Fourteen-man Castres edge Benetton at the death

MATCH REPORT: Fourteen-man Castres edged Benetton 39-37 to set up a tie with English side Northampton, the 2000 winners, in the Champions Cup quarterfinals.

Replacement scrumhalf Jeremy Fernandez converted his own try with eight seconds left to send the French club into the last eight for the first time since 2002 after centre Adrien Seguret was sent off on 42 minutes.

Castres Olympique came out of the blocks firing. It took just three minutes for Remy Baget to establish a lead, assisting himself by kicking the loose ball.

But Benetton weren’t to be deterred and went over themselves through Thomas Gallo on five minutes.

Castres didn’t take long to respond themselves though as Theo Chabouni restored the hosts’ lead before the 20-minute mark.

Baget sealed his brace soon after with his acrobatic interception seeing him free and in space to soar home.

The Italian side weren’t about to let that affect their ambitions though.

Ignacio Mendy soon pierced the Castres defence, before centre Nacho Brex finished off an inspired break which started inside the Benetton 22.

The back-and-forth first half wasn’t over there as Mathieu Babillot was on hand to breeze home just before the midway point.

Coming back out for the second half, it didn’t take long for Benetton to get back in front.

Castres first saw themselves reduced to 14 due to an Adrien Seguret red card for an elbow to the face, before Bautista Bernasconi immediately made the advantage count down the wing.

A home penalty for Castres brought things level but Paolo Odogwu’s raw pace shone through for the visitors to gift the lead back to the Italians.

Hugging the blindside to bomb his way down half of the pitch, Odogwu sent the visiting bench into delirium heading into the final 20 minutes.

Christian Ambadiang then to the chance to boast his pace as the No.14 charged down a loose ball to set up a thrilling finish.

Trailing 32-37 in the 77th minute, Castres attacked without let-up, and their efforts were finally rewarded when Jeremy Fernandez finally went over.

It was his resulting conversion that meant the side found the lead once more in the tie and ultimately booked their spot in the quarters.

The scorers:

For Castres:
Tries: Baget 2, Chabouni, Babillot, Ambadiang, Fernandez
Cons: Le Brun 2, Fernandez
Pen: Le Brun

For Benetton:
Tries: Gallo, Mendy, Brex, Bernasconi, Odogwu
Cons: Albornoz 3
Pens: Albornoz 2

Red card: Adrien Seguret (Castres, 42′ – foul play, elbow to opponents’ face)

Yellow cards: Florent Vanverberghe (Castres, 52′); Manuel Zuliani (Benetton, 52′); Thomas Gallo (Benetton, 77′)

Teams:

Castres: 15 Theo Chabouni, 14 Christian Ambadiang, 13 Adrien Seguret, 12 Andrea Cocagi, 11 Rémy Baget, 10 Louis le Brun, 9 Santiago Arata, 8 Abraham Papalii, 7 Gauthier Maravat, 6 Mathieu Babillot (captain), 5 Florent Vanverberghe, 4 Paul Jedrasiak, 3 Will Collier, 2 Gaetan Barlot, 1 Quentin Walcker.
Replacements: 16 Loris Zarantonello, 17 Lois Guerois-Galisson, 18 Aurelien Azar, 19 Leone Nakarawa, 20 Baptiste Delaporte, 21 Jeremy Fernandez, 22 Jack Goodhue, 23 Nathanael Hulleu.

Benetton: 15 Rhyno Smith, 14 Ignacio Mendy, 13 Tommaso Menoncello, 12 Nacho Brex, 11 Paolo Odogwu, 10 Tomas Albornoz, 9 Andy Uren, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Manuel Zuliani, 6 Riccardo Favretto, 5 Eli Snyman (captain), 4 Scott Scrafton, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Bautista Bernasconi, 1 Thomas Gallo.
Replacements: 16 Siua Maile, 17 Mirco Spagnolo, 18 Giosue Zilocchi, 19 Federico Ruzza, 20 Michele Lamaro, 21 Alessandro Garbisi, 22 Jacob Umaga, 23 Malakai Fekitoa.

Referee: Karl Dickson (England)
Assistant referees: Hamish Smales (England), Jonathan Healy (England)
TMO: Dean Richards (England)

Source: @ChampionsCup