Top 14: Late Bastareaud try lifts stuttering Stade Francais to narrow victory at Castres

24 April 2009

Castres 16 (13) Stade Francais 21 (9)

Stuttering Stade Francais had Mathieu Bastareaud to thank after registering their first away win in Top 14 for more than three months.

The young centre produced a typically powerful finish when he bulldozed over for the winning try four minutes from time, taking three Castres defenders with him as he rampaged in from 15 metres.

The capital's faltering wannabes had again struggled to impose themselves, but fought back against the wind in the second half as they rallied from 13-9 down at the interval.

Romain Teulet and Lionel Beauxis exchanged early penalties before Castres scored the game's opening try after 18 minutes thanks to an opportunistic break from Thomas Bouquié.

The home full-back capitalised on a wayward pass from Beauxis to sprint in from 60m. setting up an easy conversion for Teulet to add the extras and open up an 8-3 advantage.

Beauxis and Teulet then traded a further penalty each as the match swung back and forth in the first 30 minutes, with the Stade Francais fly-half narrowing the gap to 13-9 shortly before the interval when he landed his third successful kick.

By then Castres' international scrum half Sébastien Tillous-Borde had already left the pitch with an injured left knee - replaced by Kevin Senio.

Stade played against the wind in the second period and luck appeared to be favouring the hosts as Beauxis missed his first kick of the half before Simon Taylor was then forced off with a leg injury. It may, however, have been an injury Castres regretted as it merely brought on Italian international Sergio Parisse.

The inevitable fisticuffs broke out as tensions rose, resulting in Joe Tekori and Mirco Bergamasco both seeing yellow in the 48th minute, before Stade brought on yet more reinforcements in an effort to force their way back into the game.

Juan Martin Hernandez entered the fray in the 51st minute - initially coming on as full-back for Guillaume Bousses - while international hooker Dimitri Szarzewski replaced Mathieu Blin a minute later.

The result was almost instantaneous with Stade finally claiming the lead for the first time on the night when Hernandez fed Geoffroy Messina, who took out two defenders before teeing up Mirco Bergamasco to race in for the their first try just minutes after the Italian returned to the fray.

Beauxis missed the conversion and it looked to be a costly mistake when Teulet subsequently landed his third penalty of the night to edge Castres back ahead with just nine minutes remaining.

But Ewen McKenzie pushed Hernandez up to fly-half as Beauxis was replaced by Djibril Camara, and after mounting pressure Stade finally crossed the line again when Bastareaud burst through for his eighth league try of the season.

Hernandez capped a happy comeback by slotting the conversion, leaving Stade celebrating their first away win since beating Mont-de-Marsan on January 10th. The victory also lifted them above Clermont Auvergne (temporarily at least) into third spot, while Castres had to settle for the defensive bonus point.

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