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Bayonne stun league leaders Stade Francais

Bayonne's Richard Dourthe, center, tries to regather the ball during his side's French Top 14 rugby union match against Stade Francais in Bayonne on Saturday. Bayonne defeated Stade Francais 29-27. PHOTO: AFP

Bayonne, who started the day rock-bottom of the French championship, stunned league leaders Stade Francais on Saturday with a 29-27 victory.

The result means that Stade saw their lead at the top of the championship cut to just three points after Clermont beat Castres 30-23.

Toulouse are third, nine points behind the leaders, after a 16-12 win at home to Perpignan, who drop to fourth.

Defending champions Biarritz, who lost 9-0 at Bourgoin on Friday, are fifth in the table with 48 points, 13 behind Stade.

Bayonne coach Xavier Pemeja said that he had been confident of pulling off an upset.

"The squad was ready for this," he said. "We have to continue like this as we are not out of the relegation zone yet but we hope to stay in the championship."

Hosts Bayonne turned in at the break level at 13-13 after fighting back from 10-3 down when David Skrela scored the first of his two tries for the Paris giants.

But South African winger Sam Gerber went over after being set up by Mirco Bergamasco to cut the deficit with former French international center Richard Dourthe converting as he amassed 19 points in total against one of his former clubs.

Dourthe landed an early second-half penalty before Kiwi fly-half Gerard Fraser put Bayonne further in front with a 50th-minute try.

Dourthe added the extra points and then kicked another nerveless penalty to stretch the advantage to 26-13.

Skrela added his second try of the game in the 63rd minute which he also converted as Stade moved to within six points but Dourthe was again on the mark with a 66th-minute penalty.

The deficit was cut again when Italian center Bergamasco scored his team's third try managing to cross the line through his momentum after being tackled just short.

Skrela was on target with the conversion but Bayonne held on for a famous win which lifted them off the foot of the table.
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