Heineken Cup – Castres stun Leinster

13 December 2008

Castres 18 (9) Leinster 15 (12)

Castres stunned group leaders Leinster with a surprise 18-15 win, with Anthony Lagardere’s six penalties accounting for all their points.

The Irish side had gone into the match with three wins from three in Pool two, and confident of another victory after last week’s 33-3 trouncing, but were left to rue a hatful of missed opportunities as they came unstuck against the Top 14 strugglers.

For Castres it was the perfect end to a troubled week after confirmation their coaches would be departing at the end of the season, together with club captain and talisman Lionel Nallet – bound for Montpellier apparently.

But if the sparse home crowd believed Nallet’s commitment would be diminished they were in for a pleasant surprise as the French captain put in another huge performance to lift his charges to their maiden Heineken Cup win of the season.

And yet it had all started so differently at the Stade Pierre Antoine, with Leinster dominating early possession and scoring a seemingly inevitable try after just five minutes when Gavin Dempsey touched down after a Brian O’Driscoll grubber kick. Johnny Sexton kicked the conversion to make it 7-0, but the visitors then inexplicably took their foot off the accelerator and were punished to the max as Lagardere landed a hat-trick of penalties to lift Castres into a 9-7 lead after 26 minutes.

The shock of going behind stunned Leinster back into action, with Sexton going over for their second try just three minutes later, but this time, crucially, the fly-half missed an easy conversion to leave it 12-9 at half-time.

Felipe Contepomi replaced Sexton at the interval but himself missed a brace of penalties before finally landing at the third attempt to stretch the advantage to 15-9.

To add to the home side’s woes Steve Kefu was also yellow-carded, and at that point a French revival seem way off the radar. But Castres battled and scrapped for every ball, led by the indomitable Nallet as they fought to retain their pride.

And the constant forwards’ pressure began to pay dividends as Leinster conceded a stream of penalties, with Lagardere succeeding again on the hour mark as Castres narrowed the deficit to 15-12 by the time that Kefu returned to the fray.

By now the momentum was truly with the Top 14 side and Lagardere went on to kick two more penalties (in the 65^th and 70^th minutes) as they rallied to record an unlikely but deserved win.

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