Top 14: Henjak's ill-discipline costs Toulon dear as Castres record crucial home win

Castres 25 (9) Toulon 9 (9)

Castres took a massive step towards Top 14 survival with a scrappy but decisive 25-9 home win against their relegation rivals Toulon.

Both sides had begun the evening tied on 33 points, and there was little between them in a penalty-strewn first half as they went in 9-9 at the interval.

But Castres stepped up a gear after the break, with France captain Lionel Nallet crashing over for the game's only try after 58 minutes, as the home side eased clear of their nervous opponents.

The combined boots of Cameron McIntyre (two penalties and a conversion) and Romain Teulet (three penalties and a drop-goal) did the rest of the damage, leaving Toulon to rue not even managing to go home with a defensive bonus point.

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The result will be a bitter disappointment for player-coach Tana Umaga - who came on in the 66th minute - but at least Toulon now have three of their remaining five matches at home.

They will undoubtedly keep a keen eye on the fortunes of their relegation rivals on Saturday, but in truth the current paucity of points being gleaned by Dax and Mont-de-Marsan may negate their own slip up at the Stade Pierre Antoine.

The cat and mouse nature of the first-half began with Toulon's Sebastien Fauqué landing an eighth-minute drop-goal to open the scoring, having previously missed a straightforward penalty attempt moments earlier.

Teulet levelled five minutes later with his first penalty of the evening but Fauqué's second drop-goal, on 16 minutes, put the visitors back in the lead - and set the tone for the opening 40 minutes.

Teulet levelled, Fauqué responded and Teulet then kicked a drop-goal to leave it 9-9 with 10 minutes to play before the break.

The referee's whistle was the most prominent feature of a scrappy and error-strewn opening as tension dominated, with both sides having a prop sin-binned (Carl Hoeft for Castres and Davit Kubriashvili for Toulon) four minutes before the break.

Teulet also eschewed a simple kick to put Castres ahead before the turnaround, but  parity was probably a fair reflection as fear of losing appeared to dominate the players' minds.

Teulet made amends when he landed his fourth successful kick of the night three minutes after the restart - putting Castres ahead for the first time in the match - and the game's decisive moment followed shortly after when Toulon's combative Australian scrum-half Matt Henjak saw yellow for a needless shoulder charge.

The onlooking Umaga will have been none too impressed with the crass antics of his fiery scrum-half, and Castres took full toll of their numerical advantage to pull clear.

In the 10 minutes while Henjak was off the field - in fact he never returned as Umaga rang the changes - Castres scored a crucial 10 points and Toulon kissed goodbye to any hopes they had of squeezing the win.

First McIntyre slotted the resulting penalty - given for Henjak's offence - and then the hosts really turned the screw with a series of close-in surges that brought one disallowed try (from Chris Masoe) before Nallet's match-winning touchdown.

McIntyre added the conversion to lift Castres 13 points clear and all that was left for Toulon was to try and claw back the deficit so they could at least leave with a point.

A brace of kickable penalties (in the 63rd and 69th minutes) offered them hope, but Tusi Pisi squandered both with costly profligacy. It was a reminder to all of why Toulon are so keen to land a kicker of Jonny Wilkinson's calibre, and a reflection of their season-long struggles to land crucial kicks in tight matches.

Umaga brought himself and cousin Jerry Collins off the bench in one last search for points, but it was Castres who had the final say when McIntyre kicked a 72nd-minute penalty to leave the scores 25-9.

Castres manager Alain Gaillard afterwards admitted that Henjak's ill-discipline had been the game's turning point -"We took advantage of the yellow card when Toulon played with 14" - while Toulon's Aubin Hueber agreed that defeat had been of their own making.

"We were completely out of the game after the yellow card. We put ourselves in jeopardy," he said. "We'll have to get back to work. We will try to find the right solutions to get out of this bad situation," he added.