Toulouse play-off hopes on hold after Oyonnax draw

 Toulouse will have to wait until the last Top 14 game of the season in afortnight to see whether or not they qualify for the play-offs after being held 19-19by relegation-threatened Oyonnax on Saturday.The point sees the 19-time champions -- who have reached the semi-finals at leastfor the past 20 seasons -- occupy the sixth and last place for the play-offs, five pointsahead of Stade Francais and Bordeaux-Begles who play each other later on Saturday.Oyonnax are second bottom on 50 points, the same as Bayonne, who drew 21-21 atGrenoble, and Perpignan who were humbled 46-31 by European champions andleague leaders Toulon in Barcelona.While victory saw Toulon -- for whom French fly-half Frederic Michalak scored 26points -- go top of the table, defeat left seven-time champions Perpignan third frombottom and facing relegation for the first time since 1911.Perpignan's hopes of avoiding joining fellow ailing rugby giants Biarritz in thesecond tier next season look slim as their final match is a trip to Clermont, wherethe hosts are unbeaten in 76 matches.Third-placed Clermont on Saturday lost 22-6 at Racing Metro who became the fourthside to make sure of a play-off spot.Toulouse, with the wind behind them, opened the scoring with a neatly-taken dropgoal by Jean-Marc Doussain, the French international scrum-half deputising onceagain at fly-half for first choice former All Black star Luke McAlister.Oyonnax's Argentinian international fly-half Benjamin Urdapilleta -- who has scoredover 50 per cent of his side's points this season -- drew the hosts level shortlyafterwards with a penalty.However, he was less successful with a second penalty attempt in the 20th minuteafter some sustained pressure induced the visitors into an infringement and failedto make amends three minutes later as almost from the same spot his effort cameback off the outside of the post.Doussain for his part made no mistake when offered the chance to restoreToulouse's early lead, slotting over a penalty in the 26th minute for 6-3 and the 23-year-old added another shortly before the half-hour mark for 9-3.Oyonnax, though, went into the half-time break ahead after their fullback FlorianDenos, who came through the Toulouse academy, touched down Urdapilleta'ssuperbly judged chip kick into the Toulouse try area.- Captain in sin-bin -The Argentinian added the conversion to give them a 10-9 lead.Doussain failed to restore Toulouse's lead early in the second-half as his penaltywent wide but more than made up for that with a try in the 47th minute as he soldUrdapilleta a dummy and the broke another tackle to touch down.He converted his try to make it 16-10.The hosts reduced the deficit to three though as the Toulouse scrum conceded apenalty which Urdapilleta converted for 16-13.Oyonnax were reduced to 14 men in the 59th minute when captain RoimataHansell-Pune was sin-binned for tackling Doussain after the whistle had gone --Doussain missed the resulting penalty.However, he succeeded with another attempt to make it 19-13 -- Urdapilleta, though,kept the hosts in touch by adding one of his own with 18 minutes remaining for 19-16. The hosts thought they had regained the lead with a second try with eight minutesremaining but the video referee ruled it out for a knock-on earlier in the move.Urdapilleta levelled the game with another penalty and they held on for a deservedshare of the points as Toulouse's former France international fly-half Lionel Beauxismissed with a penalty in front of the posts in the final minute.Toulouse head coach Guy Noves was satisfied to have come away with a share of thepoints."We didn't put together a perfect performance but in terms of spirit we wereperfect," he said."We will be playing the equivalent of a knockout match against Grenoble (their finalmatch)." Source: AFP