Castres hang on to beat Racing 92

Editor

Castres held on to beat Racing 92 16-13 in their Champions Cup clash at Stade Pierre-Fabre on Saturday, claiming their first pool victory.

A try from Maama Vaipulu and the boot of Benjamin Urdapilleta saw them to the points, but Racing 92 had two late penalties to level matters, missing both in an absorbing game. Racing are now bottom of the pool, behind their hosts.

Incredibly the match was try-less at the break but it wasn't without a lack of chances, with both sides blowing an early opportunity apiece.

Teddy Thomas was the first to be embarrassed as his lovely break finished with him having the ball knocked out of his hands in the in-goal area by Afusipa Taumoepeau. Credit to Taumoepeau for not giving up but Thomas can have no excuses as he cost his side in the fifth minute.

Racing 92 thought they had scored again on nine minutes when Yannick Nyanga came around the side of a ruck to ground the ball. However, he was denied by referee Luke Pearce who deemed him to be offside. Despite there being no score there was plenty of drama on display.

The first points came on 11 minutes when Vaipulu was offside after a kick and Maxime Machenaud did the honours from the tee for Racing.

It was then the turn of Castres to be red faced when, from outside centre Robert Ebersohn's impressive break, the ball came left to where David Smith looked set to dive over. However, the ex Toulon man coughed the ball up before grounding so it remained 3-0 to the visitors.

Urdapilleta saw to that on 21 minutes when a high tackle from Racing 92 second-row Manuel Carizza allowed the fly-half to level the score.

He was on target again on 33 minutes, again after a Carizza high shot, to move Castres 6-3 up from wide out before Machenaud levelled.

Racing came out for the second-half with purpose and almost scored through Camille Chat but his impressive run to the line was ended when the ball slipped out of his grasp with Castres full-back Armand Batlle approaching. Still this Champions Cup contest remained without a try.

That changed in the 51st minute though when Edwin Maka scrambled over after not being held, with Machenaud's extras making it 13-6.

Castres though worked their way back level and with numbers aplenty on the right, replacement Rory Kockott found Vaipulu for the try that Urdapilleta converted easily for 13-13. With less than six minutes remaining it was getting to the stage of next point wins in the match.

Loic Jacquet's solid work at the breakdown gave Castres their chance from distance to go in front a minute later. And Urdapilleta took it with a wonderful kick that nudged his side 16-13 in front before Racing 92 replacement Antoine Gibert missed from range in the final minute.

The drama wasn't over too as another offence from Castres gave Teddy Iribaren a tough kick but he also missed as Racing were beaten.

The scorers:

For Castres:
Try: Vaipulu
Con: Urdapilleta
Pens: Urdapilleta 3

For Racing 92:
Try: Maka
Con: Machenaud
Pens: Machenaud 2

Castres: 15 Armand Batlle, 14 Afusipa Taumoepeau, 13 Robert Ebersohn, 12 Florian Vialelle, 11 David Smith, 10 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 9 Ludovic Radosavljevic, 8 Maama Vaipulu, 7 Mathieu Babillot, 6 Yannick Caballero, 5 Rodrigo Capo Ortega, 4 Thibault Lassalle, 3 Daniel Kotze, 2 Jody Jenneker, 1 Antoine Tichit
Replacements: 16 Marc-Antoine Rallier, 17 Tudor Stroe, 18 Yohan Montes, 19 Steve Mafi, 20 Loic Jacquet, 21 Rory Kockott, 22 Yohan Le Bourhis, 23 Kylian Jaminet

Racing 92: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Joe Rokocoko, 12 Henry Chavancy, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Rémi Tales, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Leone Nakarawa, 7 Boris Palu, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Edwin Maka, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Ben Tameifuna, 2 Camille Chat, 1 Eddy Ben Arous
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Vasil Kakovin, 18 Cedate Gomes Sa, 19 Donnacha Ryan, 20 Bernard Le Roux, 21 Teddy Iribaren, 22 Antoine Gibert, 23 Albert Vulivuli

Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant referees: Ian Tempest (England), Paul Dix (England)
TMO: Dave Grashoff (England)