Top 14
Kockott boots Castres to victory over Toulon
ESPN Staff
February 22, 2013
Castres scrum-half Rory Kockott looks to feed his backs, Castres v Perpignan, Top 14, Stade Pierre Antoine, Castres, France, December 31, 2011
Castres scrum-half Rory Kockott kicked 17 points as his side saw off Toulon © Getty Images
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Top 14 leaders Toulon slumped to a 25-20 defeat to Castres at the Stade Pierre-Antoine on Friday night.

Scrum-half Rory Kockott led the way for the hosts with a 17 point haul including five penalties with Toulon's indiscipline also resulting in yellow cards for prop Andrew Sheridan and hooker Sebastien Bruno. Castres winger Romain Martial pounced for a first half try and fly-half Remi Tales also struck with a crucial second half drop goal to keep Toulon at bay.

Jonny Wilkinson kept Toulon in touch with three first half penalties and added another after the break along with a drop goal before centre Matt Giteau crossed for a try on the hour mark but it proved only good enough for a losing bonus point.

Clermont Auvergne seized on Toulon's slip up against Castres to cut the Top 14 leader's advantage to just three points with a 17-10 win at Grenoble on Saturday. Wingers Napolioni Nalaga and Sivivatu Sitiveni both touched down for second-placed Clermont as they recorded their 14th victory of the season. Fly-half David Skrela landed both conversions as well as adding a further penalty. Jonathan Pelossie scored all of Grenoble's points and ensured they went away with a losing bonus point following his late converted try.

Toulouse kept pace with the leading two with a 42-6 demolition of Bayonne at the Stade Ernest-Wallon, despite missing nine players who were on international duty with France. The hosts ran in eight tries in total with Yannick Jauzion, Gillian Galan, Maxime Medard, Jean-Marc Doussain, Timoci Matanavou, Edwin Maka while fly-half Lionel Beauxis landed six of the conversions.

Fifth-placed Montpellier secured a 15-13 victory over Bordeaux-Belges after Benoit Paillaugue's late penalty ended Bordeaux's hopes at the Stade Yves du Manoir. Metuisela Talebula's try 11 minutes from time had put Bordeaux on the brink of victory following Nicolas Sanchez's two earlier penalties. But Paillaugue calmly slotted his fifth penalty of the night to snatch the win.

Racing Metro secured a fifth consecutive win with a 23-11 victory over Biarritz at the Parc des Sports Aquilera and moved up to sixth in the table. Manuel Carizza and Sebastien Descons scored the tries for Racing Metro while Jonathan Wisniewski kicked both conversions and two penalties and Fabrice Estebanez landed a drop goal.

Raphael Lagarde kicked three penalties to secure a 9-3 victory for Agen over Mont-de-Marsan at the Stade Armandie while Perpignan completed a 32-16 victory over Stade Francais with Luke Narraway, Sona Taumalolo (2) and Armand Battle all crossing.

Pos Team P W D L F A PD TF TA TBP LBP Pts
1 Toulon 19 14 0 5 530 309 +221 43 18 8 3 67
2 Clermont Auvergne 19 14 0 5 479 299 +180 45 21 4 4 64
3 Toulouse 19 13 0 6 501 336 +165 45 23 5 3 60
4 Castres 19 11 1 7 427 334 +93 31 20 3 5 54
5 Montpellier 19 12 0 7 403 389 +14 37 25 4 1 53
6 Racing Metro 19 11 0 8 344 311 +33 19 21 1 5 50
7 Grenoble 19 11 0 8 378 402 -24 27 38 1 2 47
8 Perpignan 19 10 0 9 433 427 +6 33 29 2 5 47
9 Stade Français 19 9 1 9 435 466 -31 27 35 1 2 41
10 Biarritz 19 9 0 10 339 374 -35 20 24 1 4 41
11 Bayonne 19 7 0 12 286 433 -147 15 37 1 6 35
12 Agen 19 5 0 14 292 459 -167 19 35 0 7 27
13 Bordeaux Begles 19 4 0 15 360 424 -64 27 27 1 8 25
14 Mont-de-Marsan 19 2 0 17 260 504 -244 12 47 1 6 15

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