Castres 18-20 Harlequins: Quins made to work for opening Champions Cup victory

RUGBYU-EUR-CUP-CASTRES-HARLEQUINS
AFP via Getty Images
Marc Mayo12 December 2021

Harlequins kicked off their Heineken Champions Cup campaign with a tough 20-18 victory over Castres.

It was Alex Dombrandt who secured the vital advantage with a try from a smart line-out move at Stade Pierre-Fabre to kick off their Group B schedule with a hard-fought win.

With a 72nd-minute penalty for Marcus Smith to boot, Quins looked certain to end the game as a contest.

The French side were not quite finished, however. Winger Martin Laveau broke through a packed defensive line to score from the restart and set up a tense finish.

But, as they pushed forward in search of an unlikely win, one final penalty was enough for the visitors to clear their lines, and head home with four crucial points.

Castres - in their first Champions Cup outing since the 2018-19 season - had named a very different side from the one that picked up a bonus-point win over Racing 92 in the Top 14 a week earlier.

A simmering first-half ended 11-7 in favour of the hosts, as the English champions found out the hard way, just as Racing had done eight days previously, that Castres' defence is not easily broken down.

Harlequins spent much of the first period hammering away at the Top 14 side's defensive line - Smith turned down no fewer than three gettable penalties in favour of kicks to touch.

But it took them over half an hour to register their first points of the game. It was third time lucky for Quins, who had again refused easy points after Castres' scrum, under pressure all evening, was penalised just outside their 22.

The Top 14 side defended the resulting lineout well, but the ball broke on the short side to Louis Lynagh, who had a simple run-in to the corner. Smith converted from out wide.

Castres - the last Top 14 side to lose to Harlequins in the Champions Cup in 2015 - had earlier surprised the visitors after an opening 20 minutes mostly played in their half.

Harlequins failed to deal with a kick ahead and chase from Urdapilleta, who caught Smith five metres from his own line, forcing him to pass rather than clear.

The following clearance from Lynagh only found the hosts' winger Filipo Nakosi, who threaded his way easily through the Quins' defence before passing to Josaia Raisuqe to score on his first ever start at seven.

Additional reporting by PA Media.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in