Castres Olympic produced a dominant first half to ease to a 27-20 home win against Cardiff Blues in their Pool 1 clash on Friday night.

The Top 14 side scored all of their points before the break, with full-back Romain Teulet setting them on their way with four penalties, in addition to a Sérémaia Bai drop-goal.

Cardiff full-back Ben Blair responded with a brace of penalties for the visitors, but Castres then landed a knockout double blow as half-time approached with wingers Vincent Inigo and marc Andreu both crossing for tries.

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Inigo was first over (on 34 minutes) when he raced through the Blues defence after chasing a Yoan Audrin kick, with Andreu touching down three minutes later after Teulet had chipped through. The latter kicked one of his two conversion attempts to leave Cardiff staring down the barrel as they went in 27-6 down at the break.

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At that point Castres must have fancied their chances of scoring again in the second half to seal an attacking bonus win, but Cardiff head coach Dai Young clearly had strong words during the interval and the visitors emerged a different side when the match restarted.

Tongan flanker Ma'ama Molitika burst through from close range just six minutes into the second period to reduce the gap to 27-13, and Cardiff applied increasing pressure as the half wore on until the Castres defence eventually cracked again just before the final whistle.

Thomas Sanchou's late yellow card for killing the ball precipitated the Blues' second try (on 78 minutes) with Scott Andrews the man to touch down this time, just six minutes after coming on for prop Taufa'ao Filise. Fly-half Ceri Sweeney then kicked the conversion to leave it 27-20 and earn Cardiff what had previously seemed an improbable defensive bonus.

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