Castres left hanging on

The Scotland stand-off Gregor Townsend helped Castres on their way to a narrow 22-21 win in the all-French Heineken Cup quarter-final on Saturday.

Townsend landed an early drop goal, but his team-mates were hanging on as Montferrand battled back in a match the home side thought they had in the bag. Castres did become the only French side in the semi-finals, but Montferrand would have gone through had their international wing Aurelien Rougerie not dropped a try-scoring pass within sight of the line in the dying seconds.

The Castres wing Romain Fromet scored the only try of a game – he was bundled over the line following a scrum five yards out after 56 minutes – dominated by the goalkickers Romain Teulet and Gerald Merceron. Teulet booted four penalties and converted Fromet's try, while the Montferrand fly-half Merceron slotted seven penalties.