American Marconi Wireless News - Racing's Top 14 woes deepen with home loss to Vannes

Ex-England captain Owen Farrell was absent due to injury for the Parisians who are now just three points above the bottom of the table Bretons.

Vannes crossed for three tries in Patrice Collazo's first game in charge of six-time champions Racing after replacing the sacked Stuart Lancaster, the former England head coach.

"I don't think we lost because of the coaching change," Racing's South African full-back Tristan Tedder told Canal+.

"It's once again our poor discipline. There are nine games to go, we won't give up."

Racing's capital city neighbours Stade Francais moved above their local rivals to 12th place with a 39-37 win over Pau.

However, the result was clouded for Stade by a serious looking ankle injury suffered by former New Zealand scrum-half Brad Weber.

Leaders Bordeaux-Begles suffered a second straight defeat, losing 36-32 at Bayonne while Ronan O'Gara's La Rochelle were hammered 53-17 at Lyon.

"It's tough," head coach O'Gara told reporters.

"We're trying to get out of this malaise, which is everywhere right now among the players and coaching staff," the former Ireland fly-half added after a fourth straight defeat.

In the final game of the day, Toulon won 38-30 at Montpellier to go second in the table, trailing Bordeaux-Begles on their head-to-head record.

Third-placed champions Toulouse will be without nine players, including Antoine Dupont, as they have been rested by France during a break week in the Six Nations, when they travel to Clermont on Sunday.

P.Mathewson--AMWN