South African star Bryan Habana scored a try on his return to action after a three-month absence because of a hamstring injury as Toulon beat Bordeaux-Begles 22-20 in a thrilling Top 14 encounter on Saturday.
The 30-year-old – a World Cup winner in 2007 – touched down in the 66th minute as Toulon came from 20-9 down to prevail, largely thanks to 14 points from Frederic Michalak.
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The win took the European champions to the top of the table for a couple of hours until Montpellier restored their leading position with a 36-30 win at Grenoble later in the day.
Backrow forward Alex Tulou scored a brace of tries in the first half with Fijian winger Timoci Nagusa adding Montpellier’s third just before the interval.
It was Montpellier’s seventh successive win of 2014 and their fourth on the road this season.
They have a one-point lead over Toulon while Clermont, who beat defending champions Castres on Friday, are third.
Bordeaux – who thrashed Toulon 41-0 in the corresponding home fixture last season – later slipped out of the top six when Toulouse beat Brive 16-9.
Toulon backs coach Pierre Mignoni, whose boss head coach Bernard Laporte is serving a 16-week ban, said he was delighted with the result because at one point he feared they would be 30 points down.
“This is a victory that changes everything,” said the 37-year-old former French international scrum-half, capped 28 times.
“To win the match after a catastrophic first-half where we weren’t in the match, I have to congratulate the players for their comeback.”
Bordeaux made a scintillating start and took the lead in the second minute through a try by Samoan hooker Ole Tavei, the score stemming from a deliberate knock on by Habana.
Former Castres star Pierre Bernard converted for 7-0.
Lively Bordeaux scrum-half Heini Adams then sparked another incisive surge into Toulon territory by Felix Le Bourhis but Toulon cleared.
However, Bordeaux didn’t let up and went 10-0 up in the 24th minute through a penalty by Bernard after Habana was sin-binned for deliberately preventing the ball being played by the hosts.
Toulon got off the mark on the half hour mark as Michalak landed a penalty but Bordeaux deservedly extended their lead with another superb try in the 34th minute.
Another quick delivery by Adams saw Bernard pierce the Toulon backline and power 30 metres deep into the visitors’ half, before unselfishly offloading to Le Bourhis, who had the legs on the Toulon defence to touch down in the left hand corner.
Bernard landed a brilliant conversion for 17-3, with Michalak slotting over a penalty for offside shortly afterwards to make it 17-6 in front of a sold out 33 000 Chaban-Dalmas Stadium.
Michalak reduced the deficit further six minutes into the second-half as Bordeaux were penalised for a high tackle.
However, the metronomic Bernard added a penalty in the 49th minute for 20-9 but the visitors then scored 10 unanswered points to move within a point of the hosts.
Michalak slotted over another penalty followed by Habana’s try which the mercurial Frenchman converted before being replaced by Matt Giteau.
Giteau it was who gave the visitors the lead for the first time in the match with a penalty 10 minutes from the final whistle and the visitors held on for a crucial four points.