A 59-point margin at Chaban-Delmas, a record for an opening round since 2005. Stade Toulousain, meanwhile, lost 30-27 at Marcel-Deflandre, where they have not won since 2021.
Nine tries, including two from hooker Mamoru Harada. It is the Brave Blossoms' first win since their victory over Italy on 4 July, after four defeats in a row.
The South African wing has a broken jaw, the New Zealand captain a shoulder injury. Both will miss the last match of the series, on Saturday 12 September in the United States.
Developed at Béziers, the South African played 51 Pro D2 games there over seven seasons, averaging thirty-one minutes per game. He arrives as a medical joker in a depleted front row.
His exit in Round 1 had not worried the staff, who described it as a simple knock. The player is now following a strengthening programme lasting at least four weeks.
A dislocated finger for the lock, an adductor problem for the full-back, a shoulder for the back-rower. Matthieu Bonnet had already pulled out on the morning of the game.
His career ended in May, two short of the hundred-match mark with his club. The Australian league allowed him to appear on two team sheets and leave the field a few seconds after kick-off.
Bayonne's captain went off after two minutes and forty-five seconds against Toulon. Behind him is a 19-year-old who already has ten Top 14 matches and sixteen appearances for France U20.
All thirty-one points conceded by the Aude side since the start of the season came before half-time. None of the other thirteen clubs can say the same. Bourgoin and Chambéry played out the first draw of the campaign.
The 21-year-old centre has committed for five more seasons. Only one centre scored more than him in the Top 14 last season, and that was his team-mate Jeremy Ward.
Louis Vermeulen and Yanis Brosset start on Saturday in Lyon. Since 2010, a Top 14 club had started two players under the age of nineteen only nine times.
Four red cards, eighteen yellows and 202 penalties conceded in eight matches. Agen accounted for a large share of them, against the most disciplined Brive side of the round.
With a player sent off in the 21st minute, Provence held out for an hour with fourteen men and ten minutes with thirteen. Colomiers are still on one point after two rounds.
