time basement club Mont-de-Marsan are gamely battling on in their fight against the drop.

They went into Saturday's vital clash with Bourgoin seeking their fourth home win in five, and came within seven minutes of achieving it.

Les Montois were leading 16-13 at that point, but Benjamin Boyet successfully landed a late drop-goal to earn the visitors a share of the spoils.

The home side will rue the escape of another crucial two points, especially after the trio of early penalties that fly-half Yannick Lafforgue put wide in the opening 18 minutes.

Bourgoin took advantage of his initial profligacy by opening up a 10-6 interval advantage, with Boyet complimenting Sylvain Nicolas' opportunistic try with five points off the boot.

Lafforgue eventually got on the board in the 21st minute and followed up with a brace more either side of half-time, before winger Timoci Matanavu scored what looked to be the game's decisive try with an 80m breakaway.

The conversion made it 16-13 to Mont-de-Marsan, but Boyet was to have the final say when he added the late drop-goal.

The result means just four points now separate the bottom three sides as the scrap to survive heats up.

Top 14 table

At the other end of the table Perpignan lost ground on the leaders when they went down 19-13 at Bayonne.

The Catalans were playing their first match since losing All Black fly-half Dan Carter, and his absence was marked as Bayonne recorded their first league win in three months.

Cedric Garcia outscored Jerome Porical by three penalties to two in a tight opening half, but Perpignan went into the lead for the first time when Julien Candelon touched down four minutes after the restart. Porical added the extras to make it 13-9 as the visitors - with new signing Ignacio Mieres at fly-half - pressured for the win.

Garcia narrowed the gap with his fourth successful penalty but it wasn't until the 71st minute that Bayonne finally broke through when Jean-Baptiste Peyras touched down after mounting pressure to score the winning try.

The win ensured Bayonne stayed fifth - behind Clermont who play Toulouse tomorrow -and capped a good day for the Basques after they had earlier confirmed the signing of South African fly-half Louis Strydom as a 'medical joker' from the Golden Lions.

They needed to win to stave off the mounting threat from Brive, who beat resurgent Biarritz 19-15 to stay in sixth position.

England fly-half Andy Goode suffered a rare off day as he missed five out of seven attempts at goal, and it was his replacement Luciano Orquera who proved the match-winner.

The Italian international scored a try within five minutes of coming on to give Brive the lead for the first time in the match, and went on to add a conversion, penalty and drop-goal as he single-handedly lifted them from 6-12 down to 19-12 ahead.

Biarritz scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili still had time to add his fifth penalty, but Les Biarrots were forced to settle for a defensive bonus point as Brive hung on to make it one loss in 12 in all competitions.

The day's other match was a predictably even affair given that seventh placed Montauban were just one point ahead of eight-placed Montpellier.

Sadly for Montpellier, however, that all important momentum remained with their hosts as Montauban won 27-19 after fighting back from a 12-9 half-time deficit.

Fabien Fortassin kicked Montauban into an early 9-0 lead, with his opposite number Francois Trinh-Duc squandering a hat-trick of his own penalties in reply. But the Montpellier fly-half turned from villain to hero when he turned the match on its head in three crazy minutes before half-time.

First he scorched through for the game's opening try after 36 minutes, then he made the break to set up Julien Tomas just three minutes later.

Instead of looking at a 9-0 deficit Montpellier were suddenly 12-9 ahead and sitting pretty.

Montauban winger Yoan Audrin touched down for the hosts seven minutes after the restart, but Trinh-Duc claimed his second a couple of minutes later as the lead continued to swing  back and forth.

It was anyone's money at 19-19 with quarter of an hour to go, before Georgian sub Mamuka Gorgodze was yellow carded just three minutes after coming on. Montauban took immediate advantage of the ensuing numerical advantage and winger Shannon Paku went over in the corner to seal the win.

Fortassin missed the conversion but added a late penalty to take his own contribution to 17 points as the hosts consolidated seventh position.

For struggling Montpellier it was a worrying fifth defeat in seven league games.