Rugby: Four Top 14 teams, who have won away, are looking to confirm their home form on Matchday 2.

Four teams put in a strong performance on the first day of the Top 14 by winning away to their opponents. Toulouse, Toulon, Bayonne, and Pau now want to confirm their strong start to the season at home. Four away wins in seven matches in a matchday is a rare occurrence, as the home team won 75% of the time last season. This has only happened three times before.

Only one match pits two teams against each other after winning their opening match, with Pau hosting Stade Français. Pau, who will be returning international players Emilien Gailleton and Théo Attissogbe, pulled off a fine performance in Castres after a rather unexciting match (15-17).

This match will be a real test for the Parisians, whose last visit to the Stade du Hameau, on the fourth day of last season, led to the first dismissal of the staff after an inglorious defeat (30-16), a prelude to a difficult season until the end.

Certainly, the pressure will be less, after an initial bonus-point victory and some interesting offensive sequences against newly promoted Montauban (47-24). But the good performances of Louis Carbonel and Yoan Tanga, who were dismissed last year for their mediocre performances, need to be confirmed.

Three-time defending champion Toulouse, who confirmed in Clermont that they were not satisfied (24-34) , will return to their home crowd by hosting Perpignan. On paper, the opposition seems unbalanced between the Stade players and the Catalans, already beaten on their home turf by Bayonne for the season opener, who should fight for another year to avoid relegation.

After their victory in Montpellier (17-27), Toulon will host Castres, in their home of Mayol, for a repeat of last season's play-off, which saw the RCT clearly qualify for the semi-finals (52-23). ​​But beware a CO already under pressure after their home defeat against Pau.

Also semi-finalists last season, and also victorious away last weekend, in Perpignan (19-26), Aviron Bayonnais will also try to make it two out of two by confirming their unbeaten home record from last season. Facing them will be Montpellier looking for redemption.

Symbolically leading at the end of the first day after its demonstration against Racing 92 (32-7), LOU is the first Top 14 team to venture to Sapiac for 15 years and the long purgatory of Montauban in Pro D2.

Condemned to immediate relegation by all rugby fans, Montauban will attempt to prove the predictions wrong in front of their fervent fans, in order to maintain the slim hope of an improbable survival or at least a relegation with honors, like Vannes last season. A defeat would only amplify fears of a season like Agen, who finished the 2020-2021 season without a single victory.

Racing 92 will also be under pressure on Sunday evening, closing out the matchday at La Défense Arena, when they host Union Bordeaux-Bègles. The second-worst home team last season, the sky and whites have certainly won against the Girondins on their artificial turf for the past three years, but by a maximum of five points each time, and they had lost the previous two years.

This Saturday, La Rochelle hosts Clermont, in the only match between two teams to have lost their opening encounter. Defeated in Bordeaux by UBB (23-18), the Maritimes cannot afford a defeat, unless they want to plunge back into the crisis that rocked them last season, when the two-time reigning European champions failed to qualify for the final stages of the Top 14.

Beaten at home by Toulouse a week ago, Clermont face a new challenge in Deflandre, where they have not won for ten years.