News

Toulouse ease past troubled Castres

October 03 2008

Toulouse secured a comfortable 28-10 Top 14 victory over Castres on Friday, thanks largely to a brace of tries from Maleli Kunavore.

Toulouse raced into an early thirteen point lead, thanks to Maleli Kunavore's try and eight points from the boot of David Skrela - courtesy of a conversion, penalty and drop goal.

Having fallen behind, Castres were roused into life and soon cut the lead to ten thanks to Romain Boscus's drop goal in the seventeenth.

Kunavore scored his second ten minutes later, following a second penalty from Skrela, before the game was stopped due to a freak hail storm. Referee Romain Poite took the players from the field to avoid any injury, such was the force and size of the hail stones.

When action resumed both sides failed to come to term with the conditions as the first half faded away amidst a series of fumbles and errors.

No sooner than the second half had started than Toulouse chalked up their third try, Cedric Heymans slicing through some weak tackles to stroll in under the posts.

Castres never gave up and kept plugging away in bad conditions. They were rewarded for their efforts with ten minutes to go when a kick behind was gathered by Thomas Sanchou and the inside centre squeezed across.

That score left Toulouse needing a further try to secure a winning bonus point, but try as they might they were denied by some resolute defence from the home side.

The Scorers:

For Castres:

Try: Sanchou

Con: Bouquié

Drop goal: Boscus

For Toulouse:

Tries: Kunavore 2, Heymans

Cons: Skrela 2

Pens: Skrela 2

Drop goal: Skrela

The Teams:

Castres: 15 Anthony Lagardère, 14 Laloa Milford, 13 Lionel Mazars, 12 Thomas Sanchou, 11 Rafael Carballo, 10 Cameron McIntyre, 9 Sébastien Tillous-Borde, 8 Rodrigo Capo-Ortega, 7 Josefa Tekori, 6 Lei Tomiki, 5 Colin Gaston, 4 Lionel Nallet, 3 Daniel Saayman, 2 Mathieu Bonello, 1 Carl Hoeft.

Replacements: 16 Akvsenti Giorgadze, 17 Kees Lensing, 18 Darron Nell, 19 Steve Malonga, 20 Romain Boscus, 21 Salesi Sika, 22 Phil Christophers, 23 Luc Ducalcon.

Toulouse: 15 Maxime Médard, 14 Yves Donguy, 13 Florain Fritz, 12 Maleli Kunavore, 11 Cédric Heymans, 10 David Skrela, 9 Jean-Baptiste Elissalde, 8 Thierry Dusautoir, 7 Shaun Sowerby, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 5 Patricio Albacete, 4 Romain Millo-Chluski, 3 Benoît Lecouls, 2 Virgil Lacombe, 1 Daan Human.

Replacements: 16 William Servat, 17 Jean-Baptiste Poux, 18 Salvatore Perugini, 19 Fabien Pelous, 20 Jean Bouilhou, 21 Byron Kelleher, 22 Yannick Jauzion, 23 Bertus Swanepoel.

Referee: Romain Poite

Touch judges: Jacques Laplace, Gilbert Darrieutort

Television match official: Vincent Azoulay