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Champions Castres dismantle struggling Perpignan
By Ben Spratt
Top 14 champions Castres closed the gap to the top two as they defeated basement side Perpignan 36-17 on Saturday.
With Toulouse and Clermont Auvergne not in action until Sunday, Castres moved above Lyon into third with a sixth straight win as Benjamin Urdapilleta starred.
Urdapilleta scored the first and last of five home tries and also kicked four conversions and a penalty in a fine individual display.
Yann David, Robert Ebersohn and Marc-Antoine Rallier also crossed, with Perpignan never really in the game despite tries for David Mele and Jean Bernard Pujol.
Meanwhile, Montpellier battled back from 12-0 down to win at Toulon 21-18.
Marcel Van der Merwe and Rhys Webb scored a quickfire double for the hosts, but that prompted a swift response from Vincent Martin and Montpellier then turned the game on its head in the second half.
Bismarck du Plessis went through and, with just over 10 minutes remaining, Yvan Reilhac followed suit to steal victory.
Elsewhere, Teddy Thomas scored a pair of tries in Racing 92's 34-16 triumph at Grenoble, while Bordeaux prevented Stade Francais from crossing in a 26-12 success.
Jake McIntyre kicked three first-half penalties as Agen downed La Rochelle 19-7.
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Latest Comments
ALB has had many a start in big matches for ABs and has never put his stamp on the game Tupaea got the start in 22 against Ireland before injured and he struggled a tad too neither had outstanding SR seasons one thing Jordie an Reiko ain’t leaking breaks and tries at all in multiple big games
Go to commentsI’ll see how Aus go against Scotland and Ireland!
They have beaten the worst Welsh side ever and pipped England in OT
They do look attractive to watch I admit but got smashed by the Welsh scrum last week
Look at the areas of focus for Razor and Ryan
Huge player development in the ABs and ABs XV
One might argue that the only scrum more dominant is the Boks? And that wasn’t clear in SA until the bomb squad came on
The bench has been somewhat rectified since then
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