Castres hand 39-0 defeat to Leicester Tigers

Castres 39-0 Leicester Tigers, Stade Pierre Fabre
Scorecard

Castres came up with a clinical approach as they went on to thrash Castres 39-0 in their round five of the European Rugby Champions Cup face-off at Stade Pierre Fabre on Sunday.

Both sides' chances of reaching the quarter-finals had effectively disappeared shortly before kick-off, as Pool Four rivals Racing 92 beat Munster in Paris. But the hosts came into the game defending a five-match unbeaten run at home in Europe, and were determined to prove that October's 54-29 mauling in the reverse fixture was an aberration.

Leicester brought a much-changed side from the one that beat London Irish 19-15 in the Premiership eight days previously. Castres, too, featured numerous changes.

Ben Urdapilleta capitalised on the sloppy defence from Leicester Tigers as he crossed over in the first minute and the fly-half even converted it to make it 7-0. Urdapilleta kicked two more penalties to extend the home side's lead to 13-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Thomas Combezou allowed Castres to end the first half on a high as he crossed over twice in the 24th and 38th minutes while Urdapilleta slotted conversions on both the occasions. The two tries were separated by sin-bin to Armand Batlle which Leicester failed to capitalise as they trailed by 27 points at half-tiime.

Batlle made amends for his sin-bin with an early try in the second half that stretched Castres lead to 32 points. Leicester thought they finally opened their account just after an hour when Adam Thompstone crashed in the corner but his try was disallowed for a forward pass.

Batlle scored his second try in the 76th minute and with Leicester struggling to find any points, Castres completed a 39-0 victory.