Clermont maintained their perfect start to the Top 14 season with a 25-6 home win against Grenoble.
The log leaders were only 7-6 ahead at the break, but scored 18 unanswered points in the second half to cement their place at the summit. The loss was Grenoble's first of the new campaign.
In the biggest upset of the competition's second round, newcomers Pau shocked Jake White’s Montpellier 26-16. The winners were outscored two tries to one, but the educated boot of Samuel Marques kept them ahead of the visitors. The scrumhalf goaled seven penalties, six in the first half and one after the break, to secure the result.
Toulouse racked up a second successive win when they overpowered hosts Agen 20-9. Leading by a single point at half-time, Toulouse pulled away in the second stanza, adding a converted try and two penalties, while only conceding a further three-pointer to Agen. The winners are second on the log behind Clermont.
Racing edged La Rochelle 20-19 in a tightly contested encounter in Paris on Saturday. Two converted tries and as many penalties were enough to see off La Rochelle, who added four second-half penalties to their tally to set up a nailbiting finish.
Oyonnax put their first-round defeat to Montpellier behind them with a convincing 35-19 bonus-point win against Bordeaux. South African-born hooker Jody Jenneker crossed over for one of four Oyonnax tries.
Fullback Gaëtan Germain kicked 17 points to guide Brive to a 22-13 win over champions Stade Français, who had two players yellow-carded in the second half. Stade were well beaten, but went over for a last-gasp try to add some respectability to the scoreboard.
Castres defeated a tame Toulon team 24-9 at home on Sunday. Both sides had to play with 14 men for 10 minutes either side of the interval, but it was Castres who scored three tries, while Toulon could only manage three penalty kicks as they slumped to a second consecutive defeat.
Round 2 results:
Clermont 25 Grenoble 6
Pau 26 Montpellier 16
Toulouse 20 Agen 9
Racing 20 La Rochelle 19
Oyonnax 35 Bordeaux 19
Brive 22 Stade Français 13
Castres 24 Toulon 9
Photo: Thierry Zoccolan/Getty Images
