Toulouse reach the summit of the Top 14
Toulouse scrapped out a 15-13 win at Pau to reach the summit of the Top 14 table, while Racing 92 left it late to earn a dramatic win over Grenoble.
With Clermont Auvergne not playing until Sunday, Toulouse took their opportunity to go top at the Stade du Hameau.
Pau were leading by three points at the break thanks to Peter Saili's try and eight points from the boot of Thibault Daubagna, with Lucas Tauzin's score and Thomas Ramos' penalty accounting for Toulouse's points.
A 46th-minute try from Arthur Bonneval put Toulouse in front, though, and that proved the only points of a low-scoring second half as the visitors racked up a fourth straight Top14 win.
In Paris, Virimi Vakatawa scored twice as Racing 92 defeated Grenoble 24-23 in a close-fought encounter.
Vakatawa's tries had helped Racing to a four-point half-time lead, but Fabien Alexandre dotted down with a little over 15 minutes remaining to give struggling Grenoble hope of a much-needed win.
But with the clock winding down, Olivier Klemenczak crossed and Teddy Iribaren added the extras to seal the tightest of wins and lift Racing to third.
Castres are just one spot behind Racing after inflicting more misery on Perpignan, who have lost all 10 of their league matches, in a 16-12 triumph in which Scott Spedding scored the game's only try for the away team.
Montpellier ended a three-match losing run in all competitions with a hard-fought 18-15 triumph at second-bottom Agen, Ruan Pienaar's 74th-minute try ultimately proving crucial.
Rounding out the action, Toulon's miserable season continued in a 36-25 loss at Bordeaux Begles. Romain Taofifenua's red card for a reckless late tackle four minutes before the break hindered the away side's cause.
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How do you feel about Schmidts progress now?
When you say turners then around - they were horrendous and got absolutely pumped by wales at the World Cup and by Argentina recently
So it’s not hard to improve from that
And now they play a decent side (albeit still not top four) and get pumped 4 tries to 1
The ABs have their own issues but I’ll take our 6 class props and other areas of improvement every day
Go to commentsUmaga-Jensen at 26 has the attributes of a 2nd-5 and has moved past injuries that hampered his earlier elevation to AB status. I agree with TI that we persist with playing people out of position and ignore the best positional players from selection.
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