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PARIS : Bottom-placed Albi pulled off the upset of the Top 14 season so far with a nail-biting 24-23 victory over league leaders Perpignan on Friday.
Albi spent the final eight minutes with 14 men after replacement Yogane Correa was yellow-carded for an offside tackle, Perpignan full-back Jerome Porical kicking the penalty for a 23-21 lead.
But the basement dwellers rallied and scrum-half Kevin Boulogne kicked the winning penalty two minutes from time after Perpignan, missing four players on international duty and seven others to injury, had infringed at a ruck 25 metres from their line.
Boulogne was successful with three other penalties and converted Frederic Manca's try, Laurent Baluc-Rittener claiming the home side's other five-pointer.
For Perpignan, Porical hit a further brace of penalties and converted his own try and that of lock Robins Tchale Watchou.
"We applied ourselves to everything tonight," Boulogne said of Albi's second win in 13 matches this season.
"We have potential and we're still not dead. Everything's possible. We know we have to carry on playing matches like that."
Perpignan coach Jacques Brunel lamented a poor opening 40 minutes and the crucial 53rd minute sin binning of Christophe Manas for punching - his 10 minutes off the pitch saw Boulogne kick a penalty and convert Manca's try.
"We didn't produce a good first-half, there was not continuity in our play," Brunel said.
"Despite everything, we battled well up front, notably in the scrum, and we managed to combat their mauls.
"But we had a yellow card which cost us 10 points, that was the turning point of the match."
Albi joint coach Daniel Blach dubbed his side's win an "exploit" despite the number of missing front-line players for the visitors.
"I don't know if we saw the real Perpignan team tonight but we saw the real Albi one. We can't do more than that," Blach said.
- AFP /ls
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