Top 14 Wrap: Agen fly, Lyon sink

On the charge: Brive ock Arnaud Mela

Brive pushed Lyon closer to Top 14 relegation on Friday with a 22-9 victory on the road in a foul-tempered match at Stade Matmut.

In Friday's second game, Agen kept their slim play-off hopes alive with a surprise victory over fourth placed Castres.

Lyon 22-9 Brive

The result leaves LOU rooted to the bottom of the Top 14 standings while Brive move eight points clear of the relegations zone.

'Hard-fought' would best describe Brive's win after a total of five yellow cards and two reds were dished out with Lyon's Antonio Testa and Brive's Pablo Henn sent off early in the second half following a mass brawl.

Brive led 12-9 at half time before South African wing Ronnie Cooke scored the only try of the game to help Brive to a morale-boosting and potentially season-rescuing win.

The scorers:

For Lyon:
Pens: Thomas 3

For Brive:
Try: Cooke
Con: Belie
Pens: Belie 3, Caminati

Yellow cards: Fiard, Leguizamon, Fatafehi (Lyon) ; Khinchagashvili, Barnard (Brive)

Red cards: Testa, (Lyon); Henn (Brive)

Lyon: 15 Lee Thomas, 14 Franck Romanet, 13 Vinaya Wakanivuga, 12 Alipate Fatafehi, 11 Mosese Ratuvou, 10 Regis Lespinas, 9 Ricky Januarie, 8 Sisa Koyamaibole, 7 Juan Manuel Leguizamon, 6 Vincent Clement, 5 Coenie Basson, 4 Christian Short, 3 Philemon Toleafoa, 2 Antonio Testa, 1 Xavier Fiard.
Replacements: 16 Guram Kavtidze, 17 Anthony Roux, 18 Arnaud Marchois, 19 Gerald Gambetta, 20 Brice Salobert, 21 Nicolas Raffault, 22 Laurent Tranier, 23 Sébastien Petit.

Brive: 15 Scott Spedding, 14 Ronnie Cooke, 13 Arnaud Mignardi, 12 Jamie Noon, 11 Guillaume Namy, 10 Shane Geraghty, 9 Mathieu Belie, 8 Poutasi Luafutu, 7 Alexandre Bias, 6 Thibault Dubarry, 5 Arnaud Mela, 4 Retief Uys, 3 Pablo Cardinali, 2 Virgile Lacombe, 1 David Khinchagashvili.
Replacements: 16 Guillaume Ribes, 17 Pablo Henn, 18 Olivier Caisso, 19 Antonie Claassen, 20 Simon Azoulai, 21 Agustin Figuerola, 22 Julien Caminati, 23 Pat Barnard.

Agen 23 - 12 Castres

This is a great result for Agen, who climb to eighth in the standings, just two points short of the play-off places.

Castres by contrast loss ground on third-placed Toulon as they once again failed to score a try.

Agen led 16-6 at half time.

The scorers:

For Agen:
Tries: Muller, Vaka
Cons: Barnard 2
Pens: Barnard 3

For Castres:
Pens: Teulet 4

Yellow cards: Nnomo, Monribot (Agen); Ducalcon (Castres)

Agen: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Saimoni Vaka, 13 Manu Ahotaeiloa, 12 Junior Pelesasa, 11 Romain Edmond Samuel, 10 Conrad Barnard, 9

Maxime Machenaud, 8 Opeti Fonua, 7 Adri Badenhorst, 6 Jean Monribot, 5 Lisiate Fa'aoso, 4 Dewald Senekal, 3 Gert Muller, 2

Jalil Narjissi, 1 Arsene Nnomo.
Replacements: 16 Julien Janaudy, 17 Martin Scelzo, 18 Andrew Springgay, 19

Ueleni Fono, 20 Alexis Bales, 21 Miguel Avramovic, 22 Silvere Tian, 23 Beka Sheklashvili.

Castres:15 Romain Teulet, 14 Pierre-Gilles Lakafia, 13Thomas Sanchou, 12 Romain Cabannes, 11Marc Andreu, 10 Pierre Bernard, 9 Rory

Kockott, 8 Chris Masoe, 7 Yannick Caballero, 6 Ibrahim Diarra, 5 Rodrigo Capo Ortega, 4 Matthias Rolland, 3 Luc Ducalcon, 2

Brice Mach, 1 Anton Peikrishvili.
Replacements: 16 Marc-Antoine Rallier, 17 Saimone Taumoepeau, 18 Scott

Murray, 19 Jannie Bornman, 20 Thierry Lacrampe, 21 Seremaia Bai, 22 James So'oialo, 23Karena Wihongi.