Late drama: Caballero try wins it for Castres
Castres needed a 73rd-minute try from their pack to snatch a drama-filled 10-8 Heineken Cup victory over Glasgow on Saturday.
The result moves Castres into second place in Pool 4, three points behind Ulster and two ahead of Northampton.
A stop-start first half highlighted by missed kicks from both sides was drawing to a close with the scores locked at 3-all until Glasow flank John Barclay scored the first try to give the visitors an 8-3 lead at the break.
But Castres flank Yannick Caballero scored at the back of a rolling maul in the dying minutes, against 13 men, to put the hosts ahead.
And the drama continued as Glasgow fly-half Ruaridh Jackson hit the upright with last-gasp penalty, leaving the Scottish side winless in four games.
Warriors coach Gregor Townsend made nine changes to the side which lost at home last weekend, and his changes showed straight away. Glasgow matched Castres' physicality, while speed among their backs caused problems for the French side throughout.
Peter Horne slotted the first points in the first minute, kicking a simple penalty from in front of the posts, before Romain Teulet equalised minutes later.
Glasgow's speed in their running caused problems for Castres, and they were unfortunate not to score on 20 minutes, when Marcel Garvey intercepted a pass out to Canadian international DTH van der Merwe on the wing.
But the first try of the game arrived moments before half-time, as Barclay charged to the line, evading the attention of Garvey, but was injured in doing so, and that was his last involvement in the game.
Castres came out for the second half full of intent, and put Glasgow under severe pressure, forcing them into conceding penalties in their 22.
But once Glasgow were able to get on the ball, their speed gave Castres further problems. Fijian international scrum-half Nikola Matawalu made a break towards the line from his own half, and was only undone with a dropped ball in the tackle only five metres from the whitewash.
Tom Ryder saw a yellow card with 15 minutes to play, playing his opponent in the air at a line-out. Castres then had Glasgow under the cosh, forcing several penalties at the scrum, but a loss of control allowed Glasgow to clear their lines.
Glasgow then went down to 13 men, as Byron McGuigan tackled Brice Dulin after he had kicked upfield, and was yellow carded with nine minutes to play.
The inevitable came only a minute later, as Caballero powered over with the help of a driving maul, before Daniel Kirkpatrick gave his side the lead with the simple conversion.
Jackson had the chance to give his side the win only two minutes from time, but hit the post with his penalty kick from distance, allowing the passionate home crowd to breathe a huge sigh of relief on the whistle.
The Scorers:
For Castres:
Try: Caballero
Con: Kirkpatrick
Pen: Teulet
For Glasgow:
Try: Barclay
Pen: Horne
Yellow cards: Ryder, McGuigan
Castres: 15 Romain Teulet, 14 Paul Bonnefond, 13 Romain Cabannes, 12 Rémi Lamerat, 11 Marcel Garvey, 10 Rémi Tales, 9 Thierry Lacrampe, 8 Pedrie Wannenburg, 7 Yannick Caballero, 6 Jannie Bornman, 5 Iosefa Tekori, 4 Matthias Rolland, 3 Michaël Coetzee, 2 Mathieu Bonello, 1 Mihaïta Lazar.
Replacements: 16 Brice Mach, 17 Karena Wihongi, 18 Saimone Taumoepeau, 19 Christophe Samson, 20 Ibrahim Diarra, 21 Thomas Sanchou, 22 Daniel Kirkpatrick, 23 Brice Dulin.
Glasgow: 15 Sean Maitland, 14 Tommy Seymour, 13 Sean Lamont, 12 Peter Horne, 11 DTH van der Merwe, 10 Ruaridh Jackson, 9 Niko Matawalu, 8 Ryan Wilson, 7 John Barclay, 6 James Eddie, 5 Tom Ryder, 4 Tim Swinson, 3 Moray Low, 2 Pat MacArthur, 1 Gordon Reid.
Replacements: 16 Dougie Hall, 17 Ryan Grant, 18 George Hunter, 19 Nick Campbell, 20 Rob Harley, 21 Sean Kennedy, 22 Graeme Morrison, 23 Byron McGuigan.
Venue: Stade Pierre Antoine
Referee: Andrew Small (England)
Assistant referees: Tim Wigglesworth (England), Roy Maybank (England)
Television match official: David Grashoff (England)
Comments
Toulousain says...
@melkdave. agreed. a bizarre thing to do (unless you are toulon and think you will score a bucket load of tries, and even toulon kicked a 3 pointer at the beginning!). in a funny way, i think castres would be flattered to hear people think they have "ambitions" to win the hcup. it feels more like they are playing hcup sort of by accident, because they had ambitions last season in T14......
@JamieTheProp. i was also totally disgusted by the stamping incident. i hope it doesn't sound like i was trying to defend it (although i can see it might). it is indefensible as you say.
@1st58. games like this make the old-timers say "bring back rucking". rucking has its dangers, of course. but a weak/naive ref, combined with a brave/cynical team, means you can sometimes end up with incidents like this. how many times has mccaw got punched over the years because "he won't let go and the ref won't blow"?
Posted 18:59 18th December 2012
melkdave says...
@Toulousain
I didnt say Glasgow wasnt cynicle and constantly infringeing,.I did say they should have taken the penalty kicks after all.i was just pointing out that i couldnt understand why Catres didnt take those penalty kicks..If they had they would have won by a country mile.But the coach consistenly told his players to keep going in the forwards ,and it almost cost them a game,they should have won easily.From that perpective it was a very bad performance by the COACH ,not so much the team.,but if they have ambitions of wining the HC ,they are going to have to have a more rounded ,and balanced gameplan otherwise they have no chance imo.
Posted 12:49 18th December 2012
1st58 says...
@Toulousain - yes English, but absolutely horrified at the hopeless display by Small. Glasgow were very brave, but also totally cynical.
Posted 22:41 17th December 2012
Toulousain says...
@1st58, thank goodness some-one else (not french?) saw it the same way as me. when one complains about a ref, one is always reluctant to do it, and one always tries to see it both ways. the stamp was inexcusable. just terrible. the guy who did it should get a multi-week ban. but one has to ask why he did it, what led up to it, etc etc. mr small should think on it, as you say....
Posted 13:24 17th December 2012
1st58 says...
Firstly I only saw the second half of this game, but as a former referee I feel I must comment on the apalling display of officiating from Mr Small.
Firstly the stamp to the head was a red card defence and cannot be defended, however I can say I think it highly likely that this would not have occured had Mr Small taken a stronger line with Glasgow's persistent infringements.
As I say, I only saw the second half, but I was amazed at how lenient Mr Small was with Glasgow - every time Casters were trying to build a head of steam Glasgow fringed in some way, quite often Mr Small spotted the infraction, but just kept awarding a string of penalties, nothing more. It was obvious that the frustration was going to boil over. Glasgow may have ended up with 13 men on the field at one stage, but to be honest it could have been 11 or 12 - I think Mr Small needs to reflect on his offciating, and realise he made a total horlicks of this game.
Posted 12:22 17th December 2012
JamieTheProp says...
That stamp on the Glasgow 3's head in the second half (well actually the rake) is one of the most vicious actions I have seen on a professional rugby field and anyone saying that the red favoured Glasgow when he missed that and had 2 men off for Glasgow for lesser offenses is talking nonsense!
I'm no Glasgow fan but that was a disgrace - I hope they ban the player for a very long time!
Posted 23:21 16th December 2012
NHsaints says...
Hmm, I would have preferred a Glasgow win but hey ho, now Saints just need Castres or Glasgow to upset Ulster and Saints to win their next two with Bonus points...
Posted 17:00 16th December 2012
Toulousain says...
that's a point of view melkdave. and i see what you're saying. but another viewpoint would be to say that glasgow took the field with the intention of, well, how can i say this nicely, i can't think of a way....of cheating at every possible opportunity.
20 years ago, before we had cameras everywhere, this would have simply resulted in a massive fight on the pitch, a few broken noses, probably some of the crowd involved too, plus visiting officials etc etc. then after everything had settled down, with 13 against 13 on the field, castres would have walked it with 4 or 5 tries.
many die-hard french fans are still very suspicious of refereeing in european games, hcup or amlin. the old theory goes that french teams need to be 25% better than their opponents to win. we have come a long way recently, and those kinds of fans now mostly seem like dinosaurs, but then you see a game like this and you wonder.....
Posted 15:52 16th December 2012
melkdave says...
Well just how disappointing where Castres,no real gameplan but to mual,and use the forwards,and even then had to wait till Glasgow where down to 13 men to score.Didnt even try and kick the easy penalties which would have won the game easily for them,and almost lost the match by giving a penalty in the scrum ,one of their strengths.The head coach really needs to start thinking outside the forwards only game ,and look at the games bigger picture,His decisions where terrible to say the least,and didnt even think of going for the kicks.Very very bad display ,and on that performance absolutly no chance of wining the HC .
Posted 15:11 16th December 2012