Montpellier end losing streak

The pressure eased slightly on coach Fabien Galthie as Montpellier ended a run of seven successive defeats with a thrilling 23-20 victory over Toulouse in their Top 14 clash on Saturday.

A penalty with less than two minutes remaining by Teddy Iribaren sealed victory for the hosts and gave them their first victory since October 11.

For Toulouse, who had their own blip earlier in the season with five successive defeats, it was only their second loss in the last 10 matches.

Benoit Paillaugue opened the scoring for Montpellier with a well-struck penalty in the fifth minute.

Paillaugue added a second penalty for 6-0 in the 18th minute but the visitors reduced the deficit through former All Black Luke McAlister with a penalty in the 25th minute.

Montpellier's domination was not reflected in converting it into points and were denied a try when Alex Tulou went to touch down but, fortuitously for Toulouse, the ball connected with McAlister's boot and did not make full contact with the ground.

Toulouse head coach Guy Noves attempted to rectify the problem in his front row, as they came under increasing pressure in a succession of scrums close to their try line, by sending on Vasil Kakovin for Kisi Pulu, who had had a torrid time, with only 29 minutes on the clock.

However, it made not a jot of difference as Montpellier won the next scrum and Paillaugue this time decided to spread the ball with Pelissie feeding Wynand Olivier.

The 31-year-old South African centre made no mistake stretching out his arm to touch down when he was tackled short of the line. Paillaugue converted for 13-3.

Kakovin's introduction as a saviour for the front row wasn't a success. He was sin-binned in the 37th minute as the scrum collapsed under Montpellier pressure. Paillaugue failed to convert the penalty as it came back off a post.

However, it was Toulouse who struck the final blow of the first-half.

A superb run by Maxime Medard from a penalty awarded in the final minute ended up with Vincent Clerc going over for the 88th try of his Top 14 career. McAlister converted to send Toulouse only 13-10 down.

Unbelievably, despite being a man down, Clerc struck again a minute into the second-half with McAlister's conversion making the score 17-13.

However, the Toulouse scrum was still creaking and Pulu, who had to come back on when Kakovin was sin-binned, was yellow-carded in the 50th minute but shortly afterwards Montpellier were awarded a penalty try as the referee's patience gave way.

Paillaugue converted for 20-17.

However, McAlister levelled with a penalty but Iribaren with a few deep breaths held his nerve to give the hosts a much needed confidence boost ahead of games with Castres and defending champions Toulon.

*Elsewhere, Toulon went back to the top of the table with a 30-6 win over Lyon, shrugging off a host of injury absentees to overcome a poor start, which had seen them trail 6-3 at the interval.

New Zealand flank Chris Masoe grabbed two tries for the European champions, with his second score coming in the last minute, which also secured a bonus point. Australian wing Drew Mitchell chipped in with a try of his own.

*Racing Metro celebrated their signing of All Blacks star Dan Carter with a three-try 27-8 home win over La Rochelle.

Top 14 results:

Montpellier 23 Toulouse 20

Toulon 30 Lyon 6

Racing Metro 27 La Rochelle 8

Brive 19 Oyonnax 6

Bayonne 15 Bordeaux-Begles 12

Grenoble 30 Stade Francais 43

Top 14 table (played, won, drawn, lost, points for, points against, bonus points, total points):

Toulon 13 9 0 4 397 236 6 42

Clermont 13 9 0 4 331 219 4 40

Stade Francais 13 9 0 4 306 322 3 39

Racing-Medtro 13 8 0 5 293 245 5 37

Grenoble 13 7 0 6 341 397 4 32

Montpellier 13 7 0 6 269 244 3 31

Bordeaux 13 6 0 7 351 297 6 30

Toulouse 13 6 0 7 290 268 5 29

Bayonne 13 5 1 7 258 264 5 27

Brive 13 6 0 7 267 302 3 27

Oyonnax 13 5 0 8 272 277 5 25

Lyon 13 5 0 8 240 332 2 22

La Rochelle 13 4 1 8 256 378 3 21

Castres 13 4 0 9 243 333 4 20

AFP