Castres stun the Irish

Castres claimed their first victory of the Heineken Cup campaign with a surprise 18-15 defeat of Pool 2 table-toppers Leinster on Friday night.

The French outfit, who were beaten 33-3 in the reverse fixture last weekend, showed great fighting spirit to battle back from an early Girvan Dempsey try to seal the win - Anthony Legardere kicking all 18 points.

The losing bonus point takes the Irish side into a seven point lead in the group with second-placed Wasps set to play Edinburgh on Saturday.

Struggling Castres, who had won just three of their 15 matches this season, made eight changes to the team that lost in Dublin but got off to the worst possible start.

Charles Sika spilled a Brian O'Driscoll kick close to his line and Dempsey deftly swooped on the loose ball to score, Jonathan Sexton adding a superb conversion from the touchline.

Control

But the Leinster number 10 missed a much easier effort moments later and with Florian Faure, Chris Masoe and fit-again captain Lionel Nallet assuming control, the home side gradually got themselves into the game.

Lagardere's well-struck opening penalty bounced through off the left upright and Castres cut the gap to 7-6 when a Joe Tekori-inspired counter-attack saw Leinster infringe once again.

The Irish were never able to build on their early superiority and after a Rob Kearney knock-on and an offside call, Lagardere booted the hosts into a shock lead.

But Leinster hit back on the half-hour, Luke Fitzgerald piercing the midield before forwards Jamie Heaslip, Shane Jennings and Simon Keogh helped Sexton crash over for the score.

The fly-half failed to convert and Lagardere missed his only penalty of the night to leave the visitors 12-9 up at the interval.

Lacking ideas

Felipe Contepomi was brought into the action after missing last week's victory with a hand injury, but he missed his first two penalty attempts and the Irish continued to lack ideas.

Castres centre Steve Kefu appeared harshly treated when sin-binned for killing the ball and it gave Contepomi to extend the lead from in front of the posts.

However, instead of keeping their discipline the Irish continued to infringe as Castres forced a series of penalties that Lagardere despatched with the minimum of fuss.

The go-ahead goal came 10 minutes from the end and although Leinster tried hard to maintain their unbeaten record in this year's competition, the hosts held out with a great steal from Chris Masoe ending any hopes the Irish had of a late score.