Paris (AFP)

Lyon joined in the last moments in Pau (29-29) after having largely led, the first defeat of a Racing 92 diminished and rejuvenated and the game at the foot of Louis Carbonel: the main lessons of the 4th day of Rugby Top 14 .

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THE FLOP

Lyon, contender for the final phase, was not far from signing his second victory, the first away, in Pau, candidate for maintenance.

It seemed well underway as the last ten minutes approached when the Rhone had a 14-point lead (29-15) and virtually an enhanced success after their third try, scored by Josua Tuisova.

But the LOU received two gauges at the end of the game (Patrick Sobéla, Hamza Kaabèche) and the Palois took the opportunity to register their two tries, first by Thibault Daubagna (73) then Eliott Roudil (80 + 2).

Antoine Hastoy allowed his team to snatch the draw in the last moments by succeeding in a corner transformation (29-29).

The LOU can bite its paws.

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THE POSTER

One week before its European Cup final against Exeter, Racing 92, with a diminished and rejuvenated team (24 years old on average), held out for a long time before giving in to Toulouse (30-24) on Saturday .

The Racingmen have extenuating circumstances.

Their preparation was disrupted by the Covid-19.

After nine positive cases, staff included, and the postponement of his trip to La Rochelle, the Ile-de-France club had closed in on itself: isolation at the hotel, closed training center, virtual press conference ... And , to avoid another blow in the home stretch, the usual holders were left to rest: exit Finn Russell, Virimi Vakatawa, Simon Zebo, Wenceslas Lauret and other Eddy Ben Arous.

More realistic, more efficient, sharper, the Toulouse, new leaders, took advantage of it, winning (30-24) thanks to three tries from Matthis Lebel, Cheslin Kolbe and Zack Holmes.

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THE PLAYER

LouisCarbonel is not in the list of 31 Blues to prepare for the match against Wales on October 24, but the Toulon opener showed on Saturday that coach Fabien Galthié could count on him in the event of a problem with Toulouse Romain Ntamack or Bordeaux. Matthieu Jalibert.

The 21-year-old junior world champion did not stand out by scoring a try but his kicking game (20 points) did a lot of good for the RCT who won narrowly (25-21) against Reinvigorated Montpellier.

Carbonel managed six penalties and converted the only try of his own, scored by his partner in the U20 selection, back Gervais Cordin, 21, who was playing his first game of the season after an injury.

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THE DECLARATIONS

"Of course, we only take one point, but with an attitude like that, we will win matches."

From Montpellier coach Xavier Garbajosa, not unhappy with the performance of his players despite the defeat in Toulon.

"It is not my character to let go. So I will fight. I will not resign. And if Jeff (Editor's note: the president of Agen Jean-François Fonteneau) thinks that I am not the man for the job , I will accept it ".

Agen manager Christophe Laussucq, beaten at home by Stade Français, his fourth defeat in as many matches.

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NUMBERS

5: the number of matches postponed indefinitely due to Covid-19 since the start of the season.

Bordeaux-Bègles and Castres, who could not play this weekend for this reason, already have two games late.

17: the points gap, the most important of this day, in the matches of Agen-Stade français (3-20) and Bayonne-La Rochelle (19-36)

224: the number of days that the back of the French Stadium Kylan Hamdaoui had to wait to replay in Top 14. Injured at the start of the season, he had scored the last try before the end of the 2020 season on March 1 against Toulon ( defeat 21-20) and participated Saturday in the victory of his team in Agen.

© 2020 AFP