Paris crush Castres

Stade Français remained undefeated in 2008 with a crushing 47-16 win on the road at Castres.

Stade Français remained undefeated in 2008 with a crushing 47-16 win on the road at Castres.

Despite playing some very average rugby over the past weeks, Stade Français have yet to meet their match this year and continued their unbroken winning streak in both European and domestic competitions by completely out-gunning Castres.

Stade seem to have regained some form and are comfortably in second place on the Top 14 log.

Stade beat Castres in both their Top 14 games last year and continued the trend by outscoring them six tries to one.

Castres Olympique started with 11 foreign players in their line-up but it was the Parisian side's etrangères who made the greater impact.

Juan Martin Hernandez and Simon Taylor both had super games with Hernandez scoring 20 points and freeing up the Stade back-line on numerous occasions.

The Parisian side were dominant in all phases. Their forwards, although not brilliant, slowed down any ball Castres got. With slow ball from the base of the ruck and scrum, Castres were not able to launch any dangerous-looking attacks.

Stade did excellent work in putting pressure on the Castres ball carriers and their backs punished Castres for their mistakes. And mistakes there were aplenty.

Christophe Dominici made his third appearance of the season for the Parisians. With 67 caps for France his experience is always valuable and he scored his first try of the season after 29 minutes.

Dominici was replaced by 18-year-old debutante Quetin Valancan as Paris gave some of their youngsters a run in the last 20 minutes.

South Africa replacement Dan Saayman scored a late try for Castres only for Paris to score one of their own from the ensuing kick-off.

Paris have now scored 27 tries this season. Only Toulouse have scored more. Castres have scored 13

Scorers:

For Stade Français
Tries: Saubade 2, Messina, Bousses, Burban, Dominici.
Cons: Hernandez 4
Pens:Hernandez 3

For Castres
Try: Saayman
Con: Lagardère
Pens: Lagardère 3

Yellow Cards: Martin (tackle without the ball), Burban (tackle without the ball, although Cliff Milton was actually the guilty party)