Castres beat Worcester Warriors 27-33 to finish top of Pool 1

Worcester Warriors 27-33 Castres, Sixways
Scorecard

Rory Kockott scored a hat-trick as Castres finished at the top of Pool 1 with a 27-33 win over Worcester Warriors in the sixth round of the European Challenge Cup at Sixways on Friday.

This is Castres' fifth win from six games as they finished with 23 points in Pool 1 while Worcester Warriors are out of the tournament with Dragons sealing a quarter-finals berth.

Duncan Weir got Worcester off the mark with a seventh minute penalty goal before Kockott's first of the three tries put the French side into the lead in the 16th minute.

The home side took control of the game with back to back tries from Jamie Shillcock (18') and Marco Mama (32') and Weir kicked the extras on both the occasions to make it 17-5 before Wilfrid Hounkpatin's try in the 37th minute reduced the gap down to five points before Weir penalty goal at the stroke of half-time ensured the teams finished the first half with a 20-12 scoreline.

The opening minutes of the second half saw Michael Heaney and Kockott trade tries as the gap between the two teams remained eight points but a yellow card to GJ van Velze in the 69th minute proved costly for the Warriors as Castres made full use of the numerical advantage with back to back tries from Baptiste Delaporte (70') and Kockott (75') to complete a six point victory.