Fourteen-man Montpellier bag bonus point
The Georgian tighthead prop was given his marching orders by Welsh referee Ben Whitehouse in the 18th minute who charging into a ruck and striking Castres lock Thibault Lassale in the face with his shoulder.
At that stage Castres were leading 8-3 thanks to an early Rory Kockott penalty and a 40 metre interception ruby by the right wing Remi Grosso after he picked off a long, floating pass from Jesse Mogg.
Playing against 14 men for 62 minutes the visitors must have fancied their chances, but they found it difficult to come to terms with the Montpellier scrum and eventually conceded three tries from driving line-outs and saw the home side grab a bonus-point score two minutes from time..
Kockott added a second penalty to make it 11-3, but on the stroke of half-time the home pack drove to the line from a five metre line-out and created an opening on the blindside for Fijian wing Timoci Naguca to barge his way through David Smith for his 11th European Cup try. Francois Steyn converted off the touchline to make it 11-10 to Castres at the break.
The second half belonged almost entirely to the home side, with their seven man pack magnificent in all aspects. Castres changed their halfbacks at the break and their Argentinian No.10 Benjamin Urdapilleta kicked them further ahead with a simple penalty a minute after the re-start.
That was it for Castres, however, and three tries flowed from Jake White's men as they claimed an unlikely bonus-point to stay within one point of Pool 4 leaders Leinster. Tries two and three came from driving line-outs, flanker Kelian Galletier and hooker Shalva Mamukashvili crossing, and then Naguca created the opening for Nic White to score the vital fourth.
Castres lost replacement back row man Alexandre Bias to a yellow card for the final eight minutes and they will need a massive turn-around next week when they host Montpellier in Round Four.
The scorers:
For Montpellier:
Tries:Nagusa, Galletier, Mamukashvili, White
Cons: Steyn 3
Pens: Steyn 2
For Castres:
Try:Grosso
Pens: Kockott 2, Urdapilleta
Red card: Davit Kubriashvili (Montpellier, 18 – foul play, shoulder charge into a ruck)
Teams:
Montpellier: 15 Jesse Mogg, 14 Timoci Nagusa, 13 Vincent Martin, 12 Alexandre Dumoulin, 11 Nemani Nadolo, 10 Frans Steyn, 9 Nic White, 8 Akapusi Qera (captain), 7 Kélian Galletier, 6 Fulgence Ouedraogo, 5 Nicholaas Van Rensburg, 4 Konstantine Mikautadze, 3 Davit Kubriashvili, 2 Shalva Mamukashvili, 1 Mikheil Nariashvili.
Replacements: 16 Charles Géli, 17 Yvan Watremez, 18 Jannie Du Plessis, 19 Antoine Battut, 20 Wiaan Liebenberg, 21 Cameron Wright, 22 Benjamin Fall, 23 Demetri Catrakilis.
Castres: 15 Pierre Berard, 14 Rémi Grosso, 13 Thomas Combezou, 12 Afusipa Taumoepeau, 11 David Smith, 10 Julien Dumora, 9 Rory Kockott, 8 Alex Tulou, 7 Anthony Jelonch, 6 Mathieu Babillot, 5 Rodrigo Capo Ortega, 4 Thibault Lassale, 3 Daniel Kotze, 2 Brice Mach, 1 Antoine Tichit.
Replacements: 16 Marc-Antoine Rallier, 17 Tudor Stroe, 18 Damien Tussac, 19 Victor Moreaux, 20 Benjamin Urdapilleta, 21 Alexandre Bias, 22 Antoine Dupont, 23 Florian Vialelle.
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)
Assistant referees: Sean Brickell (Wales), Wayne Davies (Wales)
TMO: Jon Mason (Wales)
Source: @ChampionsCup
