Toulouse, who are on a remarkable losing streak for such a great club, are sinking down. They played in funereal black on the night, which may well have been an omen suited their mood. Down 13-6 at one stage they threw omens and form away and came back, admittedly only with kicks, to win this thriller in the mist.

And they managed this even though hooker Yannick Bru was sent off.

It was foggy and freezing at Parc des Sports Aguiléra but it did not deter 13 000 ardent spectators from pitching up to see 3 play 5.
 
Toulouse were on the board after just two minutes when Jean-Baptiste Elissalde goaled a penalty, equalised four minutes later when his opposing scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili goaled.
 
Suddenly Biarritz broke the shackles that held the game. Nicolas Brusque set up a good attacking position from the home side who drove a maul at the Toulouse line. Flyhalf Julien Peyrelongue goes left to Yachvili and the scrumhalf checks and then stabs a perfectly waited kick into the Toulouse in-goal where Serge Betsen falls on the ball for the try. Yachvili converted from touch, and Biarritz led 10-3 after ten minutes.
 
Jeff Dubois celebrated his return form injury by kicking a drop. 10-6. Toulouse could well have gone ahead when Clément Poitrenaud and Cédric Heymans came desperately close but Heymans was just in touch. 
 
When Toulouse conceded a five-metre scrum and Patricio Albacete was penalised for being off-side, Yachvili calmly made it 13-6, but Toulouse had pride. More and more they came into the game and only an acrobatic dive by Yachvili, blocked a kick by Elissalde which would probably have resulted in a try for Yannic Jauzion.
 
Biarritz led 13-6 at half-time. 
 
Two penalties by Elissalde brought Stade to within a point of the Basques. Then Toulouse were penalised at a maul and Yachvili kicked a good goal. 16-12.
 
More and more Toulouse came into the game as they ran at the Basques, but they were unable to score a try. 
 
With 15 minutes to play replacement Vincent Courrent kicked penalty goal. 16-15 to Biarritz but now the money was on Toulouse as they took over. But disaster struck.
 
Yannick Bru punched Betsen and knocked him to the ground. For this he was sent from the field. Betsen was groggy when he got up.
 
Despite the handicap Toulouse took the lead when Courrent kicked a penalty goal to make the score 18-16. 
 
When lock David Couzinet was given a yellow card on 70 minutes, the teams were level at 14 men each.
 
There were just three minutes to play when Benoît August was penalised and Courrent goaled to make the final score 21-16.
 
In the very last play of the match Biarritz attacked and Mohamed Dridi was over but it was ruled that he had been in touch. Instead of the try, the final whistle went.
 
In the context of the competition and recent form, it was a great victory.

Scorers:

For Toulouse:
Pens: Elissalde 3, Current 3
Drop: Dubois

For Biarritz:
Try: Betsen
Con: Yachvili
Pens: Yachvili 3

Teams:

Biarritz: 15 Nicolas Brusque, 14 Philippe Bidabé, 13 Romain Cabannes, 12 Damien Traille, 11 Jean-Baptiste Gobelet, 10 Julien Peyrelongue, 9 Dimitri Yachvili, 8 Imanol Harinordoquy, 7 Thomas Lièvremont, 6 Serge Betsen, 5 David Couzinet, 4 Stephen Hall,  3 Benoît Lecouls, 2 Benoît August, 1 Petru Balan.
Replacements: 16 Benjamin Noirot, 17 Denis Avril, 18  Yohann Carpentier, 19 Mohamed Dridi, 20 Julien Dupuy, 21 Marcelo Bosch, 22 Sereli Bobo

Toulouse: 15 Clément Poitrenaud, 14 Vincent Clerc, 13 Yannick Jauzion, 12 Maleli Kunavore, 11 Cédric Heymans, 10 Jean-Frédéric Dubois, 9 Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, 8 Yannick Nyanga, 7 Isitolo Maka, 6 Thierry Dusautoir, 5 Patricio  Albacete, 4 Romain Millo-Chluski, 3 Omar Hasan, 2 Yannick Bru (captain), 1 Salvatore Perugini
Replacements: 16 Virgil Lacombe, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Grégory Lamboley, 19 Jean Bouilhou, 20 Valentin Courrent, 21 Maxime Medard, 22 Florian Fritz, 23 Trevor Brennan

Referee: Jean-Christophe Gastou
Touch judges: Henri Claverie, Jacques Laplace
Assessor: Daniel Gillet
Goal judges: Stephan Pomarède, Jean-Marie Piraveau