Castres held on to beat Bordeaux-Begles 33-27 in a six-try thriller in the French Top 14
yesterday.
But Bordeaux left without even a losing bonus point — awarded when teams lose by five points or less — after former France fly-half Lionel Beauxis missed with a last minute penalty attempt.
The visitors had been on the ramage leading up to that attempt with New Zealander centre Jayden Spence missing out on a try when he spilled Beauxis’s up-and-under in the Castres end zone.
It was a a nerve-wracking end to what was a great advert for French rugby, particularly the first half.
In a thrilling start to the match, Castres fly-half Benjamin Urdapilleta kicked two penalties before the hosts were awarded a penalty try on 11 minutes after a deliberate knock-on from Fiji wing Metuisela Talebula prevented a certain try.
Despite Talebula also coping a yellow card, Bordeaux struck back on 15 minutes when scrum-half Baptiste Serin sold a dummy to lumbering prop Daniel Kotze before scampering over.
Yet on 20 minutes Castres put together a fluid move that ended with Samoan wing David Smith passing inside for centre Thomas Combezou to score.
Urdapilleta and Ireland fly-half Ian Madigan exchanged penalties before Bordeaux closed out the half with a try from full-back Jean-Marcellin Buttin down the right following quick hands in the backs.
Madigan’s conversion left Castres leading 23-17 at the end of an exhilarating first half.
The second half didn’t live up to the first until replacement Castres scrum-half Antoine Dupont scored a carbon copy of Serin’s earlier try, sending no less than Talebula the wrong way with an outrageous dummy.
Bordeaux wouldn’t lie down, though, and Spence finished off another blistering attack to dot down in the corner.
He almost scored a try that would have given Beauxis the chance to kick a match-winning conversion but ultimately Bordeaux were left empty-handed.
On Saturday, Three-time European champions Toulon gave new coach Mike Ford a winning Top 14 start with a commanding 42-12 victory over struggling Grenoble.
Toulon ran in six tries for the winning bonus point with Mathieu Bastareaud, Mamuka Gorgodze, Jocelino Suta and Axel Muller all crossing.
“It was a good match, a good start, we won with the bonus point, which is very valuable in this competition,” said Ford as Toulon went top of the table ahead of Clermont’s match with Brive later on Sunday.
Montpellier are level with the top two on 27 points after edging La Rochelle, fourth on 25 points, 12-11 thanks to a dramatic last-minute penalty from Ben Botica.
Defending champions Racing 92 won their first away match of the season, defeating rock-bottom Bayonne 16-3 despite playing without star fly-half Dan Carter, who was injured in the warm-up. Toulouse also earned their first away win of the season in a 24-20 success at Pau while 2015 champions Satde Francais beat Lyon 25-19.

Results
Castres 33 Bordeaux-Begles 27
Pau 20 Toulouse 24
Montpellier 12 La Rochelle 11
Stade Francais 25 Lyon 19
Toulon 42 Grenoble 12
Bayonne 3 Racing92 16