Top 14: Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle battle to win over basement side Montpellier

Elsewhere, All Black legend Sam Whitelock’s search for a first Top 14 win with Pau continues.

La Rochelle's coach Ronan O'Gara saw his side grind out a workmanlike 18-10 win.Pic Paul ELLIS / AFP)

“We’ll only remember the win tonight,” captain Judicael Cancoriet said after Ronan O’Gara’s La Rochelle ground out a workmanlike 18-10 Top 14 win over bottom-of-the-table Montpellier at Stade Marcel Deflandre.

Two unanswered tries in a 12-minute second-half spell for Brice Dulin and Levani Botia looked to have put the result beyond doubt, after the hosts had taken a 6-3 lead into the dressing room at the end of an attritional, suffocating opening period, in which a powerful Montpellier side – Patrice Collazo had selected a seven-one bench – just about had the upper hand everywhere except on the scoreboard.

But Montpellier have belatedly found a backbone as they fight desperately to avoid relegation. Four wins in five Top 14 outings coming into the match had cut the gap to the safety of 12th place from nine points to just one.

The visitors’ academy prop Baptiste Erdocio, who has played a total of three senior matches in the middle of the front row for ProD2 side Biarritz, came off the bench in his unaccustomed middle-of-the-front-row position and scored a 74th-minute try to take the scores to 18-10 and set up a tense finale.

That’s how it ended as Louis Carbonel fired a tricky penalty wide with the clock three minutes into the red.

“We knew it wasn't going to be easy,” Cancoriet admitted. “We were back-to-back in the first half. When we're clean up front, it’s easier for our backs.

“Their forwards made a lot of ground, and we nearly broke down, but our solidarity got us to win.” Antoine Dupont, playing at fly-half for Toulouse in his final Top 14 match before joining France 7s for the next two HSBC SVNS Series tournaments in Vancouver and Los Angeles, scored one cracking individual try, made an even better one for Pita Ahki, and then engineered a bonus-point seventh score out of nothing as they beat Bayonne 46-26 in an 11-try thriller.

All Black legend Sam Whitelock’s search for a first Top 14 win with Pau continues, after they lost an eight-try mad match at home to Castres 33-44, having been 14-0 ahead in seven minutes.

The result was a relief for under-pressure Castres coach Jeremy Davidson, following a run of six defeats in seven matches. It keeps them in the fight for an end-of-season play-off place.

Clermont raced into a 33-0 lead in 37 minutes against struggling Lyon at Stade Marcel Michelin, before taking their foot off the gas. The match was already over as a contest, but two tries from Baptiste Couilloud and one for Joel Kpoku made the final score a slightly more respectable 38-21.

Stuart Lancaster’s Racing 92 lost their hold on top spot, after finishing on the wrong end of a 26-5 hiding at Perpignan in the opening match of the weekend. The Catalans’ fullback Louis Dupichot scored one and made one against his former side, while former London Irish hooker Ignacio Ruiz stretched an arm over for the bonus-point try.

Stade Francais replaced their capital rivals at the head of the Top 14 as they came from behind then weathered a late storm at Oyonnax to pick up a hard-fought 19-23 win on the road.

An internationals-stripped Bordeaux travel to Toulon for the final match of the 14th round of the Top 14 season. The challenge for the visitors’ attack coach Noel McNamara: to engineer a first-ever win at Stade Mayol.