Castres beat Racing in scrappy affair
Maama Vaipulu scored the lone Castres Olympique try of the match in the 74th minute to clinch a late victory.
A scrappy opening quarter saw an exchange of penalty kicks between Benjamin Urdapilleta and Maxime Machenaud, but Racing 92 should arguably have been in the lead.
France winger Teddy Thomas strolled over the whitewash, but was made to pay for his nonchalance as he ended up knocking on as he sought to dot down under the posts.
Urdapilleta and Machenaud both doubled their tally before the break as the sides went in at half-time locked at 6-6, and Racing 92 could, and should, have again scored but it was Camille Chat who knocked on when clear early in the second period.
Edwin Make did take the first try of the match for Racing 92 as he evaded an attempted Robert Ebersohn tackle to bundle over, but Vaipulu's score, converted by Urdapilleta brought the hosts back on level terms.
Urdapilleta's metronomic boot would have the final say as he drove a penalty between the uprights to make his record four kicks from four and take Castres Olympique to the top of Pool four ahead of a rematch with their Top 14 counterparts next weekend.
The scorers:
For Castres:
Try: Vaipulu
Con: Urdapilleta
Pens: Urdapilleta 3
For Racing 92:
Try: Maka
Con: Machenaud
Pens: Machenaud 2
Castres: 15 Armand Batlle, 14 Afusipa Taumoepeau, 13 Robert Ebersohn, 12 Florian Vialelle, 11 David Smith, 10 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 9 Ludovic Radosavljevic, 8 Maama Vaipulu, 7 Mathieu Babillot, 6 Yannick Caballero, 5 Rodrigo Capo Ortega, 4 Thibault Lassalle, 3 Daniel Kotze, 2 Jody Jenneker, 1 Antoine Tichit
Replacements: 16 Marc-Antoine Rallier, 17 Tudor Stroe, 18 Yohan Montes, 19 Steve Mafi, 20 Loic Jacquet, 21 Rory Kockott, 22 Yohan Le Bourhis, 23 Kylian Jaminet
Racing 92: 15 Brice Dulin, 14 Teddy Thomas, 13 Joe Rokocoko, 12 Henry Chavancy, 11 Juan Imhoff, 10 Rémi Tales, 9 Maxime Machenaud, 8 Leone Nakarawa, 7 Boris Palu, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Edwin Maka, 4 Manuel Carizza, 3 Ben Tameifuna, 2 Camille Chat, 1 Eddy Ben Arous
Replacements: 16 Dimitri Szarzewski, 17 Vasil Kakovin, 18 Cedate Gomes Sa, 19 Donnacha Ryan, 20 Bernard Le Roux, 21 Teddy Iribaren, 22 Antoine Gibert, 23 Albert Vulivuli
Referee: Luke Pearce (England)
Assistant referees: Ian Tempest (England), Paul Dix (England)
TMO: Dave Grashoff (England)
Source: @ChampionsCup
