Free burgers all round as Botica boots Bordeaux-Begles past Castres

Two Ben Botica penalties helped French Top 14 leaders Bordeaux-Begles to a 26-24 victory over Castres, for whom Rory Kockott missed a late conversion that would have tied an entertaining match.

New Zealander Botica stepped up in the 61st and 67th minutes to nail the vital kicks in a game that saw Castres outscore Bordeaux-Begles by four tries to two and depart with a losing bonus point.

Blair Connor and Mahamadou Diaby crossed for the home team in the first-half to cancel out Castres tries from Julien Caminati and former Uruguay lock Rodrigo Capo Ortega.

Fiji’s Filipo Nakosi and Anthony Jelonch added further tries for Castres in the second period, but the hosts remained in pole thanks to the boots of Maxime Lucu and Botica.

The victory meant that Bordeaux-Begles will now have to act on their promise to hand out vouchers for free McDonald’s burgers for the 17,172 spectators at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

Sunday’s late game sees ex-Italy captain Sergio Parisse turn out for Toulon at home against his former long-time club Stade Francais.

In Saturday’s matches, Finn Russell gave another example of what Scotland are missing as he helped guide Racing 92 to a 49-0 thrashing of La Rochelle.

The Atlantic coast club’s director of rugby Jono Gibbes dubbed the result a “disgrace”.

Defending champions Toulouse slumped to a 20-10 defeat at Bayonne while title hopefuls Lyon were also beaten, 30-6 at Brive.