Pau stun Toulouse in turgid affair

Second division champions Pau moved off the foot of the Top 14 table with a hard-fought 9-6 win over giants Toulouse on Sunday.

Toulouse came into the match with three wins from three so far but they were a shadow of the side that has won a record four European titles in succumbing to defeat.

For Pau it was a second successive home victory that gives them hope they can stay up this season.

"We really wanted to follow up our first win against Montpellier by beating Toulouse," said veteran Pau full-back Damien Traille.

"However, we made life difficult, we didn't have much ball, we missed penalties, we got two yellow cards.

"Under those circumstances, beating Toulouse is an achievement!"

But it was anything other than an entertaining match that was decided by Santiago Fernandez's drop goal as both Pau's Samuel Marques and Toby Flood of Toulouse notched two penalties apiece.
It took 33 minutes for someone to break the score as Pau scrum-half Marques landed a penalty on his third attempt.

Until that point there had been little action with Marques's two misses when kicking for the sticks summing up the drab affair being served up at the Stade du Hameau.

Toulouse back Maxime Medard had breached the tryline on 17 minutes but that was chalked off due to a forward pass from Flood to Yann David.

Things took a dramatic turn at the end of the first half, though, as Pau were reduced to 13 men.

New Zealander prop Chris King was yellow carded for collapsing the scrum and three minutes later veteran former Fiji international Marika Vunibaka was also sent to the sinbin for a high tackle.

Not only were Toulouse unable to capitalise on their two-man advantage, but Pau actually increased their lead to 6-0 as Fernandez knocked over a drop-goal just before King returned to the fray.

After 40-year-old wing Vunibaka also rejoined his team-mates, former England international Flood pulled a penalty wide for the four-time European champions.

Former France international Traille missed two long-range efforts from more than 50-metres for the hosts but Marques added another penalty just after the hour mark before a long-range break from centre David helped set up a penalty for Toulouse that Flood converted on 63 minutes to finally get the visitors onto the scoreboard.

- Back-to-front -

Flood kicked a second penalty after Traille infringed but Toulouse finished the match with 13 men as Australian loose forward Tala Gray and lock Gregory Lamboley both saw yellow inside the final 10 minutes.

"We played the game back-to-front. We didn't prepare to meet the physical challenge Pau brought," said veteran Toulouse forward Imanol Harinordoquy.

"We made mistakes. We were dominating the breakdown but then getting pushed back into our territory."

Earlier, Brive won 18-12 at home to newly-promoted Agen, who are bottom.
Second half tries from centre Arnaud Mignardi and substitute fly-half Mathieu Ugalde helped Brive to their second win of the season -- South African fly-half Burton Francis scored all Agen's points with the boot.

On Saturday, Clermont lost their 100 percent record as Bordeaux-Begles held them to a 26-26 draw at the Stade Marcel-Michelin.

They remain top, though, having previously picked up maximum points in their first three games.

European champions Toulon put behind them a difficult week -- in which they came under scrutiny after being accused of doping by media group RTL, something which both the French anti-doping agency and French Federation denied -- as they thrashed La Rochelle 45-24 to pick up an attacking bonus point.

Top 14 champions Stade Francais are one off the bottom after going down 44-20 at Montpellier, who are second, a point above Toulouse.

Racing 92 are fourth after beating Grenoble 23-14 while 2013 champions Castres downed Oyonnax 35-26 on Friday night.
Source: AFP