Vannes, the leader having suffered its second defeat of the season in Grenoble on Thursday evening (15-12), the pursuers had the opportunity to reduce the gap with the Bretons. Aix-en-Provence took advantage of this by leaving no chance to the red lantern from Rouen. After a strong start to the season, the Provençaux had slowed down but they finally let go against Rouen by passing them six tries to win 45-24 and come back to eight points behind Vannes.
The other big score of the evening went to Béziers who beat Montauban 43-13 with seven tries. The Biterrois had decided not to take the points on penalties but to insist on crossing the line, it was successful with a double from Costa Storti.
Thanks to this victory, Béziers passes Nevers who lost on the Dax lawn 24-17, which allows the Landais to gain some air in the standings.
This is not the case for Biarritz which continues to sink with a new correction received at Aurillac 31-9. The Basques are fourteenth in the standings while Aurillac, who took the offensive bonus at the very end of the match, moved up to sixth place just ahead of Agen.
The SUA also did well by beating Colomiers 22-3. Although reduced to fourteen in the 49th with the red card inflicted on Demotte, the Agenais had made the hole beforehand by having scored three tries.
But the most incredible result has long been that between Valence-Romans and Soyaux-Angoulême. This match described as fear remained blocked until the 69th minute with the improbable score of 0-0. This is the moment when Lucas Méret passed his penalty to score the first points of the match. He added three more points to the siren and allows Valence-Romans to breathe and look upwards while their opponent Soyaux-Angoulême, penultimate, will have to fight to maintain their position.