Castres edge past Bordeaux

Editor

Julien Dumora’s first half try and Benjamin Urdapilleta’s conversion proved the difference as Castres overcame Bordeaux-Bègles 7-6 at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

Conditions made it difficult for free-flowing rugby and, as a result, neither team could gain a grip on proceedings in the opening period.

It was proving to be a dreary game and the first quarter threatened to end scoreless until Baptiste Serin broke the deadlock in the 18th minute with a penalty.

Both sides continued to struggle to create opportunities but the visitors finally put together a cohesive attack just shy of the half-hour mark.

Alex Tulou sparked the move by making the break which splintered the UBB rearguard before Urdapilleta kicked through for Dumora to touch down.

Castres duly went into the second half with a 7-3 advantage and they maintained that buffer for most of the final 40 minutes, despite some early Bordeaux pressure.

Christophe Urios’ men remained resilient in defence and, despite a late Serin three-pointer reducing the arrears, they held on for a victory which got them back on track after successive Top 14 defeats.

The scorers:

For Bordeaux-Bègles:
Pens: Serin 2

For Castres:
Try: Dumora
Con: Urdapilleta

Bordeaux-Bègles: 15 Nans Ducuing, 14 Fa’asiu Fuatai, 13 Romain Lonca, 12 Julien Rey, 11 Blair Connor, 10 Simon Hickey, 9 Baptiste Serin, 8 Leroy Houston, 7 Loann Goujon, 6 Mahamadou Diaby, 5 Jandre Marais, 4 Luke Jones, 3 Vadim Cobilas, 2 Florian Dufour, 1 Peni Ravai
Replacements: 16 Maxime Lamothe, 17 Sebastien Taofifenua, 18 Cyril Cazeaux, 19 Cameron Woki, 20 Nick Frisby, 21 Ben Volavola, 22 Apisai Naqalevu, 23 Marc Clerc

Castres: 15 Julien Dumora, 14 Armand Batlle, 13 Thomas Combezou, 12 Robert Ebersohn, 11 David Smith, 10 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 9 Ludovic Radosavljevic, 8 Alex Tulou, 7 Mathieu Babillot, 6 Baptiste Delaporte, 5 Rodrigo Capo Ortega, 4 Loic Jacquet, 3 Daniel Kotze, 2 Marc-Antoine Rallier, 1 Antoine Tichit
Replacements: 16 Jody Jenneker, 17 Tudor Stroe, 18 Victor Moreaux, 19 Anthony Jelonch, 20 Yohan Domenech, 21 Yannick Caballero, 22 Afusipa Taumoepeau, 23 Yohan Montes

Referee: Tual Trainini
Assistant referees: Mathieu Noirot, Patrick Pechambert
TMO: Eric Briquet-Campin