Lyon beat Racing 92 to go fourth, Clermont lose at Castres

Lyon moved up to fourth position on the Top 14 table after they beat fellow play-off chasers Racing 92 32-11 at Matmut Stadium Gerland on Saturday.

A try from wing Noa Nakaitaci two minutes before half-time, one from centre Pierre-Louis Barassi five minutes after the break and a late Toby Arnold crossing saw Lyon to victory. The boot of fly-half Jonathan Wisniewski was also a factor as he slotted 17 points for his team.

Racing 92 will be upset with their showing as they returned to domestic action with a poor performance, crossing once through Antonie Claassen.

The Parisians last week booked a home quarter-final in the Champions Cup, scoring six tries against Scarlets. But there was to be no free-scoring against Lyon as they remain in seventh position, one point adrift of sixth placed Stade Francais who take on Toulon away on Sunday.

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In the other matches played on Saturday, leaders Clermont suffered a rare defeat – just their third of the season – as they lost 24-16 to Castres at Stade Pierre Fabre. Armand Batlle and Martin Laveau scored for Castres while Benjamin Urdapilleta and Rory Kockott kicked points. Clermont’s scorers were Peceli Yato and Remy Grosso as they now leave the door open to Toulouse, who can move top with a home win over Grenoble on Sunday.

Montpellier’s disappointing season continued as they lost out 27-25 at third-placed La Rochelle, Alexis Balès, Romain Sazy, Vincent Rattez and Jone Qovu scoring their tries. For Montpol this was their eighth Top 14 defeat of the campaign as they sit in ninth position.

Bordeaux-Begles remain hot on La Rochelle’s tail after they beat Agen 25-17 while basement side Perpignan came close to ending their long wait for a victory as they came up just short against Pau, losing out 30-24, former All Black fly-half kicking 20 points for the visitors.