Edinburgh bag bonus in the end

It may have taken the best part of five matches to come, but when Hamish Watson crossed for Edinburgh's fourth try in the 73rd minute it brought a huge sigh of relief as Edinburgh finally bagged a try bonus point.

Even tough they had only lost once in Pool Five to stay very much in the hunt for a quarterfinal ticket, Edinburgh were the lowest try scorers in their pool coming into the game and hadn't been able to pick up a bonus point.

Agen arrived having lost all of their previous four matches, but determined to fight for a morale boosting win.

They certainly made life difficult in the first-half, restricting the home side to a single Greig Tonks penalty until they lost prop Nicolas Chocou to a yellow card after half-an-hour.

That was the cue for Edinburgh to strike and after picking up a penalty at a five metre line-out they took a quick tap and go and No.8 Magnus Bradbury marked his first start in Europe with a try that made it 8-0 at the break.

Edinburgh lost their own prop, John Andress, to the sin-bin nine minutes into the second half and then had to wait until the game was almost an hour old before they grabbed a second try through replacement back row man Mike Cowman.

Now the race was on for the bonus point and two more tries flowed from Tonks in the 68th minute and then from Watson five minutes later.

It didn't matter that none of the four tries were converted and the win moved Edinburgh to the top of the pool with a trip to Grenoble to come next week.

* In other Friday matches Johnny Leota kept alive Sale Sharks hopes of reaching the quarterfinals of the Challenge Cup by crossing for a vital bonus-point try a minute from time in Pau.

* Newport Gwent Dragons are in pole position to qualify from Challenge Cup Pool Two after a battling 31-18 bonus-point win over Castres.

All Friday's scores and scorers!

Edinburgh 23-0 Agen

The scorers:

For Edinburgh:

Tries: Bradbury, Coman, Tonks, Watson

Pen: Tonks

For Agen:

None

Yellow cards: Nicolas Chocou (Agen, 29), John Andress (Edinburgh, 49)

Teams:

Edinburgh: 15 Jack Cuthbert, 14 Damien Hoyland, 13 Michael Allen, 12 Andries Strauss, 11 Will Helu, 10 Greig Tonks, 9 Sean Kennedy, 8 Magnus Bradbury, 7 Hamish Watson, 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Ben Toolis, 4 Alex Toolis, 3 John Andress, 2 Stuart McInally (captain), 1 Rory Sutherland.

Replacements: 16 Neil Cochrane, 17 Allan Dell, 18 Simon Berghan, 19 Anton Bresler, 20 Mike Coman, 21 Nathan Fowles, 22 Chris Dean, 23 Dougie Fife.

Agen: 15 Benoit Sicart, 14 François Tardieu, 13 Vincent Roux, 12 Pierre Fouyssac, 11 Filipo Nakosi, 10 François Bouvier, 9 Paul Abadie,  8 Marc Baget, 7 Denis Marchois, 6 Sione Tau, 5 Corentin Braendlin, 4 Léo Bastien, 3 Nicolas Chocou, 2 Marc Barthomeuf, 1 Quentin Bethune.

Replacements: 16 Florian Dufour, 17 Viliamu Afatia, 18 , 19 Felicien Vergnon, 20 Nicolas Gal, 21 Baptiste Cadiou, 22 Clement Darbo, 23 Alban Conduche.

Referee: Ian Davies (Wales)

Assistant referees: Rhys Thomas (Wales), Simon Rees (Wales)

Newport Gwent Dragons 31-18 Castres

The scorers:

For Newport Gwent Dragons:

Tries: Amos, Cudd, Evans, Hewitt

Cons: Tovey 4

Pen: Tovey

For Castres:

Tries: D Smith, Samson

Con: Palis

Pens: Palis 2

Yellow cards: Lucas Martinez (Castres, 26), Eric Sione (Castres, 63)

Red card: Alexandre Bias (Castres, 57)

Teams:

Newport Gwent Dragons: 15 Carl Meyer, 14 Ashton Hewitt, 13 Adam Hughes, 12 Adam Warren, 11 Hallam Amos, 10 Jason Tovey, 9 Sarel Pretorius, 8 Taulupe Faletau, 7 Nic Cudd, 6 Lewis Evans, Rynard Landman (captain), 4 Cory Hill, 3 Brok Harris, 2 Elliot Dee, 1 Phil Price.

Replacements: 16 Thomas Rhys Thomas, 17 Boris Stankovich, 18 Shaun Knight, 19 Matthew Screech, 20 Ed Jackson, 21 Charlie Davies, 22 Angus O'Brien, 23 Nick Scott.

Castres: 15 Geoffrey Palis, 14 Sitiveni Sivivatu, 13 Thomas Combezou, 12 Romain Cabannes, 11 David Smith, 10 Francois Fontaine, 9 Julien Seron, 8 Mathieu Babillot, 7 Ibrahim Diarra, 6 Yannick Caballero, 5 Benjamin Desroche, 4 Christophe Samson, 3 Lucas Martinez, 2 Marc-Antoine Rallier, 1 Saimone Taumoepeau.

Replacements: 16 Julien Beziat, 17 Karena Wihongi, 18 Eric Sione, 19 Alexandre Bias, 20 Theo Hannoyer, 21 Rudi Wulf, 22 Rémi Lamerat, 23 Benjamin Urdapilleta.

Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland)

Assistant referees: Kieran Barry (Ireland), Ken Imbusch (Ireland)

TMO: Dermot Moloney (Ireland)

Pau 3-27 Sale Sharks

The scorers:

For Pau:

Pen: Marques

For Sale Sharks:

Tries: Ostrikov, Edwards, Addison, Leota

Cons: Cipriani 2

Pen: Cipriani

Teams:

Pau: 15 Charly Malie, 14 Marika Vunibaka, 13 Julien Fumat, 12 Pierre Dupouy, 11 Mathieu Acebes, 10 Brandon Fajardo, 9 Samuel Marques, 8 Brice Monzeglio, 7 Josefa Ulago Domolailai, 6 Giovanni Habel Kuffner, 5 Claude Dry, 4 Cameron Pierce, 3 Giorgi Natsarashvili, 2 Thomas Bianchin, 1 Geoffrey Moise.

Replacements: 16 Mehdi Boundjema, 17 Julien Jacquot, 18 Juan Pablo Orlandi, 19 Sean Dougall, 20 Loic Bernad, 21 Thierry Lacrampe, 22 Watisoni Votu, 23 Romain Buros.

Sale Sharks: 15 Mike Haley, 14 Tom Arscott, 13 Will Addison, 12 Johnny Leota, 11 Nev Edwards, 10 Danny Cipriani, 9 Chris Cusiter, 8 Josh Beaumont (captain), 7 Magnus Lund, 6 Cameron Neild, 5 Andrei Ostrikov, 4 Bryn Evans, 3 Vadim Cobbles, 2 Tommy Taylor, 1 Ross Harrison.

Replacements: 16 Neil Briggs, 17 James Flynn, 18 Ciaran Parker, 19 Jonathan Mills, 20 Mark Easter, 21 James Mitchell, 22 Joe Ford, 23 Mark Jennings.

Referee: Gary Conway (Ireland)

Assistant referees: Leo Colgan (Ireland), Paul Haycock (Ireland)

Source: @ERChallengeCup