Edinburgh beat Castres in Heineken Cup

Edinburgh finally got their Heineken Cup match against Castres played and the home team won 24-22 in Pool 1 at Murrayfield.

The match was originally scheduled for Saturday then Sunday but finally started on Monday.

A late try from Simon Webster lifted Edinburgh to their first European Cup win from four attempts at an empty Murrayfield stadium

The match had been postponed for 24 hours due to snow and ice, leading to it being played behind closed doors in sub-zero temperatures.

The victory allows Edinburgh to move off the bottom of the table ahead of Cardiff, but second-placed Castres no longer have their destiny in their hands in a Pool 1 led by Northampton.

The French side will need to win their next game against Cardiff and if possible gain bonus points and then beat Northampton at home in the final group match.

The Scottish side took a 14-10 half-time lead after Tim Visser scored a first-half try and set up another for Lee Jones.

But Greig Laidlaw’s sin-binning midway through the second half was followed by a Castres penalty try and another score for Sebastien Tillous-Borde, leaving Edinburgh trailing by five points with four minutes remaining.

But for the second week running Webster came off the replacements’ bench to score a try and this time it was not in vain as David Blair kicked the conversion for the hosts to triumph.

Rodrigo Ortega scored a first-half try for the visitors, for whom Pierre Bernard kicked three points and Seremaia Baikeinuku two conversions.

Edinburgh had lost 21-16 in France last weekend, suffering their third defeat from three European Cup games this term, but picking up a third losing bonus point.

Edinburgh secured four points for the victory and Castres won a losing bonus point for finishing within seven points.

Final Score Edinburgh 24 (14) Castres Olympique 22 (0)

Scorers

Edinburgh:
Try – Simon Webster, Tim Visser, Lee Jones
Conversion – Chris Paterson (2) , David Blair
Penalty – David Blair
Yellow Card – Greig Laidlaw

Castres Olympique
Try – Sébastien Tillous-Borde, Rodrigo Capo Ortega;
Conversion – Seremaia Bai (2)
Penalty – Pierre Bernard; Penalty Try

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)

Teams

Edinburgh: C Paterson, L Jones, B Cairns, J Houston, T Visser, D Blair, G Laidlaw, A Jacobsen, R Ford, G Cross, S Turnbull, C Hamilton, S Newlands, R Grant [capt], S McInally.

Replacements: A Kelly, K Traynor, D Young, E Lozada, A MacDonald, N De Luca, J Thompson, S Webster

Castres Olympique: F Denos, V Inigo, P Garcia, S Bai, J Tatupu, P Bernard, T Sanchou, M Coetzee, M Bonello, A Peikrishvili, M Rolland, R Capo Ortega, I Diarra, Y Caballero, C Masoe [capt]

Replacements: B Kayser, Y Forestier, D Saayman, K Kulemin, J Bornman, R Martial, S Tillous-Borde, R Cabannes